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 HOLLY THROSBY is a busy lady right now. Fresh off an Australian tour and about to release her third album, A Loud Call, the Sydney folk singer takes time to talk to LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON about recording in Nashville, forming songs at the supermarket, and her vast array of circus tricks.
A lot has happened in the music industry since 2006, the last time Holly Throsby talked to Rave. Fall Out Boy hit the mainstream, Timbaland became the king of the charts and Britney Spears shaved her head.
Amongst all this cacophony, Throsby’s last album, 2006’s Under The Town, was critically acclaimed both here and in the UK for it’s beautiful vulnerability and sonic warmth. She was also nominated for an ARIA Award for best female artist last year. On top of all this, she decided to record her third album, A Loud Call, in Nashville with producer Mark Nevers, rather than with long time engineer and friend Tony Dupe at his Saddleback Mountain home.
“Although I felt comfortable and happy recording with Tony down the south coast, we both felt that it was time for me to do something different and go out into the big world,” says the Sydney-based acoustic folk artist, in regards to the decision to record A Loud Call halfway around the globe.
Recording her two previous albums at Saddleback Mountain on weekends gave Throsby the opportunity to gradually build songs over a period of time, but explains that this was not the case once it came to recording in Nashville.
“I didn’t go into the studio with skeletons of songs this time. Certainly with the last record I showed up with a bunch of bones. With this record we had a three week block with Mark over in Nashville, so I needed to have stuff ready.”
Her preparation shows, as her third full-length features her strongest batch of compositions. It shows an artist fully confident in her craft. The amount of effort that Throsby threw into the writing process has left her mind devoid of compositions for the time being.
“I’ll spend four or five months with a song in my head all the time … going to the supermarket I’m thinking about them and they’re always rolling around … and then I go through periods like I am now. With producing the artwork and tours and band practice, I don’t have anything in my head right now.”
The first single off the forthcoming LP, A Heart Divided, is also an opportunity for the public to catch a glimpse of one of Throsby’s unknown talents: riding a unicycle.
“I thought it would be a completely redundant skill I had,” she laughs. “But Yanni (Kronenberg, the video director) envisioned having a bicycle in there somewhere so I told her about my skill on a unicycle and she got excited, so I pulled it out of the garage and she made me ride it in a dress, which was interesting to say the least.”
What is most interesting, however, is to see whether A Loud Call catapults Throsby into the main focus of the Australian music industry. There is a good chance that this album will see Throsby leading the pack of her contemporaries, unicycling her way to recognition for an album that is her best yet.
A LOUD CALL is out now through Spunk!/EMI. Tickets for HOLLY’s September shows (Sep 25 at the Sound Lounge, Gold Coast and Sep 26 at The Troubadour) are on sale now through venues and OzTix.
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