It's good evening
April 1, 2005
Not satisfied with best-of albums, Renee Geyer is showing the Idol generation what musical creativity is all about, writes Patrick Donovan.
Prince Charles recently got himself into a spot of bother for suggesting that young Britons should be realistic about their skills - or lack of them - rather than deluding themselves by blindly reaching for the stars.
Australia's most lauded female vocalist, Renee Geyer, believes the same applies to the current music scene.
"I'm amazed at the brashness of young performers today," she says. "I think that in the last 20 years, we've been raised with the motto 'You can achieve anything you want at any cost if you believe in yourself.'
"Sometimes you won't get what you want unless you are good at what you do. There's a whole lot of bravado out there. It's hard to get up there on those TV shows with your average voice and bland ideas, but they're not scared because it's been drummed into them that you can get there if you have the will."
Geyer says Australian Idol runner-up Anthony Callea appears to be "in love with the image and final product".
She says he's gifted with his vocal chords, but his work "smacks of unoriginality".
On the other hand, the Idol winner, "that poor Casey Donovan girl", does have some some originality, Geyer says.
"But because she didn't fit in the box, they've left her behind. How they can go for that guy instead of working on her shocks me, but then it doesn't (shock me).
"I know it's just a TV show, but it generates the consensus that it's OK to be mediocre, and you'll be famous and do really well from being mediocre.
"No wonder all those shows are inundated. The bar needs to be raised."
When Geyer was asked to follow other Australian artists such as Diesel, James Reyne and Mark Seymour by releasing an album of acoustic versions of her best songs, as part of the Liberation Blue series, she flinched. Australia's "first lady of soul" already had two best-of compilations out, and on her last album, Tenderland, she had interpreted well-known songs by artists such as Prince and Marvin Gaye.
I wanted to move forward, not back.
Renee Geyer
She wanted to capitalise on having re-connected with her audience, the people who helped Tenderland go gold and beyond, plus sending a message that the fire still burnt brightly in her creative loins.
And she wanted to address what she sees as the malaise of the music industry.
"Very few people are still doing new and fresh music and this was the test," she says. "I wanted to move forward, not back. I needed affirmation that I still had a bit of an inkling and a desire to keep making music. I wanted to release Tonight - not say 'goodnight'."
Tonight is a testament to the Australian music industry. Geyer says most of Australia's big-time stars hire musicians, producers and songwriters from overseas.
"I didn't set out to do an Australian record but the Australian songs were the ones I came back to. This album showcases our talent in the purest sense . . .
"All of these Australians who win these awards, they are made overseas by the hot producer at the time.
"And they are supposed to be the benchmark of supposed Australian music. Delta, Kylie, Natalie Imbruglia - their albums are not Australian, they're sourced from overseas.
"This record says you can make a good record without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. All you need are a couple of ideas, some great musicians and some good songs."
Geyer's 21st album is not a rehash, it is a groundbreaking work. As her part-time guitarist Spencer P. Jones says: "Tonight welcomes us all to soul music of the 21st century."
Describing the writing and recording process to the media for the first time at her favourite St Kilda cafe, Geyer appears reinvigorated by the challenge. The energy is also palpable as she pours her heart out in the songs.
Being the premier female vocalist in the country, Geyer is constantly inundated with songs.
Tonight was no exception. She received dozens of songs in the mail from around the world. She listens to everything, puts her favourites on a CD and lives with them for a while.
"A lot of the American stuff I got had great melodies and grooves but the lyrics are terrible for a woman to sing," she says. "They're just about being horny."
In the end, all but two of the songs were written by Australians. Dan Kelly's Nasty Streak - a live staple in her set in recent years - is included, as is Paul Kelly's Gutless Wonder, which is beefed up with mariachi horns and Nicky Bomba's percussion. She co-wrote Love is a Drug with Delta Goodrem collaborator Vince Pizzinga.
Much of Tonight will be familiar to long-time fans of Geyer's smouldering soul and rhythm and blues, but some will come as a radical turn.
Produced by Brisbane producer Magoo, who is credited with successfully lining rock albums with a subtle electronic sheen for Australian bands such as Regurgitator and TISM, it veers between the powerhouse soul of Allan Toussaint's I'm Evil Tonight to the slinky dub reggae funk of You Matter to the Tex-Mex reworking of Paul Kelly's Gutless Wonder, the futuristic Copacabana beach vibe of Clare Moore's Lost in Space and the minimalist string-laden take on Frank Jones' He Loves Me Not.
Love is a Drug, one of two songs penned by Geyer, sounds like a dark Dusty Springfield ballad.
"I wanted to use mainly original material - including my own if possible - and most importantly, I wanted people to get an original feeling when they heard the record," she says.
"I wanted people to be interested enough to turn to the next page, because there's so much generic stuff coming out now. People seem to think that if you have two or three knock-out songs, the rest can be filler . . . I've made records like that, and it's dangerous, because you're not even sure if those supposed three killer ones are any good. What if they're shithouse? Then you've got nothing. Each song should be special enough to be on the record, and when you're 50 years old you've got no excuse to have shit on your record. There's no one to blame."
Everyone told Geyer that she was crazy for working with Magoo, who is better known for helping young rock bands.
"Magoo took the project because he thought I was a character - whatever that is. And the best thing was that while he knew my name, he didn't have my musical history in his head."
Magoo, 34, said recording Tonight with Geyer was a rewarding experience.
"When we first met she said she wanted to make something interesting, a little bit different from what she had done on her previous 20 albums," he says.
"We discovered that we both liked being in the moment and letting things happen. She's not a musician but she's incredibly musical - a bit like me. It's was hard rushing around and keeping up with her. You have to try out the ideas straight away or they will be lost."
Geyer will be hoping that the experiment pays off, that the album will be edgy enough to appeal to younger fans, without alienating her older listeners.
The general theme running through the songs is of lost love. The uplifting music is a foil to the dark lyrical themes.
"It's not particularly about an event . . . it's more of a feeling. "If it really comes from your gut, then everyone can relate to it in some way.
"Anyone who says when they create music that it has nothing to do with the way they feel, they're lying."
Tonight is out on April 10.
www.theage.com.au/news/Music/Its-good-evening/2005/03/31/1111862514849.html
