I can’t remember who Laura Jean was rooting for that night. It was about 20 years ago, so it might be a lot bigger now. Or maybe it peaked and collapsed. Maybe it was a flash of fame and bitterness over promises that weren’t kept. I remember her friends and agree that their act of support was the keeper, this Laura Jean could be a star.
In hindsight, it was a terrible curse to put on someone. Especially Laura Jan Englert. Last week, her sixth album, amateur, became her third shortlisted for the $30,000 Australian Music Awards. This is her ravenous desire for a dreamy young songbird that has touched the spirit of Folk in her twenty-odd years, even though her name is largely unknown to the Starmaker machine. developed.
“Funnily enough, I really dreamed of being a support act,” says Englert from his Sydney home. I never had a
Creative ambition? of course. Early esoteric folk albums, our swan song When edenland, led to works that add to the storytelling depth and sonic adventure.Loved by the pop goddess Lord dedication She asked Laura Jean to open for her in Perth in March. amateur Another quirky gem, a vivid story with its full folk-pop arrangements and rich, eccentric strings.
“It doesn’t explode, but it stays popular. It’s a lifelong habit for me,” she says. “People get very confused. They’re like, ‘Well, I should promote myself more.’ “You should do this” or “You should do that…and I’m like, ‘I’m fine,'” she says with a laugh. amateur says: It’s okay to be forever attuned to this kind of half-failed but critically-appreciated layer. fine! You don’t have to “make”, right?
The album’s opening line, “When I was Seventeen,” traces Englert’s journey from gifted kid (“They told me I’m going to be a star”) to backstage flashes to various oblique observations of art. It shows a loose narrative that flashes the stages. and reward.from folk festival Honesty to reality, the silliness of television, breathless glimpses of signs that say “Hollywood,” the narrator’s perspective is laced with detached entertainment.
“One of my teachers at Bradfield [an arts-oriented senior college on Sydney’s north shore] When I was 16, they took me to a folk festival,” she recalls. “I played with it and she got mad at me for some reason. I don’t know why.
“I never explode in popularity, but I keep at it. It’s been a lifelong practice for me.”
Singer Laura Jean
“It’s not simple when you’re a gifted kid. People don’t treat you like, ‘Oh, you’d be great.’ They lift you up and then drag you down. My teacher has always done so. They knew I could write. But they wanted me to ‘reach my potential,'” she says, sneering her fingers.
Englert’s indifference to her parents’ dreams of fame and fortune at every step can be traced to her mentor, Aunt Jane Campion. She remembers spending her childhood with celebrities such as Kate Winslet. She went to the beach with Nicole Kidman and her kids to observe the stress and general weirdness.
“I came to Jane from a really different world…my parents are nurses and we live in Gosford. We didn’t have money Sometimes we didn’t have a place to live We were pretty working class We didn’t live in a world of creativity
“When I met Jane [uncle] Colin came into my life and took great care of me and my sister Erica and is still very close to us. And she made me feel like I could have it.
She also showed young Laura what she wanted to avoid. “Jane was pretty famous. I saw this energy that comes around you when you become famous. Politics springs up around you because you are like this powerhouse for
On the positive side, “We learned how to be with people from all walks of life and not be intimidated or intimidated by anyone. and hearing how they talk about their lives, so I think that helps my storytelling a lot.”
But I guess that’s why fame has never really excited me. It was straightforward for me. I feel very lucky to have seen it up close.
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Campion’s proximity and influence continues. She hired Englert as an assistant during the editing stage of her Oscar-winning production. dog power In 2021, and continues to be an invaluable source of “always a little bit of wisdom about writing, composing, and making letters.”
the casting of amateur The director certainly has his sensibilities. Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams are responsible for some imaginative vocal harmonies. “They have these technically great voices,” he says Englert. They are two people who literally live around music. That’s their life,” she says, blinking her eyes at the possibilities.
Cellist Erkki Wertheim brings a more sensitive character to the story. Like his art, his charming string arrangements evoke the amateur over-the-top seriousness the album celebrates. “Erkki really got the idea and put his ego aside a bit and wrote something — not cheap [parts]we’ve really moved away from pastische, but it’s referring to disco. lounge music. He really went there with us,” says Englert.
“There is this kind of despair. People want something from you…because you are like this source of power for other people.
famous laura jean
Wertheim will lead a string quartet that will reinforce Laura Jean’s band at the Melbourne Recital Center on Friday night. She also commissioned a bespoke stage set for the album’s release, created by Sydney-based illustrator Hana Shimada. Slightly different ensembles have performed in Sydney and Brisbane, followed by a “surreal” pop her date with Lorde in Perth. It might be her first support her gig that made her nervous.
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By then, Laura Jean will finally know if she has been deemed worthy of the 2023 Australian Music Awards, the highest honor by the music industry’s most discerning gatekeeper.
“I think it’s pretty random in how it works, like any democratic process,” she says nonchalantly. “The main honor is being shortlisted. It’s unbelievable.”
If she wins, she may have to turn pro, of course.
“Never,” she replies. “I never have!”
Laura Jean will perform at the Melbourne Recital Center on February 10th, Brisbane Powerhouse on February 11th and Sydney’s Factory Theater on February 24th.
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