In person, as in her public persona, Bowditch is an irrepressibly positive figure who exudes a gentle and intoxicating warmth. She smiles widely when asked about how the idea for this series of concerts first came into being. “I was touring a lot with a big band, and then, to change things up, I thought I’d do a solo tour,” she tells me. “I called it a ‘Random Creative Adventure’. I found that when I played, the audiences were always just so brilliant, and were always really talented … and so I just started throwing backing vocals out to them, and they’d throw them back to me, and we’d all do three-part harmonies, or whatever!”
It didn’t take long for Bowditch to take her interaction with the audience one step further: the origins of her special breed of audience participation were seeded a long time ago. “I was at a Jeff Buckley concert when I was a teenager and I remember that feeling of wishing he would just reach down and drag me up on stage,” she recalls fondly.
“And Winter Secrets then became a chance to get some of those talented people up on the stage! So it’s two parts – there’s a lot of play with the audience; if they’re into it, that’s great … and if they’re not, then that’s fine. But there’s a competition as well!”
And by competition, she means that there is the chance for one awesome and talented musician in each state that Winter Secrets touches down upon to be able to grace the stage with Bowditch to perform a cover of her most recent single, the bittersweet and beautiful One Little River. Hopeful musos from across Australia have been filming themselves covering the song, and sending their entries to Bowditch’s website. Clare herself will choose the winners.
She laughs with delight when I ask her what kind of entries she’s received so far. “Some of them just blow me away!” she exclaims. “People are making themselves vulnerable, they’re putting it out there, they’re giving it a crack; some of them are absolute professionals, and some of them have never done anything like it before and are just giving it a try – and I just love that.”
What is it, exactly, that she’s looking for in a winning entry? “Well, it’s really just about how it makes me feel. You know, it’s really that simple. When someone does something that’s unique and beautiful or … it just works – I never go in with a checklist of things; I just go in with a gut reaction.”
Another time honoured tradition of Bowditch’s Winter Secrets is her hand-picking of a super-talented collaborator to join her in her shenanigans. Just as last year’s festivities included the absolutely fabulous Lanie Lane, this year Clare will bring along the snappy and effervescent electronic skills of Melbourne-based Spender – a prospect Bowditch is truly excited about. “Spender is someone whose work I really admire – we went to school together! He was really short then, but then he really grew up, and now he’s become an amazing music-maker,” she laughs. “He’s making stuff that sounds like no one else except him, and he’s a great experimenter. He’s a great person to have on the road with me.”
If there’s one thing Bowditch knows, and knows well, it’s the power of a good collaboration. She’s done quite a few over the last few years, so what, in her opinion, makes a collaboration work? She ponders for a moment: “In my opinion, it is the ability to try new things in a space where new things are encouraged,” she explains. “I think the worst thing for a collaboration is when your inner critic is switched on in the first two minutes – that is the end, you know!
“But if you meet someone in a similar sense of play, it works well. Like, I did some lovely songwriting with Paul Dempsey about a year ago, and I remember both of us were just trying out new ideas. I’ve written with Missy Higgins, with Wiley, and Gotye – and it just works when you’re both able to make yourself vulnerable. Again, it’s a gut thing!”
She pauses briefly and states, with a twinkle in her eye, “And that’s the trick of doing anything in life!”
BY THOMAS BAILEY
