Calling Kimbra’s live show ‘elaborate’ would be a bit of an understatement – it’s crammed full of bells and whistles and then some, with video screens and costume changes and a full band. Hauling the whole thing across America has taken some doing, but she is determined to give fans the full experience. “There’s an Australian artist called Thom Kerr, who I’ve done quite a bit of collaboration with,” she tells me. “He did a new backdrop for us for this tour, and it’s added a really cool, psychedelic element to the show. I’ve had some really great new costumes done as well.” Kimbra spends a lot of time on the visuals, she says, because she wants to be able to extend the mood and the message of the music, and give everyone who comes along a really full experience. “I always really go for it in the shows,” she says, “both in terms of the presentation, and in terms of the aggression and intensity of the performance. I love to be theatrical, and get right up close with the audience. It’s just what I do.”
The words ‘aggression and intensity’ sum up Kimbra’s live show pretty well. She throws herself into the shows with her whole body, flinging her tiny frame around the stage and contorting it into all sorts of positions, inhabiting the songs both body and soul. The energy level, even during the slower and more ballad-y songs, is consistently high – surely doing this night after night must get exhausting. “Yeah, the show is a lot of work, both psychologically and physically,” Kimbra says. “I have a rigorous routine, before I go on stage, that allows me to prepare, to get into a meditative state and channel that energy through my body. I’m pretty tired after the gigs, and if I go out, I really have to watch my voice – you can’t take those risks, which kind of sucks sometimes.” Kimbra, however, is happy to wear herself out in the name of art. “I really like the high-energy parts of the show, though, and I really like that, after I’ve done it, I really feel like I’ve had a work-out. I really like performers who give everything, and who get right up there in your face, so that’s something I really try and do.”
If Kimbra’s physical presence is intense, then the looks that she rocks during her show are equally so. Every performance is a riot of bright colours and unusual shapes, and I ask just where exactly her fashion influences come from. “Well, to be honest, I’m kind of new to the world of fashion,” she says. “I grew up around a lot of op shops, loving the challenge of creating an outfit with only ten dollars or something like that, and I still keep to that mindset. I do a lot of vintage shopping.” Her outfits, she says, take influence from the shapes of the ‘50s and ‘60s – they have a very feminine look, and strong silhouettes that come across on the stage. For a touch of the bizarre, she is also very influenced by Japanese street style. “I used to love going on blogs and looking at what people were wearing in Harajuku,” she says, “because there’s something very fun about the clothes, but the creativity is really apparent. I take inspiration from everywhere,” she continues, “Disney films to Salvador Dali. It’s all about finding the right mood on the day, the right mood for the performance.”
Since it arrived late last year, Kimbra’s debut album, Vows, has spawned numerous singles, including staples like Cameo Lover and Settle Down. Its songs have become pretty ubiquitous, but from a performer’s perspective, something like that can be a challenge – when you only have one album, and a limited pool of songs to draw upon, how do you keep things fresh when you’re out there performing night after night? Well, it turns out that Kimbra and her band change the songs all the time – at present, for example, they are on their fifth or sixth version of Settle Down. “Doing it that way really helps keep us focussed on the tour – it helps us to keep it fresh,” she says. “We do that with the other songs – we might change up the groove in the second verse, or try a new vocal melody at the end, or just approach it differently from a sonic perspective. All of those things help keep it interesting. My band are a part of the arrangements as well – they contribute ideas and bring their personalities to the songs. Things like that keep us from getting bored.”
Apart from her own singles, Kimbra has experienced a good deal of success this year thanks to some well-chosen collaborators. Warrior, the pumping track she recorded with A-Trak and Mark Foster, has been somewhat unavoidable the last couple of months. Then, of course, there’s the collaboration that dares not speak its name, the Gotye track that propelled both its performers to hitherto unknown levels of ubiquity. With these two behind her, I ask Kimbra if she has a taste for collaboration, or indeed, if there are any new ones on the way. “Man, I’ve been so lucky to meet some of my idols,” she says. “I met Cornelius, one of my favourite producers from Japan, and we’ve talked about working together some time in the future. I met Van Dyke Parks, the great arranger and producer, and we’ve already started working together on a bit of stuff. I guess someone like Flying Lotus would be a dream collaborator for me, I love what he does. I have some great people lined up for the next record, though – I’m very excited.”
About the follow-up to Vows – it’s slowly taking shape, although it looks as though it may still be a while away. Kimbra has spent so much time touring and on the road recently that song writing hasn’t been her top priority, but ideas are slowly forming. “The main thing for me has been sketching,” she says, “getting melodies and ideas on my laptop. There are a lot of people I’ve met along the way, like Thunder Cat and Benjamin Wineman from The Dillinger Escape Plan. We’ve become buddies, and we’ve been sending demos and vocals back and forth between each-other. Things like that keep me inspired, keep me on my toes. There are a lot of demos floating around, but I need time now to execute them properly, and that takes a lot more than the odd two days here and there.” Hopefully, she will find some time to record over the next year or so. “We have a few shows here and there over the summer,” she says. “We’ll be playing in New Zealand for New Year’s Eve. There’s Summadayze and a few dates in Asia, but I’ll be looking to find some stability again, somewhere in Melbourne or the country. I just want to find my place of stillness and stability and get writing again.”
Oh yeah, on the subject of the upcoming Summadayze, Kimbra will share the bill with a massive line-up of names, including M.I.A., Knife Party, Adrian Lux and Fedde Le Grand. Summer festivals always offer an opportunity to cut loose, and I ask her what exactly we can expect from her shows. “Well, first of all, I’m really excited to come back,” she says. “I miss Australia, and I can’t wait to return there and play for people who’ve been there since the start. I also can’t wait to come back and play new songs for people – there are songs we’ll be doing in the set that we’ve never played live in Australia before. That’s going to bring a nice, fresh dimension to the set as well.”
BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
