Being Julia

Former Fur Patrol frontwoman Julia Deans is a solo artist worth her salt, writes VICKI ANDERSON. Deans talks about recording her debut solo album, Modern Fables, on Christmas Day and the journey around the world making it.

Once upon a time, when Julia Deans was a child, her favourite fairytale was More Than Salt. Now she is living her own fairytale and has released her debut solo album, Modern Fables, a collection of songs which are in themselves lyrical fables she has painstakingly breathed life into over the past decade.

"There's a story about three princesses in the kingdom and the king calls each of them to him and asks them how much they love him," Deans explains.

"The first one says 'I love you more than all the diamonds in the world', and he says 'yeah, you're a good daughter'. The second one said 'I love you more than all the mountains and hills, blah blah'. Then the youngest, his favourite says 'I love you as the salt upon my bread'. He is utterly disgusted, gets angry and insulted by her rudeness and kicks her out of the kingdom, banishing her. She somehow ends up working in the palace kitchen. He prepares this great banquet but the bread is bland and tasteless.

"He calls the maker of the bread to him and she reveals herself and he gets it. She loves him because he makes her life good, he makes everything seem beautiful. I always really liked that particular story. It appeals to my love of things having deeper meaning than just the surface words. Love is actually essential, deep and true love is essential and makes life so much more bearable."

Following up on her EP, A New Dialogue, released last year, the songs on Modern Fables do more than skim the surface.

There's a depth of emotion conveyed which veers from being gently moving to starkly beautiful.

This is particularly evident on the goosebump-inducing opening track, Little Survivor, which features Deans' spooky vocals changing gear from an esoteric whisper to assured rock chick growl. The kind of growl fans of Fur Patrol, currently on hiatus, will surely recognise.

"That was a song I wrote the initial idea for about 10 years ago. The horns are from the Christchurch Jazz Festival, we recorded them at the James Hay Theatre. They sound so lovely, really beautiful and melancholy and fit the whole vibe."

She laughs when I comment that at times she sounds as if she is telling someone off through song.

"I am telling the story of somebody being left behind. When somebody goes away for a long time and they say 'I love you but I'm leaving you'. You can't really love me because if you did you wouldn't leave me."

It wasn't until Deans read the review of the album in The Press that she realised she'd made a little faux pas. The album is dedicated to her grandparents and a credit on the sleeve attributes artwork to her famous grandpa, Austen Deans.

"The pictures are all taken from children's books. I'd left Grandpa's name in the artwork credits. It was a complete oversight on my part. Originally, we'd used one of his paintings in the background of a different version of the artwork but we ended up not running with it, but I'd sent the credits through already."

A video for title track Modern Fables has recently been released and it features everything from ordinary-looking people bouncing happily, to twins, to an elderly gent on a mobility scooter being pushed uphill by strangers. It ends with everyone in the video together performing a choreographed routine with Deans singing "come on, let's pretend".

"I enjoy working on videos with the director, I always find it interesting. A lot of musicians I know hate it but I don't."

The album was recorded in "fits and starts" over a period of six to seven months in Berlin, her home base of Melbourne and in Christchurch at the Sitting Room with a group of acclaimed jazz- school musicians and Aaron Tokona (Weta, Cairo Knife Fight and A Hori Buzz).

"We started in Berlin in June last year, I did drums with Dino Karlis [HDU] and then we had a break and then in August we did the other instruments in Christchurch and then had a break when I did a Fur Patrol tour, then I went on tour with Anika Moa and then I came back and we finished recording my guitar and vocals and bass in Melbourne."

She worked closely with her boyfriend, David Wernham, the live-sound engineer for Shihad, who recorded and mixed the tracks.

There's a resoundingly intimate feel to Modern Fables and it is clear the pair work well together . . . mostly.

"When we were doing the vocals for Modern Fables, David and I had a big talk before I went into the booth. He really wanted me to remember what I was feeling when I wrote the song, he was doing the whole coaching the performance thing. I'm not sure but I think he was trying to wind me up. Slowly, I was getting more and more annoyed to the point where I ended up screaming at him. He recorded it and it sent all the equipment off the scale, that was funny."

Shihad's Tom Larkin lent his Melbourne studio for mixing over the Christmas, New Year period and Deans and Wernham spent Christmas Day working on Modern Fables.

"That was the only time Tom's studio was available. While everybody else was out doing Christmas we were recording. Christmas Day we were in the studio and New Year's Eve and even on New Year's Day we did a little bit of stuff too."

Joining her for the album release tour, which arrives in Christchurch next Friday, is Redford Grenell on drums and Richie Pickard on bass.

"I am looking forward to playing with a band again for the tour. Getting to play music with those guys will be awesome."

If she has to play favourites, the album closer, instrumental Ice Cream, is it.

"I find that really soothing and I really like the spooky vocal in there as well, the higher pitch one. That was me singing into Aaron Tokona's guitar, through his guitar amp, it's a nice texture actually. He's an incredible musician. He doesn't seem to know how good he is which is often the way with genius."

Working out the tracklisting was something of a nightmare, she admits. Deans sought the input of her brother and Shihad frontman Jon Toogood, who she is working with on his own upcoming solo album.

"Then I didn't listen to either of them. I used their playlists to change things around. It's hard to be objective but I still don't think I got it quite right."

Having previously collaborated with P-Money, Tiki Taane, Antiform and, most recently, Tokyostreetgang, and working on an all-girl rock band with Anika Moa and Anna Coddington, she is also working on a project with her brother, Sean Deans. "I have vocals I need to finish for my brother's album. He's got really cool wonky hip-hop beats. He's been working with Mu and Dallas [Fat Freddy's Drop], Riki Gooch [Eru Dangerspiel] and others. It's going to be fun when that comes out," Deans enthuses.

A particularly beautiful track on Modern Fables is The Wish You Wish You Had and a happy-ever- after ending in the Deans kingdom will surely be granted.

Julia Deans with support from Lisa Crawley, Friday, August 6, at AL's Bar.

- © Fairfax NZ News