With a countrywide headline tour underway, we caught up with one of Australia’s most exciting upcoming artists Montaigne about touring, writing, and how it feels to be sitting on the cusp of getting huge.
Montaigne has played with some pretty big names and at some pretty big festivals so far this year, but whilst some other greener acts might get all starry-eyed, the big names don’t have her nervous. Whether it’s national festivals, or supporting names like Megan Washington and Ball Park Music, Montaigne takes it all in her stride.
“I love performing, and I don’t give a fuck who I’m supporting. I won’t be intimidated by any huge names or anything, I just want to get up there and do my own thing, so that doesn’t phase me at all, like obviously it’s huge that I get to perform under those artists but I really love what I’m doing, I’m confident in myself, and in my voice, I don’t have any qualms about that.”
Age is nothing but a number for the young singer-songwriter, and she’s defiant if people try to bring it up. “I suppose when people say ‘you’re quite young’ it sort of implies that there’s some sort of nervousness there – I don’t get nervous at all during a performance. Obviously there’s a little bit of that natural nerves, you know, that gives you this kinetic energy that you can work off but I’ve never get sick of it, I never get real big nerves, I love being on stage.”
When chatting about her ‘Clip My Wings’ tour, she’s breezy. “It’s nothing really. I mean that sounds really insensitive, like ‘oh it’s just touring’ but I really adore touring, and I love every aspect of it, I love performing, I’m itching to get on the stage again.”
“I love performing, and I don’t give a fuck who I’m supporting. I won’t be intimidated by any huge names or anything”It’s not the travelling or the crowds that get her pumped up, it’s the stage that’s everything. “I love being with my band, they’re the best people, and I’m just very excited to be back on. We’re doing bigger venues this time, I mean slightly bigger, but still bigger, and it’s just, I love touring, and it means I’m making that next step in my career, where my music’s a little bit more wide spread, and more people want to come to shows, which indicates that a lot of things are working out for me.”
Sitting on the edge of making it ‘big’ is an exciting place, but also a place of restlessness. “Sometimes this industry moves at a really slow pace, and it’s like, I still work two jobs that aren’t giving me a lot of shifts, so hearing that people think you’re going to make it’s like wow, this might be real one day. I’m as much happy as I am restless, there’s always that part of me that wants to be at the next stage.”
[include_post id=”457516″] Montaigne has just the right amount of artist self-loathing and deprecation, but isn’t too humble to know when she’s being praised. “The part of me that is all ego, loves hearing that people love my music, that’s really special for me. Like, I like my music, most of the time, there’s always the obligatory artist self hatred, but most of the time, I’m really proud of what I do, and I’m glad other people feel the same way, and I’m glad that I can share that with them.”
On the surface it looks like she’s all go all the time, racing between the studio for writing, recording, and rehearsals, touring and band rehearsals, and generally just doing the thing, working at it all, but she admits it’s not all go. “I get way too much down time, it’s scary to me how much down time I have!”
So what does she do with herself in those times? “I just try to discover new music on Spotify or Youtube, watch live performances of artists, try to get ideas from that. I’m on a massive Queen hit at the moment, Freddie Mercury is just so amazing. Before this current phase, I was listening to a lot of pop music – I think there’s a lot of work that goes into pop music that people overlook, because they engage in this popular elitism about music. I’ll listen to everything.”
Discovered when she was still in high school, Montaigne is open about the luck that she had in her earliest days of establishing herself, and talked about the state of the industry for other young artist trying to make it.
“I think, the word ‘enough’ is always tricky, because enough is never going to be enough, there are always going to be young artists out there, there’s never going to be ‘enough’, we’re never going to be able to elevate all of them, there’s just not enough space and time and money in the world for everyone to get their chance”
“However, Triple J Unearthered is a great platform for breaking and finding artists, YouTube, Soundcloud, Facebook are all there, and you know what if an artists wants to, they can book gigs at their local venues and build a profile there by writing good music and playing there, and making sure, you know you can do guerrilla promoting, you can get your friends to help you.”
“You know, I think support is important on a foundational level, like Triple J Unearthed, are really good to show an artists potentially where they could be, but I think it’s also about legwork, doing it yourself.”
Montaigne’s Clip My Wings tour is curently underway.
Upcoming Tour Dates
Fri 06 Nov
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
Tickets available from www.northcotesocialclub.com | 1300 724 867
Sat 07 Nov
Goodgod Small Club, Sydney NSW
Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au | 1300 GET TIX | All Moshtix Outlets
Thu 19 Nov
Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
Fri 20 Nov
TheGRID, Toowoomba QLD (All Ages)
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
Sat 21 Nov
Mullum Music Festival, Mullumbimby NSW (All Ages)
Tickets available from www.mullummusicfestival.com
Sat 28 Nov
Gorgeous Festival, McLaren Vale SA (All Ages)
Tickets available from www.gorgeousfestival.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
