Laura Imbruglia and the greatbig lion

Wed 25th Oct, 2006 in Features

Magical washing machines, trolleys of carrots and hard-core vegan punks: funny song topics that get both giggle and see critical commentary questioning the sanity of Laura Imbruglia; yet the singer believes she’s just in touch with her imagination on an album that signifies maturity more than highjinks and has been described as an underground pop gem, reflecting a rock refuge in sarcasm. 

“I was in a big, green field near where I grew up on the Central Coast of New South Wales, and there were all these families out picnicking. There was this one, big lion in the middle of the field and a big group of colourful birds. There was this one pink bird and the lion singled it out and jumped up and completely ripped it apart. Then my mum came and took the bird to a sink at the side of the field,” Laura Imbruglia says about a recent dream.

“Then there was another that involved a corpse on a motorbike, but yeah, they’re pretty fucked,” she continues.

Laura says she sings honestly “but it’s usually a bit exaggerated” about dreams and life experiences on her recently released self-titled debut album which tackles staple rock themes of love, work and play in a glass-half-empty mix of discontent with appealing spunk and sugar-high energy; and what has been described as a “licorice allsort of madness,” symbolising the adage that sarcasm is the last resort of losers.

“I don’t think I need to be worried about my mental state,” she says. ”I’ve never really regarded my lyrics as weird, they’re just a sort a reflection of who I am, and how I am with my friends and my sense of humour.

“When I’m writing, I don’t write the music and the lyrics separately, I just play and sing about whatever’s on my mind, gibberish, and dreams that I’ve had. Then I keep just keep hammering it out. I’ve got a pretty good memory luckily,” she says.

A good memory, but also a good imagination which also appears on Laura’s previous and more acoustic EPs - It Makes A Crunchy Noise (2003) and My Dream Of A Magical Washing Machine (2005), where wishes of being re-incarnated as a cicada and conversations between cockatoos are subject matter.

Laura’s latest release is more mature in her typically unusual way. The ten minute, narrative based track, My Opus, exclaims that she’s still having: “the familiar taste of egg on my face” (Lettuce and Anarchists and My Dream Of A Magical Washing Machine) and having “used the bells and whistles to keep him in the dark,” (possibly Looking For A Rabbit and Mad Scientist!) we discover through sarcasm that unrequited love is also a central theme.

“Tear ducts, I’m going to have to get mine sewn up/mine have overflowed and now the tears slide into my mouth/And everything tastes salty/And everything looks foggy/,” Laura sings on the single Tear Ducts that is playing on national radio Triple J.

And Laura believes with the addition of a full backing band, there is more depth and maturity on this album: “I used to have an electric guitar when I was in high school but I had to sell it when I started playing gigs so I could buy an acoustic guitar. Then gradually, I got more equipment and the opportunity came up to have a bigger sound and a band,” she says.

“When I first started out, I used to tell the audience that they could feel free to laugh because sometimes I felt that when people were watching they didn’t know whether they would be allowed to laugh or not. Now I don’t think I could really get the same reaction because the band’s a lot more louder, and you can’t hear if people are laughing and working with a band, I don’t think I could really write those sort of laugh out loud lyrics within the band structure.”

Now Laura hopes this highly anticipated album might finally separate her artistically from her sister Natalie.

“I don’t get hounded by paparazzi or anything, but when those women’s magazines compare Natalie and I, it’s just so lame,” she says.

It seems they’re just name raking when they’ve got nothing else to run. It’s like I’m right up there with Russell Crowe’s baby on the Who Cares Really list for when they’ve run out of ideas.”

Laura is touring to this weekend to celebrate her album’s release, playing Thursday October 26 Oxford Tavern Wollongong with Regular John; Friday  October 27 Hopetoun Hotel, Sydney with I Love Space and Ghosts of Television; Saturday October 28 Newcastle Hotel with Regular John; Thursday November 2 Northecote Social Club, Melbourne and Saturday  November 4 Ric’s, Brisbane.

Laura Imbruglia’s self-titled debut is out now through Chatterbox Records where you can get listen the album on the Laura Imbruglia Audio Player www.lauraimbruglia.com.au