(not at all) Regular Jean #5

Well HELLO!

Could I be any LESS reliable? Apologies. I was supposed to do one of these every month, and it’s turned in to an almost biannual event.

Truth be told, I have been doing so much writing lately that my brain has used up a lot of its typing juice. You see, this year I started a ‘Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing’ at RMIT.

Why is it when one (or maybe it’s just me) goes back to school or starts a new job, one goes back to being 15 years old? My first couple of months were taken up with trying to make people like me, wandering the halls with a frightened look on my face, trying to avoid annoying people… I often look at teenagers chaotically loping down the street, bashing into people and trams while they clumsily negotiate their evil hormones and silently thank god/universe/higher love that I will never have to experience that again - unless I have another life, which I am hoping to karmically negotiate NOT to. Oh hang on, I forgot about menopause.
It seems, though, that we can never really escape adolescence - or any developmental stage really. When I have to do a speech I am 10 years old. When I am pre-menstrual I am 2 years old. On Saturday nights I am often 60 years old, having dinner with the wife and watching a bit of telly. But that’s getting ahead of things. It’s quite rare that I feel ‘28’.

I did a gig for the first time in 9 months the other night. I think a part of me was hoping that it would be a triumphant birth of a show, after 9 months of performance pregnancy. In my heart of hearts I wanted some kind of miraculousness to take place - perhaps a dramatic realisation that this is what I am ‘meant’ to be doing - Hooray!
Nah, it was just another show, with good moments, shaky moments, awkward moments and special moments. I guess in reality, a birth is much the same. No more miraculous then the very fact we are here, standing on this rock hurtling through space, kept in place by a tenuous scientific idea (gravity) that could warp at any moment. Let alone oxygen and shit.

I just wanted to make a little mention of some music I have been enjoying lately. Please look up these bands and go an see them live, or buy their shit.

Lost Animal - Jarrod from ‘St. Helens’, a now defunct Melbourne band. I saw some footage of a show he did and really enjoyed it -
http://messandnoise.com/tv/3938176

Magic Silver White - My long time musical collaborator Biddy Connor is a member of this excellent band (keep an eye out for Biddy’s album, coming out soonish - it’s AMAZING). Magic Silver White are wonderful! Led by Jojo Petrina, they are girl groupy, witchy, magical, silvery, slinky, but simultaneously earthy.

Otouto -Just gorgeous! Martha, Hazel and Kish create beautiful sparse pop-scapes of loveliness.

Another thought that has popped in my head - a shout out to my wonderful friends and family.

I have the most amazing friends. Sometimes I forget about someone for a few days, then I remember them and think - wow!! How awesome are they! Friends make my life worth living.
My family are so loving, humble and strange. I am grateful for them every day.

Oh, and Melbourne - I love you. I truly believe that musically, Melbourne is one of the most exciting places to be in the world right now. I can’t believe the music that comes out of this town. It’s getting better and better, year by year. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else realises this! I don’t think the rest of the world are aware. Generally, they only see Jet, The Vines, Wolfmother, bands that copy old British and American bands.
My friend Ned Collette got his album mixed in New York. The guy doing it said ‘Are there other people doing stuff like this in Australia’? Ned said something like, ‘well no but there are other people that sound like themselves over there’. The guy said something like ‘I don’t think I really know Australian music then’. This is a guy that KNOWS music. We are a Western, first world country in the East, far away from where our cultural model is. It’s a strange, strange place to be.

Thank you, reader, for listening to my random thoughts! It’s nice to keep in touch with people that have enjoyed my music over the years. I am working away on album number three, and will update you as I go! We are about a third of the way through.. I am being very inspired by classic oz rock, british eccentric pop and as always, American folk rock. Oh, and of course, a bit of English folk, ever present.

Thanks again for reading

Laura Jean