Stapleton is mid-way through a national tour to promote the release of her latest record, an EP titled Obladi Diablo. The title translates loosely as ‘pop music is evil’, a sentiment Stapleton says she agrees with in one sense, though the title is intended to have a light-hearted tone. “It’s a bit of a light-hearted jibe at the Katy Perrys of this world, and all that stuff that gets played on commercial radio,” Stapleton says. “Most of it is so vacuous, but it’s not truly evil – but is it bad that people listen to such unimaginative drivel,” she asks rhetorically?
Obladi Diablo is Stapleton’s first release since 2009’s 45 Revelations Per Minute. Initially Stapleton began recording tracks at Andrew McGee’s Empty Room studios; later on, Stapleton took to her bedroom to record some of the songs featured on the new EP. “Song Of The Artesian Water was recorded in my bedroom, and the members of my band took turns singing into the computer,” Stapleton laughs.
Consistent with her previous recordings, Stapleton continues to look to her personal life and emotional travels for inspiration for her songs. “Yeah, it’s still mainly personal stuff,” Stapleton says. “The only one that isn’t like that is Song Of The Artesian Water, which is based on a Banjo Patterson poem.”
Like many products of the Australian educational system, Stapleton was generally familiar with Patterson’s poetry and prose through the iconic Man From Snowy River poem. When Stapleton was offered the opportunity at last year’s Fringe Festival to put one of Patterson’s poems to music, she was introduced to the depth and breadth of the poet’s literary catalogue. “I borrowed a book of his poems from the library, and it was really quite interesting,” Stapleton says. “There was even a poem he’d written about a lady of the night, which I wasn’t expecting!”
Stapleton admits to spending a reasonable amount of time focusing on the lyrics to her songs. “I do focus on my lyrics quite a lot – that’s really important to me,” Stapleton says. Pop music might not necessarily be evil in the religious sense of the term, but there’s plenty of empirical evidence that cheap commercial pop isn’t doing the world any favours. “That’s one thing about pop music – the ridiculous, repetitive lyrics,” Stapleton says. “So having good lyrics is definitely a focus of our music. When I write lyrics, I do try and create something that’s not light and fluffy.”
Most songwriters will struggle to explain the nature of the songwriting craft – to many, it’s a combination of intuition, inspiration and experience. Stapleton says she’s a learnt a few things over the years, most of which goes to perseverance. “It’s always a bit of a mysterious process,” Stapleton muses. “I went through a stage of trying to learn more about it, but I gave that up because I was thinking about it too much,” she says. “I think getting really stuck into it is better. I’ve been doing quite a lot of touring recently, so I’m craving the opportunity to sit down and start writing again.”
Pausing to ponder the lessons – or ‘learnings’, as the murderers of the English language in the corporate sector would have us say – of songwriting, Stapleton emphasises the need to persevere and avoid the temptation to over analyse. “I suppose what I’ve learnt is to plough through the awkward phase and not think about it too much,” she says. In that context, it doesn’t matter whether the song is conceived in a dedicated writing session, or as an ad hoc inspirational moment. “Usually for me it’s when I’m about to go to sleep,” Stapleton says. “And that can be a bit annoying, because I’ve got to get up and write it down before it’s too late!” she laughs.
Stapleton has recently returned from a short European tour, where she played a total of 12 shows in Germany, France, Spain and England. Like so many Australian musicians who’ve toured continental Europe previously, Stapleton was overwhelmed with the response, and hospitality. “It was fantastic,” Stapleton gushes. “It was great, particularly playing at the Binic Folk Festival in France. It was really well received, and there was incredible hospitality – you really get looked after over there. Even in Spain, where’s this terrible economic crisis, and people are being forced to work for half of what they used to, people were buying me drinks, and I was like ‘No, please let me pay for your drinks!’” she says.
BY PATRICK EMERY
