INTERVIEW: Amber Lawrence talks new single 'Bring It Back' and growing as an artist: "Be brave, because it's you and your fans - that's where the relationship is."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Australian country star Amber Lawrence recently released her first new original song in a year with ‘Bring It Back’. Co-written with fellow country singer Melanie Dyer, It is a delicious slice of country pop and moves Lawrence into a different soundscape with a greater pop influence inflecting the song compared to her previous work.
Born in lockdown, the song is about the yearning we all have for life to return to normal after almost two years of life interrupted. ““When I wrote "Bring it Back" with Mel Dyer, I just knew it had to be the first single,” Lawrence says. “‘Bring it Back’ expresses exactly how I feel about our industry and life right now - reminiscing about the things we’ve lost, but hopeful about a brighter future. It’s such an upbeat track - and I hope people love hearing it as much as I love performing it!”
One of the hardest working artists in music, Lawrence has won five prestigious Golden Guitar awards and alongside her ‘adult’ music she has also released a number of successful children’s albums, performed kids shows and has committed to performing free Zoom concerts for 100,000 school children during lockdown. On top of this she has recently competed her seventh studio album which is due to be released next year. We recently caught up with Amber to chat more about her music and career to date.
Hi Amber it’s lovely to see you, you incredibly talented creature. How are things in your universe?
Well, I'm in lockdown, but pretty good. Just a lot of work being cancelled but new music out, the single which is kicking off the next project. Also I've just started doing Zoom concerts for schools, I’ve done three concerts already this morning! 15 minute, lockdown concerts into school classrooms or wherever they have their Zoom networks. They’ve been fun. So just finding ways to keep busy whilst trying to hope for the future.
You do a lot for kids, last year you released your third children's album The Kid’s Gone Country II and you're also a huge advocate for music, education and children. Where does that come from?
I released my first kids album, The Kid’s Gone Country in 2016 and the reason I wrote and released that album was because I've always had lots of families and kids come to my shows. And I guess even my adults material has an element of hope and imagination, ‘you can do it all’, that kind of good messaging for kids in it. My whole reason for being on stage is to have fun, I want people to walk out saying, ‘gosh, we had a fun time’. And kids get that. So I always had this connection with children at my show and I wanted to do something specifically for them. I wrote that first kids album, and it led to me being able to do kid shows, as well as adult shows. Writing songs for kids I find is a lot of fun and, easier is the wrong word, but you don't have to think ‘what level am I writing this on? Is it a metaphor? Is it this? Is it that? It’s ‘Is it fun? Is it catchy? There we go, we're done.’
And what role did music play in your own childhood?
I learned piano growing up, my nan played the organ. I dabbled in playing the organ and then learnt piano and even went so far as to play the organ at church. I was about 13 but I only got the early shift, they would only give me the 7:30am service! People hated that I was playing because that traditionally was the quick service because there was no music, and then of course, I come along as this 13 year old clunking away on the organ - it didn't last long! I was always into sport more than music, I did love playing piano, but I never sang. I was an athlete and I trained every single day, I was in every sports team you could possibly be in at school. And then when I was in year 11 I actually broke my foot and because sport was out for a while, I auditioned for the school musical. And that's when I found that I could actually sing. It took a long time after that to do any kind of singing though, I went to university and it was in the last year of university that I did some karaoke and one thing led to another. I got some singing lessons, then formed my first duo, and then eventually a band and then eventually writing songs. That was my really long journey into music. I kept getting better bit by bit. I think that's the worst thing about music is that you serve your apprenticeship in front of people. So you know, everyone remembers how bad you were! I hate that, but they do.
When you're now listening back to your first album The Mile (2007) or your earliest singles, how do you feel that you have changed both with your choices, your voice and your confidence? How have you shifted as an artist?
I certainly look back on all of my recorded material proudly. I don't have anything that I go, 'Oh, I wish I never released that'. The Mile was my first album but I was 28, 29 at the time, so I was writing about real life, it wasn't like I was writing like a teenager, I was writing about proper brokenhearted things. I think your first album has a real rawness as a songwriter that is special that you can't recreate. You go from being a raw songwriter that writes songs that are unique, and then you learn a bit more and you learn the craft and then your songs, whilst they might get more hookier or catchy or more successful, they don't have that rawness. And I think your early fans miss that. I'm really proud of my songs now, but I can't write like I wrote on those first albums with that unaffectedness, because I've started to build who I am as an artist. You lose that, but you gain stuff. You have to be happy with that as well.
