Australian songstress Katie Noonan may have experimented with rock, opera and soul, but her two great musical loves remain jazz and pop. This month sees the release of somewhat of a celebration of the two genres with the album Blackbird – the music of Lennon and McCartney.
While touring around the country she gave Babblebaby a call, to chat about making music, travelling with toddlers and hanging out with the Wiggles. Katie is a mother to two boys – Dexter, 3.5 and Jonah, 2.
How is the album going? It’s getting some great reviews.
I’m very proud of it, it was a huge privilege for me to be able to make this music and to celebrate these great songwriters I admire so much. To be able to work with such wonderful musicians was a huge thrill for me. I’m very happy with the result.
So what prompted you to re-interpret the Beatles, particularly the Lennon and McCartney songs?
I don’t really know how the idea formed into my head, I just know that I love Lennon and McCartney and I have a really strong connection with the songwriting. I felt that it would be a really interesting project to fuel that incredible songwriting with the in-the-moment spontaneity of live jazz improvisation.
It must have been incredible working with the jazz legends you have on the album – such as Grammy winning saxophonist Joe Lovano guitarist and John Scofield , who has played with Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. How did you line them up?
I met Joe Lovano about four years ago and we had a beautiful connection. It’s connected with my baby because it was the first time Dexter did a huge in-utero boogie when Joe picked up his soprano saxophone. I thought that he would be the perfect guy to co-produce the record with me and he put together an incredible band, a dream band, I couldn’t have dreamt of a better band really. I didn’t really think it was going to happen until I was standing in the studio looking at these guys!
Did you feel a lot of pressure not only covering musical icons like Lennon and McCartney but also recording it all live and improvised? It must have been nervewracking.
It was a little. The pressure was definitely on, there was no room for error with these guys, they’re the best musicians in the world, and we did everything in the first take except for a few tunes. I make all my albums live but I’ve never made one that fast, it was exhilarating to be making music that was so in the moment. In terms of the pressure, I knew that the pressure was on because I was doing Lennon McCartney and that’s iconic, hallowed ground, but I really was just excited and it was a celebration for me of great songwriting.
I‘ve read your blog about travelling to Europe and US with your sons, do you have any travel tips for Babblebaby readers?
Do it when they’re breastfed! It’s so much easier when they can’t move. Dexter’s been around the world three times, this is his third time to New York and he’s only 3 and a half. The flying is hard. We’re in that period where neither of them fit in the bassinets anymore and they’re not allowed to sleep on the floor so they’ve got to sleep in the little chairs.
But my kids are great, they’re very used to new experiences and travelling and as long as my husband and I are with them they’re fine. But the jet lag is intense with kids. They’re completely out of whack of at least a week.
Always have back-up toys and snacks for when things get really hard on the plane. The kids are great at travelling though, they love it.
Tell me about your kids
Dexter is 3.5 and Jonah’s just turned 2, so we’ve going through toilet training and all that at the moment, he wants to toilet train because he’s seen Dexter do it, we didn’t do him until he was 3. Our challenge with Jonah is that he hates clothes, he just wants to be naked! They’re beautiful boys, they’re wonderful.
Are they on tour with you this time?
They’re not actually. Once you stop breastfeeding the balance is deciding what’s best for them in terms of their routine and their sense of daily structure. When breastfeeding the baby just sleeps and feeds and there is no real routine. Once we finish breastfeeding we start to evaluate each trip and go well, if I’m in a different city every day, the boys might find it a little disorientating. So they’re staying at home.
It’s a difficult balance – sometimes they just want to be with me so I just take them with me. We don’t do any childcare so they’re pretty much seven days a week, 24 hours a day with us, in around work and everything. Because I work from home I see them a lot.
Has life as a performer changed much since having kids? How do you find the time to write new material, for example?
Yeah that’s the biggest challenge. Finding the time to write. It’s really hard. Because that requires a fair amount space, and as a mother, you just don’t have your own space!
To be honest when I started doing promo schedules and things with my first record with my first kid, many of the people I dealt with were just not used to dealing with babies at all. They’d book me promo schedules that started at 7am and went to whenever and I had to say, ‘No, I need a break every two and a half hours because I have to breastfeed and blah blah blah.’ It was kind of like I was talking about aliens. They didn’t know what I was talking about!
Your priorities obviously shift. Now when I book a hotel I say, “Are the windows key lockable’, ‘Are the doors key lockable’. It’s scary, we try to stay on the lowest floor possible, but sometimes you can’t avoid staying in a high rise.
Do your kids like your music? Do you sing to them?
They came to the recording [of Blackbird] , they know all the band. Dexter in particular is really full on. When he hears it he says, ‘Oh that’s Joe Lovano on saxophone and John Scofield on guitar.’ He describes it all, he’s got incredible ears and he sings along. They’re both very musical.
I thought a couple of the songs on the album would make great lullabies, like “Blackbird” and “Across the Universe” for example.
I remember someone said to me about the Elixir record, in fact I’ve heard it a few times, that they’ve given birth to my music. Amazing. And then they say that they’ve fallen asleep to it then say ‘Oh sorry!’ I say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s a massive compliment.’ They also say they used it when breastfeeding. It’s very beautiful.
So are the Wiggles banned in your house? Is it ‘real’ music only?
We have the Wiggles! I’ve sung with them! It’s the only gig with any credibility for their kids. Unfortunately both my kids had ear infections and missed out, but we’re going to see them again next week and meet them backstage. We’re very excited.
I’ve taken my son to see Justine and Jai from Playschool live in concert. He knows the songs but seems sceptical as to whether it’s really them.
It’s because he’s used to them being in a box. We don’t actually have a television, we got rid of it a couple of months ago and it was the best thing we ever did, fantastic. So we just occasionally watch the Wiggles and Playschool on DVD, that’s pretty much all they watch.
You can catch Katie performing her new album at the following venues in December:
19.12.08 QPAC Cremorne Theatre
Brisbane
20.12.08 QPAC Cremorne Theatre
Brisbane
21.12.08 Bangalow A and I Hall
Bangalow
For more information, visit Katie’s MySpace.
Printed from Babble Australia (babble.com.au). Copyright 2008 Allure Media. All rights reserved.