Kate Miller-Heidke has the voice of an angel. The incredibly talented Australian received rave reviews at Lilith Fair this year and for good reason. The classically trained singer blends pop, opera and at times comedy into an eclectic mix, which forms the album Curiouser.
We chatted with Kate by phone from Toronto, prior to a whirlwind cross-Canada tour at the end of September. It was her second time in cities like Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton before returning to Lilith in Australia with Sarah McLachlan and Courtyard Hounds.
“I am going to be doing Lilith Fair in Australia next week. It is exciting; the Aussies are going to love it. It is a scaled back version but it will be an intimate experience. They are playing some lovely old theatres and people are going to be impressed,” she enthused.
Much like other artists on the Lilith bill, she was proud to be part of the return of the all-female tour. She spoke with awe even months later on the first time she attended one of the press conferences at the show.
“The first time we did that presser, surreal was the best way to describe it. Erykah Baduh came up and gave me a huge hug. It felt like I was in the middle of some strange dream. I usually don’t like meeting my musical heroes. I find it scary and the potential for disappointment is huge. When you love someone’s music, you create a version of them inside your own head and that is who you love. So meeting them is fraught with problems. Sarah McLachlan was lovely. I listened to her all the time growing up as a teenager. Everybody was lovely and very supportive. I feel pretty lucky that my first ever shows in Calgary and Edmonton were Lilith Fair.”
It is a long way from charging her family 5 cents a show to perform as a child.
“It is quite lucrative, considering inflation. 5 cents back then could get you at least three or four lollies. It could get you half a mars bar back in 1987. I think that charging your parents for a concert is kind of common, all of my friends did that. It was a great little earner for pocket money. Actually a few of them have gone on to become musicians. It is nice to have that sense of community.”
Her most famous song was a viral sensation - Are You Fucking Kidding Me (The Facebook Song).
“That song was dashed off in about half an hour after I had gone, and a friend requested one of my ex-boyfriends on Facebook. Two weeks later my friend request was still pending. I just started to think about it from his point of view, it is actually written from his perspective.”
The connection between Canada and Australia, despite being quite distant, is strong in many ways. This includes music, where artists like Xavier Rudd and The Cat Empire have success, and Canadians like Jeff Martin and kd Lang find popularity there. Miller-Heidke hopes that this will hold true for her as well.
“Both countries have incredible landscapes. The things you can do in the outdoors in Canada is beautiful. We spent a few days in Whistler last time we were here and it was stunning. Australia has similar things to offer in terms of just going outside and being amongst beautiful countryside. Also I think we have a similar approach to drinking and karaoke, judging by the Canadians I’ve met. It is still very early here, but the audiences we had at Lilith were very warm and generous and responsive. Tonight is my very first headline show in Toronto and I am a bit nervous that no one is going to show up. Hopefully they will.”
Miller-Heidke performed at Local 522 in Calgary on September 29th, what will hopefully be one of many appearances in the future. She was excited to be headlining a show in Calgary.
“Obviously the set we played at Lilith was quite short. So we will get to delve more deeply into things. It is just my husband (Keir Nuttal) and I, and I am really enjoying playing. It is such a stripped back set. We had to start off doing that because financially it was really difficult to bring an entire band over here to North America. But now it has become my favorite way to do a show really, because you are allowed a lot of freedom. Hopefully people get an experience that involves being emotionally moved in some way – a bit funny, a bit sad and a bit strange.”
Primarily a solo songwriter, it took a lot for her to open up to writing with Nuttal. But the result is beautiful both lyrically, and in the imagery with video.
“I’ve done two albums now and we are about to hole ourselves up in Australia to write the third. Songwriting was, and still is, an intensely personal form of expression to start off with. I was always very self-conscious. I’ve known Keir for a long time and he is the best songwriter I have ever met. He was just like, Kate stop being a dick and just write a song in a room with me like normal people do. I guess I found that experience liberating. It is still hard to recreate that feeling sometimes, I am very protective of my new ideas because if you expose them to the sunlight too soon, they can wither and die. It is a constant struggle but it is interesting spending so much time with one person. We have a really intimate, productive, creative relationship. We are married and on the road together all the time, and collaborating. It is a pretty full relationship but it works. Keir describes it in man-woman hours, the amount of hours we have actually spent together in the same room or car, is the equivalent of being married for 200 years compared to people who only see each other a few hours a night. There must be something that is working.” 