Aurora Jane to Release New Album

Lilli Waters

It’s been over two years since Aurora Jane performed in India last. During here 2008 visit to the country in the year, Jane recorded parts of her third studio album, Deep End, at the Blue Frog studios in Mumbai. On February 9, the Australian singer-songwriter will returns to Blue Frog to launch Deep End in India, followed by gigs in Pune, Bengaluru and Kolkata. The album, which released in Australia earlier last year, was in the making for nearly two years. “We took a long time to complete the album. We recorded in India, Australia and Canada and then it was mixed in Sydney and New York. So it’s very international in terms of everybody’s input. The exciting and challenging part has been putting all of those ideas together and then making sure it sounds cohesive at the mixdown stage, eventually presenting something that’s a beautiful, unified piece of art,” says Jane of the slightly tedious yet exhilarating process of working on the record.

Jane’s last album, Universal Language (2007), struck a folksy note but with Deep End, she emphasises funk and rock elements. Most tracks are also very bass oriented in what Jane calls a “bottom-up” approach on songwriting wherein she wrote the bass lines first, setting them as the precedent for the compositional structure. “It was a kind of test and game I played with myself as a songwriter,” she laughs. The musician also credits her band with reinvigorating her sound when speaking of the kind of reception the album has got so far. “Stylistically, people are saying the new material sounds like the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers spliced with a bit of old school retro P-Funk stuff. And then because it’s led by electric guitars, it’s got a Hendrix-y element as well. It is very exciting as I admire all of these artists but I think what’s helped a lot is the band I have. I’ve got some great musicians coming with me to India this time,” she says. Jane’s band on her India tour shall comprise Tim Bennett on bass, Mal Webb on horns, guitars and chaos pads and Kozy Karsay on drums. Jane says Webb is a “legend” on the music circuit in Australia with his ability to simulate nearly fifteen instruments with his mouth, making him a “Bobby McFerrin styled character.” This time around one can expect the performance to be much more animate and spunky with Webb on board and Jane and Bennett’s “guitar and bass wars.”

Jane was mostly on the road when she wrote Deep End, so in a way the album captures her experience as a journeying musician. “Lyrically, the album reflects on the momentum and joy I found from the community and friends I made while I was travelling. I guess I was inspired by the diverse groups of people I knew around the world with a similar outlook on life. It’s a bit more of an optimistic look at spirituality and connectivity. In a nutshell, that is what the album explores and then song to song, it’s different,” she says. With songs like ”˜Deep End’ and ”˜Lazy Monday,’ Jane touches upon themes of non-conformity and individuality. ”˜Let Love In’ which is quite personal for Jane discusses her “being comfortable with living and getting spiritually centred in one place again after constantly circling the globe.” One of the more poignant tracks on the record is the closing number ”˜Home.’ While Jane was recording the track in a studio in Victoria, Australia, nearly half of the state caught fire. She wasn’t fully aware of the severity of the situation until after she nearly finished the song. Stepping out and seeing all the trees ablaze and the sky fogged up with smoke, attached the song with a graver sentiment for Jane. She also talks about the current flood situation in Australia and how the world is in a general state of distress today, suggesting that ”˜Home’ addresses the emotion of survival. “It’s about getting back up after a tragedy. Now when I hear that song there is such a poignant energy about it, because of what was going on that day and that’s not what I initially wrote the lyrics about but that’s what that song has become for me today,” she says.