Morgan-Leigh Brown had never played in a band before she stepped up to the helm of powerhouse Melbourne based rock five-piece Acolyte. However, she’d had great exposure to live performance through her theatre work, having been part of productions including Pirates of Penzance, Chicago, Annie and Phantom of the Opera with the Melbourne Theatre Company. This experience has given her the grounding needed to create the larger than life persona she brings to the stage.
“I’m a live theatre performer, and the guys in the band laid down a few things and wanted me to put down some guide vocals and come up with whatever I could,” she recalls of the band’s early days. “They ended up going ‘Hey, this actually works, let’s give this a shot.’
“It does help,” she continues, regarding the crossover from the theatre to the rock band. “Most people don’t know how nervous I get before I get up there. It helps in the way I portray a character that I’ve built for myself. It’s no secret that the way I perform is quite in your face and theatrical.”
The character that she plays when up on the stage as frontperson for Acolyte is actually extremely different from the person she is off stage.
“It’s pretty much the opposite of who I am,” Brown says. “If I was to describe myself as a person I’m probably a real laid-back country hippy. I’m not big on having people around me all the time, I like having my own space.
“But the person I portray on stage is someone who loves everyone, a big group person, big personality, super-confident, that’s the person I’ve created for myself.”
The band have just released their incredible debut album Shades of Black, and they launch it this week at The Evelyn Hotel. Brown promises that the theatrical side of herself and the band will absolutely come across in what promises to be a massive show for them and the punters who come along.
“The show is going to be full production,” she says, “I’ve been working really closely on the theatrical side of things with our lighting designer. It will be the first real time that we’ll have brought our world to the stage.
“Everything will be re-created, the exact details of the visuals that we’ve created, as far as our look is concerned in our videos and so on, we’re bringing that onto the stage.”
The band also has something very special planned for the show in a musical sense. “We’re going to be playing the album from start to finish in track order, and then finish with a few of the fan favourites.”
The album is a dark, powerful and varied slice of typically Aussie progressive/alternative rock, and Brown and bassist Jason Grondman are relieved to have it finished and out there in the world, proud of what they’ve accomplished together.
“Thank God it’s finished,” Brown laughs.
“When we look back, we see the fun, but we also see the time we put into it,” Grondman says. “It’s very relieving to finally have a finished body of work, and we’re really proud of what we’ve put out. It’s a good representation of us and a good interpretation of our band ethos.”
The launch also signals the beginning of some heavy duty touring, approaching the road in a slightly different manner.
“We’re not going to do a structured tour, we’re probably going to tour all the way through to the end of the year,” Brown says. “It means that we can cover more of the country.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
