Holly Throsby

Thu 17th Mar, 2011 in Features

Sydney-born songstress Holly Throsby makes soothing music, lush and poetic to immerse yourself in and is renowned for her intimate, heartbreaking live performances. Her latest offering, Team , was released mid-February and sees her embarking on her biggest regional tour to date. Coming off the support slot for M. Ward’s recent Australian tour, she speaks to Fasterlouder after a well-deserved sleep-in.

Throsby confesses that she is used to playing support slots, and jokes that she will have to remind herself to play a longer set for her headlining Team tour, with her backing band The Hello Tigers. “I have to get rid of the mindset where I think the best thing I can do for the audience is to get off the stage,” she says, “‘your favourite artist is coming on! Don’t worry!’”

Her fourth album Team sees Throsby reunite with long-time collaborator Tony Dupé, whom she worked with on her first two records On Night, and Under The Town. Both were released to critical acclaim, and took her to international acclaim including support slots with the likes of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart.

The first single Here Is My Co-Pilot, taken together with the album title and the reunion with long-time producer and friend Dupé, seems to suggest a theme to Throsby’s latest work. Other songs on the album contain lyrical explorations of characters such as pilots, miners, soldiers, police, bees, tables and chairs. However, she explains that the record is about separation as much as it is about companionship, allowing her to express a deep interest in both of those things equally.

“Actually it’s kind of a break-up album,” she explains with just a hint of regret in her voice. It’s a record that resulted from coming out of a difficult time in her life. She holds no reservations about putting her life on record. “It is a very personal record and it’ll be interesting to see how everybody hears it…all the albums are always about different times [in my life] in some ways.”

Not to dwell on the negative though, the opportunity to record with Dupé again was one of perfect timing for them both, and also a time of catharsis and great joy too. Their sessions saw them set up in a19th Century sandstone church in Wildes Meadow, New South Wales and according to Throsby, it was something of a reunion of kindred souls.

“He’d been living in Berlin for a couple of years…and I think we were both in a similar spot when we started working together and the kids’ album put us in a really good mood. Team was really lovely because we were both feeling a similar way and not really sure what to do next, a bit of love lost… but we found something when we made this album together… To sum up all those things, we both felt quite free to just make an album that was kind of raw, very honest and exactly the kind of album we wanted to make.”