Venus Gets Even
June 2012
Her debut album Venus Gets Even – filled with fantastical imagery and autobiographical stories – has already sold over 15,000 copies in France, and it’s likely to have the same impact Down Under too.
Australian-born/French-based songstress Nadéah is homeward bound this month and she’s introducing her eclectic full-length to Aussie audiences.
“I’m excited to share it with the Australian public because I think they’ll appreciate the songs for their humour,” Nadéah announces. “In France the album has done really well – I think it’s because French people like emotion, and there’s lots of different emotions on this record. People tend to think of the French as maybe snobby or elitist but that’s not the case with music – it’s just like here in Australia, their music has influences ranging from African to jazz to rock to blues… Then there’s obviously the minimal electro thing like Daft Punk, so they’ve got all their bases covered.”
And so does Nadéah on Venus Gets Even. Despite being a big mixture of genres, one thing is constant throughout the album – it’s heavily autobiographical and it’s packed with intense emotion. According to the singer, it’s a good thing she took her time when it came to penning these tracks – sometimes it’s best to let the wounds heal first before reflecting back on the dark times.
“There was a time gap between the actual experiences and writing about them,” Nadeah explains. “If I hadn’t given it time, I don’t think I could have written the songs with the humour that I did. It would have been very painful and I probably would have killed myself by the end of the first tour, having to re-live these experiences every night. So no, I didn’t want to do a ‘Kurt Cobain’! The experiences I’m talking about all happened during a very concentrated period of time, it was a very surreal time in my life. All the things that seemed impossible and unbelievable all happened at once and I made songs out of them. The reason I wanted to give many different genres a try on this album is because it’s a perfect complement for lyrics which are full of tension and which clash and fight between one another. One minute it’s all really complicated, the next minute it’s happy, sweet and lovely.”
While Nadéah claims that she is very much looking forward to performing in Australia, she also admits that memories of home aren’t always bright and happy, especially those related to her childhood.
“I love Aussies, but the French have been extremely welcoming to me and I’m very happy there,” she says. “It’s a feeling that I haven’t always felt while living in Australia as a kid. I just sort of stuck out and people thought I was weird and stuff, I never really felt like I fit in. I think it’s because I remember Australia as still very much a ‘teenage nation’. I think it’s matured and grown up since I was a child though. I think it used to be that Australians thought of themselves as multicultural but they weren’t really, though I think now it’s finally happening. I’m looking forward to seeing what Australia is like now.”
France is where Nadéah sees herself remaining for the time being. A country that’s equally traditional and open-minded at the same time, Nadeah says she finally feels ‘at home’.
“I actually moved to England first before France,” she says. “That was a nightmare too – not only was it cold but I visa problems too. I toured a bit in England but as soon as I got to France I felt right at home, that this was the country for me – even though at first I couldn’t speak a word of French. I totally dedicated myself to learning French and I even decided to leave music. It’s a weird thing because that’s exactly when I met Marc [Colin] from Nouvelle Vague and I found myself returning to music. While we were touring, I was trying to finish off the songs for my own solo album, I just knew that I wanted to have something of my own out there even though I was happy with the band. It was just a feeling of these stories wanting to come out of me, it was something I had to do.”
Nadéah plays at The Toff in Town on June 11.
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