The Melbourne singer-songwriter was consumed by music from a young age, but studying at VCA as well as prestigious music colleges in the US (Boston’s New England Conservatory and the Berklee College of Music) broadened Brous’ musical understanding in a profound way.
“When an interest begets an interest and you’re surrounded by 400 other people – all of whom are similarly obsessed – it creates a very special environment for learning and for being absorbed,” says Brous of that significant period four years ago. “I took the different things that I began to be interested in like film noir soundtracks, large ensemble arrangement, avant garde music, psychedelia and French music, and I just got more and more interested in it.
“It was never a matter of me wanting to emulate any of those things, but I think it’s just natural that when’re absorbed by something… it’s like conditioning – naturally it’ll express itself through you in some way and I started feeling different things coming out when I was writing; different melodies, different harmonic structures and different ideas for smaller and bigger arrangements. I was really excited by it and I just knew that it was something that needed to be followed.”
Upon returning home, Brous was asked to take on an important position as Director of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival – a job that she held for three years before leaving to commit wholeheartedly to her own music. “I loved it, but it was consuming and hard for a period because that came at a time when I had come back from America,” Brous reflects, “and I’d been playing jazz and was beginning to reorient my music. I’d just felt that things were changing and suddenly I was in this big role of the Jazz Festival where I felt a real sense of responsibility to empower and properly represent how amazing and diverse jazz music is.
“It was a very intensive period and I was 22 when I got that job. There was a period where I just did not have time to do music – for the first year – and I found that very hard. There’d be periods between the festivals where I’d be able to work intensively on music and that’s the way it worked for a few years. But I loved it and it really changed my life,” she avows. “I was able to see so much great music and be involved in so many great things.”
Brous’ 2011 self-titled EP possesses remarkable grace, soul and flair. Gliding between the theatrical and haunting, the EP fuses underground Euro-pop, psychedelia, lounge, world music, country, ’50s film noir and jazz-pop: “I love different soundtracks, orchestration techniques from the ’60s and ’70s, artists like Lee Hazlewood, and arrangers like Rogério Duprat who worked with a lot of Brazilian artists in the ’60s.”
While the writing process was quite sporadic, the recording of the EP was intensive and meticulous. “When it came to writing, I would hear in my head a harmonic structure or a melodic line and then I’d follow that and finish the entire structure of a song. Naturally when you have listened to music, you can create references in your mind and I’d write different parts and associate that with different arrangements, colours and textures.
“When I’m writing, I’m always writing the fundamental parts – the chorus, melodies and lyrics – but within my mind, I’ve also got the entire producer stage of all the other parts and how the song will come together. I’m generally inspired by interesting melodies and interesting arrangements more than anything.”
Playing the famous Spiegeltent this month, Brous is appreciative of the various collaborators and allies who help her craft both her unique sound and live show. “Brous is really me and a revolving cartel of people who come in and out,” she explains. “Shags [Chamberlain] has been very involved – he co-produced the final stages of the EP with me, and he plays in Pikelet and Lost Animal. He has an amazing knowledge of music and is a great bass player. James [Rushford] and Alexander [Garsden] are trained contemporary classical musicians, and Joe [Talia] has a background in jazz. We all had a very similar interest in creating interestingly-arranged pop structures.”
BY CHRISTINE LAN
