MORGAN JOHNSON talks to Newcastle singer-songwriter AMY VEE about her EP.

MORGAN JOHNSON: Please tell Rave a little about yourself.

AMY VEE: I’m a singer-songwriter based in Newcastle. I’ve been performing most of my life and writing for about eight years, both as a soloist and a member of various groups, including The Virtues, which has allowed me to share the stage with some pretty amazing artists. I guess stylistically I’m what you would call indie pop with some folk leanings. Essentially my music is born from perspectives on life, love and the human condition.

MJ: The singer-songwriter room is mighty crammed, how do you see yourself elegantly elbowing in for some space?

AV: At the end of the day, I try not to compare myself to or compete with other singer-songwriters. What I offer is really just honest stories and words and intimate live performances that I hope people will connect with and take home with them. I also like to keep things musically interesting too, by experimenting with progressions, styles and sounds, but ultimately I just try to do what flows from me most naturally.

MJ: You have an EP out, Sleeping Dogs Lie; what went into that?

AV: I started writing the songs for the EP in late 2008. I was feeling a bit disillusioned by the slow digression my music was making into the ‘rock’ genre, which I think was just the influence of the various members who had come and gone from The Virtues. I always felt a strong connection to quieter, introspective, ‘story-telling’ music. I wanted to find that again in my writing, so I wrote a few songs, recorded a couple of demos with a local producer (Gareth Hudson) and took them on my trip to Canada, where I was attending a couple of international industry events and (very optimistically) hoped I might meet the perfect person to produce my new work. As it turned out, I returned home, listened to the demos again and realised I had a great producer in my own back yard! Gareth and I recorded the whole EP in his studio (Hazy Cosmic Jive) and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

AMY VEE plays at The Music Kafe on Saturday Mar 20 and the Gold Coast’s Cavern on Monday Mar 22. SLEEPING DOGS LIE is out now. See www.amyvee.com for more information.

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