KASEY Chambers and Shane Nicholson explain how their musical influences, both together and apart, have created Rattlin' Bones, their first creative project as a married couple.
KASEY Chambers and husband Shane Nicholson flew to Melbourne last month for a showcase performance to christen their new record deal with Michael Gudinski's Liberation label. It was a landmark moment for the couple away from their new business arrangement -- it marked the first night they'd been apart from their nine-month-old son Arlo, who had been left with grandparents. Chambers had mentioned the story before her performance and was greeted with sighs of sympathy. As it turns out, the compassion was misplaced. ‘‘Everyone's saying ‘Oh, poor you' but we're thinking ‘Woo-hoo! We get to sleep','' Chambers joked on the night, before turning to her husband and noting, ‘‘I'm going to have a few drinks, you might even get lucky tonight''. Luck of a different kind has fuelled Chambers' and Nicholson's first musical collaboration. Ironically, for married songwriters, they had a child together before they wrote a song together. The first, Rattlin' Bones, has also christened their first album together. ‘‘That song just came out,'' Chambers says. ‘‘It showed there was some chemistry there. I was dreading the first song we wrote together would be a dud.'' Though Nicholson -- who had a solo career and stint as frontman of rock band Pretty Violet Stain on his CV pre-Chambers -- was no stranger to co-writing songs, it was new territory for Chambers.‘‘I've always wanted to write with someone else but I was so nervous about it,'' she says. ‘‘Shane's always been one of my favourite songwriters, so to co-write with him was a huge thrill. By that time we were husband and wife so it felt a little easier than five years ago when I was just a fan.'' Chambers has been vocal about the fact she has married one of her favourite songwriters. In comparison, Nicholson became aware of Chambers as part of researching her brother Nash as a potential producer of his first solo album. ‘‘My first instinct was ‘Isn't he country?','' Nicholson recalls of Nash. ‘‘So I got all Kasey's records so I could listen to the production. That's how I was introduced to her music. I did a crash course on Kasey Chambers in a week.'' Nicholson had an unexpected Kasey Chambers moment during the writing of Rattlin' Bones. They wrote the bulk of the album together, but a handful of songs were written separately. Chambers played one of her solo compositions, The Devil's Inside My Head, to her husband for his reaction.‘‘I remember thinking ‘Oh, that's right, you're Kasey Chambers','' Nicholson says. ‘‘I'd kind of forgotten. I was just thinking I was writing songs with my wife for a year, then she played me this bluegrass song she wrote on her own and I was reminded who I was writing with. You forget sometimes.'' The project was inspired by a covers band Chambers and Nicholson formed with her dad Bill. The Lost Dogs played songs by Ryan Adams, Steve Earle, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Neil Young. Each of the trio would take turns singing -- a communal approach to vocals which informed Rattlin' Bones, which they are keen to point out isn't a duets album, rather a band with two singers who just happen to be one of Australia's highest-profile musical couples. ‘‘It was something we put together for fun because we weren't touring, that'd give us something to do each week,'' Chambers says of The Lost Dogs.‘‘But playing other people's songs really added to the sound of this record. We really got to know each other musically more than ever. We've worked together long before we were together, but sitting side by side we'd swap songs all night. ‘‘We were only singing the lead to every third song. It taught each of us how to be in a band, how to be in the background and sing harmonies, which added to this record.'' Chambers says she's learnt more about the craft of songwriting in the past year than in her entire career. But the pair's writing methods are still poles apart. ‘‘Shane likes to sit there and write quietly,'' Chambers says. ‘‘That's his personality. I'm the loud, annoying one. That's how I write. I like to play the song over and over again until something falls out. It must have been frustrating for him.'' The ultra-country sound of Rattlin' Bones was something the couple weren't expecting -- with Chambers keen to give credit where it's due. ‘‘Shane probably influenced me more on this record musically as far as songwriting goes,'' Chambers says.‘‘But because it's come out such a country record people will probably think it's the other way round. It's so far away from the record Shane normally makes. Shane has always listened to Ryan Adams. One of his favourite records is Neil Young's Comes a Time. That's as country as you can get, more country than anything that comes out of Nashville these days.'' Nicholson says: ‘‘This is a country record and I haven't been known for doing a lot of country in the past, that's Kasey's area, but I love country music.