Do you think it's that very fine line of wanting to push yourself further and explore new inspirations and creative avenues, while at the same time, retaining and growing your fanbase and sales numbers? It must be a very difficult line to walk.
Yes, and your first album, you have no expectations. For me, it wasn't an album of ‘a record label’s already signed me so I'm going to be shaped a certain way’. Mine was just this organic thing of ‘I'm an accountant by day and I'm a singer, songwriter by night, and I've got these songs that I've written and my small group of fans want me to record them. Okay, cool. I wonder what will happen? Who cares? I've got a job. I love music. But I don't know if it’s going to be my career.’ That certainly wasn't what I was thinking when I recorded the album. When the stakes get higher, your songs change a little bit. I've kept developing and this new song, ‘Bring It Back’, is a new step in my sound. It's not representative of the new album as a whole, it's just representative of me fully changing a sound on this song and hoping people like it and definitely wanting to keep growing my fan base. There's this whole world of country music fans who really do like party songs that I haven't tapped into yet. So I’m hoping they really like this song as well.
It’s good start in the right direction. Honestly, I've not heard such a beautifully executed and much needed track in a while. It's country, but it's a really beautiful country pop song. It’s country but It's very pop as well. You'll know this being a country musician, for a long time country was one of those genres that you just weren’t allowed to cross over, particularly so in Australia. Whereas artists in the States do go country to pop and then beyond.
It's very difficult to explain really, but you're right. The American country music sound keeps evolving, and it has done for a long time. Australia has a traditional core and it's really hard to step outside that core without feeling like you're going to break some rules and not be embraced by the industry. But there is such a huge love of country pop music and the fans speak at the end of the day. If you release a song, and it's country pop, and it's rubbish, it's rubbish. If you release a traditional song, and it's awesome, it's awesome. It's not about the style, it's about the quality. Country pop has gotten a bad name because a lot of it hasn't been great. But every genre has that problem and country music has suffered from that too over time. Last year, everything was gone. The industry was gone for six months, the phone stopped ringing because there were no gigs and it came down to me and my fans on the other side of the computer. And we sat there and I did Zoom concerts, and I released t-shirts, and I did all sorts of things. My fans supported me so strongly that I realised, yes, we all want to win awards, and we want these stats and all of these things, but the song is what does the work for you, direct to your fan. If you can get all that other stuff happening around it, that's awesome, but if people hear the song and go, ‘Oh, my God, I love this song’, that's what I want to do. That's my learning from last year - be brave, because it's you and your fans, that's where the relationship is.
And 'Bring it Back' is just so exciting and you've got your seventh studio album on the way, it’s a beautiful shift in your sound and I think it's incredible. I just wanted to touch on one more thing before I let you go. There was a report put out a couple of years ago in the US on the gender representation in country music. According to women overseas, they were hearing things like female artists aren't financially viable, or women don't want to hear women on the radio and I just wanted to know, your thoughts, or experiences within the Australian country music industry with regards to the gender divide? Is there the same problem here?
I don't think it's as big a problem here as it is in America. Our industry is so niche and small, in America there's so many more aspects at play, and the dollars involved are so much bigger. If they've decided that men can make more money than that's the way it's going to go, you know. I don't see it happening in radio as much here in Australia, I don't see it in media representation or anything like that. Sometimes you might see a festival poster and you go ‘Whoa, okay, we are a bit under represented on this one’ but sometimes I think that's a product of the music. If it's a rodeo and they want that ‘bro country’ style drinking music, they're probably gonna lean towards blokes, because that's who does it - I don't do that kind of music, I'm not going to be on that playlist. That's hard to take some times. [But then] festivals like Gympie, you look at the poster and go, look, plenty of women. We definitely don’t have as big a problem as America, but I do think it has a lot to do with style of music that Australian country fans are loving, and it is that real country party stuff. So if you don't do it...!
Amber before I leave you what's on the horizon for you?
I've finished recording my album, but that probably won't come out until next year. I'm doing a big programme of free Zoom locked down concerts for schools, I’m actually trying to reach 100,000 students. I'm doing 1,000 students today over about five schools, I'm figuring that I'm gonna be in lockdown for a while, so I might as well turn it into a positive! I'll be exhausted by the time it’s over. And back to touring, hopefully by October, November, if not sometime next year. Just trying to stay positive, keep working on the next album and hopefully 'Bring it Back' just keeps on growing and finding new fans for me.
‘Bring it Back’ is out now via ABC Music. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things Amber Lawrence, you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
