When Magic Dirt frontwoman Adalita started recording her third solo album in 2015, she had no idea she’d still be wrestling with it three years later. The album – a meditation on unrequited love – has proved to be the most technically challenging musical project the singer-songwriter has tackled since Magic Dirt broke into the alternative scene in the ‘90s.
Until now, Adalita has kept details on the album under wraps. She plans to give her new material a first road test in a series of Australian shows, including a stop by the Yarraville Club, supported by indie-electronic artist Amaya Laucirica.
“It’s great playing new stuff in front of the crowd,” Adalita says. “It bounces back at you, and you get a feeling for it. It’ll be a good gauge for me.”
The Geelong native usually begins songwriting with some extemporaneous strumming at home. For this new album, she tried a new approach.
“I wanted to try writing the way I perform,” Adalita explains. “In a rehearsal room, it’s almost like I’m doing a show: the vocals are really loud, the guitar’s really loud, there’s reverb. It’s got a whole vibe that I really love. I thought, ‘I’m going to write standing up, as though I’m performing.’ I’d never written like that before, and it was really cool fun. I really sang my little heart out.”
The album – a confection of dark-edged alt-rock with a clean, stripped-back sound – has proved a technical challenge, and has required a lot of reworking to get right, Adalita reveals. The album ought to be out by the end of 2018 – give or take.
For Adalita, even during trying periods, the studio is a second home.
“I usually love recording, because you’re in your bubble, and you’re controlling the environment,” she says. “It’s a little secret world, and I like that a lot. Touring is another kettle of fish, because you’re exposed. It’s the opposite of being in the studio: you’re out there, and you can’t really keep your secrets. You’ve got to be vulnerable and open and giving. I still feel the nerves. Sometimes, I don’t know why I get up there, because it’s so traumatic. Particularly when you’re doing solo shows, you’re so exposed and everything is just out there. You’ve got to have nerves of steel to get up there, but I love it.”
Adalita’s current tour combines material from 2011’s ARIA award-winning Adalita and 2013’s All Day Venus with tracks from the new album.
“I’m pretty casual,” Adalita says. “The songs are pretty heavy, pretty emotional, so it’s not a happy-go-lucky show. It’s pretty serious stuff, but a couple of the songs are upbeat, so we’ll have a good time too.”
When she was younger, Adalita dreamed of working behind the scenes as a movie director. She rekindled this love of the visual arts on tour with Magic Dirt, when she bought a camera – a high-end Canon EOS 5D Mark II – and started snapping.
“It kind of crept up on me,” she says. “When I started shooting with the Canon, I had exactly the same feeling coming at me as when I bought my first guitar. I just fell in love straight away. I got obsessed. I’ll just take a thousand shots and then, when I get home, I’ll be so excited to load them up and so excited to look through them all. It’s a ritual that I just love.”
As a photographer, Adalita gets some respite from the limelight, and enjoys capturing portraits and urban landscape scenes – recording a moment in the history of Melbourne as the CBD is constantly altered through demolitions and renovations. An Adalita photo book is a possibility at some point, she suggests.
“Whenever Magic Dirt or I do videos, I love being behind the scenes,” Adalita says. “I love observing. There’s a part of me that feels very comfortable behind the lens. Being invisible is my MO, but then, yes, there’s that other part of me that is a total exhibitionist.”