‘‘But there's more country I don't like than I do.'' Chambers adds: ‘‘I feel the same way too.'' She points to a line in Sweetest Waste of Time that Nicholson wrote -- ‘‘If I could shine a light on your cold, cold heart'' -- as proof of his country credentials. ‘‘That's the countriest line I've ever heard,'' Chambers says with a laugh. ‘‘People don't know it yet, but Shane's a hillbilly.'' Nicholson prefers to point out his youthful inspiration from folk singers such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. ‘‘In folk the songs are almost an accompaniment to getting the story across. Country is similar to that, the song is really important. Having spent my musical life dabbling in the pop/mainstream world it's really refreshing to worry more about songs than anything else. ‘‘That Lost Dogs year reminded me of that, playing songs we love just for the sake of playing them. ‘‘It's reminded us all of the importance of the song. ‘‘This record was back to that, not worrying about anything else that goes along with making a record. ‘‘It was really liberating writing this record. We didn't give a toss about what genre this record would fit into, it didn't matter if it got played on radio or TV -- none of the stuff that goes on with a normal record. Not that we worry about that stuff anyway . . .'' ‘‘But less so than ever,'' Chambers adds. ‘‘Because we didn't have a record company when we made the record we didn't have to go through anyone.'' After 2006's Carnival, Chambers' contract with EMI finished. The label had signed her as an unknown country act who flirted with the mainstream with her 1999 debut The Captain. But the flirtation became a fully fledged love affair when Chambers scored an unlikely No.1 hit with Not Pretty Enough from 2001's Barricades and Brickwalls. An array of platinum records and awards followed, as well as more than 900,000 album sales in Australia alone. That's a costly loss to EMI -- Chambers joins the Living End and Radiohead as key recent departures from the label.‘‘We left on good terms,'' Chambers says of EMI. ‘‘We just wanted something different, we were going down a different path.'' Nicholson says: ‘‘It felt like because this was a new project we wanted everyone working on it to see it as something new, not an extension of what we'd done before.'' Chambers says: ‘‘This isn't the new Kasey Chambers or Shane Nicholson album, it's a joint project.'' The pair paid for the recording of Rattlin' Bones themselves, funded a video and album shoot, and then planned to shop it around record companies. ‘‘We didn't have to go through a whole lot of other people to make decisions,'' Chambers says. After Nash Chambers produced the latest Jimmy Barnes album, Kasey was introduced to Gudinski's Liberation family. ‘‘It was never a money thing,'' Chambers says. Nicholson says: ‘‘These days with record companies it's not a money thing, it's a passion thing. ‘‘It's a grim, dark story but everybody's getting a little worried, it's all up in the air. It's great when you meet people who, irrespective of all that, are still really excited about music and passionate about what they do, regardless of the fact it's difficult to sell records.'' One song on the album, One More Year, really ignited the passion in Chambers. Nicholson had written the song by himself and it wasn't intended for Rattlin' Bones -- until Chambers got involved.‘‘I stole it,'' she says. She remains so possessive of the song she jokes it will be part of a custody battle should they ever split.‘‘I've told him, if it comes down to that, I'll keep the song and he can have the kids.'' Rattlin' Bones (Liberation) out April 19. Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson acoustic tour, Eva Gaspar Theatre, Warrnambool, May 7, $54, ph: 5559 4999; Costa Hall Geelong, May 8, $53.30, ph: 5225 1200; Ballarat Woolshed, May 9, $55.60, Ticketmaster; Horsham Town Hall, May 10, $53.30, ph: 5381 1782; Swan Hill Town Hall, May 11, $50, ph: 5036 2444; Shepparton Eastbank Centre, May 14, ph: 5832 9511; Barooga Sports Club, May 17, ph: 5873 4448
