Things change, and Cass Eager knows it all to well having experienced first-hand performing for the two extremes – both the war zones and the royal polo clubs.
Once you’ve visited the orphanages of East Timor and entertained the Aussie troops in the war-ravaged Middle East, you just can’t come back home and get pissed off about not finding parking at your local Coles… Things change, and Cass Eager knows it all to well having experienced first-hand performing for the two extremes – both the war zones and the royal polo clubs.
“The tours in the Middle East, East Timor and the Solomon Islands were all to entertain the troops at first,” recalls the singer. “But when you’re over there you don’t just end up playing for them, you also go out and play for the locals and that’s what makes me feel really good. Sharing the music with these people who don’t usually get much joy in their lives. I particularly fell in love with East Timor and I’ve been back there three or four times with the army.
“I met a woman there who runs an orphanage of little kids who are so cute but they all lost their parents through the war. They love music so much, it’s unbelievable! I find the East Timor people so lovely and beautiful – they’ve had such a rough time and yet they’ve got the biggest smiles I have ever seen in my life. I learn so much from them when I go over there.”
Mostly, according to Eager, it’s due to the fact that in East Timor there is a basic gratitude for life in general. Indeed, considering the blood-shed and poverty that has plagued its people, the singer claims it never ceases to amaze her how positive and optimistic their attitudes are.
“I think deep down inside people are all basically the same, but it’s our cultures that make us different; where we were brought up. In the East Timor orphanage the kids just consider themselves lucky to be alive. That basic sense of gratitude is something we’ve all forgotten about.
“Basic things like hand-washing your clothes under the tap and local fishermen going out to find food to cook for dinner, playing songs on guitar… Over there it’s not about what you’ve earned or owned in your lifetime, it’s not about who you are and what you do for a living – it’s just about sharing and loving and it’s really something everybody can learn from.”
As Eager confesses, unsurprisingly much of her musical inspiration has come directly from her humanitarian work in East Timor. And while her new EP Down On My Knees speaks of a love of bad-boys, dodgy truck stops, addictive relationships and life in the slow lane, its darker-than-normal tinge is also partly due to her experiences abroad.
“Well, I put out a soul and funk Christmas album last year,” she points out. “Obviously this is something quite different… Every song is different in that it talks about a different character and each one is a small story in itself. But at the same time, even though it’s about all of these other people, those other people are parts of myself.
“I’ve seen quite a lot over the last few years and it’s very hard for that not to make its way into my music. I do have a lot to say. You have to have something to say if you’re a songwriter, if you don’t you might as well be in a cover band. The main aim of an artist is to reach others with their story.”
On the other end of the scale, playing pool with the royal one himself, Prince Harry, is sure to make for one hell of a story for the grandkids, as Eager jokes. After seeing her perform at Kerry Packer’s polo property during his last Australian visit, the prince not only requested a repeat performance from Eager but also challenged her to a game of pool. Eager, of course, “whooped his arse.”
“I guess he just felt comfortable being himself in his own community of people,” says. “I was on stage doing the gig and he walked into the bar later with his minders and one of them asked me if I would play a game of pool with him. So we had about four games and I whooped his arse! Then on the last night the bookers told me that they didn’t need live music anymore so I went back to my accommodation until the booky came over and asked me to do a gig anyway at the last minute upon request. It’s weird because Harry is the one most relaxed out of everyone else around him – they are the ones who are daunted.
“I still did get that feeling you get when you’re in the room with a famous person. Everyone else was weird and on edge but he was just so laid-back, just like any other 20-something-year-old. I was quite amazed at how ‘real’ he was, that’s always nice to see.”
CASS EAGER & THE VELVET ROPE’s Down On My Knees EP tour hits Melbourne this week – they play The Rainbow Hotel on Friday October 22, Spenserslive on Saturday October 23 and Veludo on October 24. Down On My Knees is out now through Little Bliss Music/Only Blues.
