“Holding on” with Kara “on my way” to 18 degree
By Arghadeep Barua, mass communication
department (Assam University, Silchar)
Photography by Raj Choudhury, mass
communication (Assam University, Silchar)
having a fun conversation with Kara |
Kara
Grainger, she is a deep hearted warm soul and her Rooty soul blues music will
surely gonna take you to a ride of a life time. Her songs are so enriching that
it uplifts you, the moment you listen to her songs. Kara is an Australian born Los Angeles based
soul blues singer/guitarist. She started her professional journey in the late
90s’ along with her Brother Mitch Grainger’s Sydney-based band Papa Lips which
was later renamed as Grainger in 2000 and toured the whole stretch of eastern
coast of Australia and performing in major blues, roots and folk music
festivals (from Woodford to The Gympie Muster)with them . With them Kara did
two albums namely “harmony” and “high time now”, which were played in ABC
radio. She then signed to an Australian label Craving records as a solo artist
in 2006 and came up with her first solo EP Secret Soul which, was picked up by
BBC Radio 2 and earned an honourable mention in Billboard’s 2005 international
song-writing competition. . Prior to that, she had an opportunity to play with
Cold Chisel's Steve Prestwich. She moved to Los Angeles in 2008. Her debut CD,
2008's "Grand and Green River" received first prize in the IAP awards
in Austin, Texas and was also in the top 40 Americana charts for over 34 weeks.
In 2011, she released "LA Blues". In 2013, she released her new album
“shiver and sigh” produced by Grammy Award winning producer David Z.
Over
the years she has travelled all across the world touring extensively throughout
the United States, Asia, Europe and of course Australia. In the meanwhile, she
has also opened for legends like Buddy Guy, Marc Cohn, Peter Frampton, and
Heart. In the States, her shows have included opening for guitarist Johnson and
fellow Australian actor-singer Russel Crowe at Hollywood’s House of Blues as
well as her own shows at several venues throughout Los Angeles. She showcased
at the 2006 International Folk Alliance Conference in Austin. In October of 2012, Kara performed at the
Rock n Roots Festival in Singapore where she opened the show for Robert Plant
and his band.
She
is a dedicated artist with a charismatic personality and her charm and grace
drives you towards her. She has a great control of her vocals with soul and
roots flavour. Her song writing skills are classic and she is very passionate
about it. Her songs talk about love, relationships, breakups and a quest to
search for the ultimate truth. She is also an awesome guitar player having a
technical and emotional mastery of acoustic, electric and slide guitars, Dobro
and lap steel.
Kara performing at 18 degree |
This
is a conversation with Kara Grainger, while she was here in Shillong as the
main attraction for the event 18 degree,
organised by the ministry of art and culture of Meghalaya
1. Hi Kara
Kara: hello J
2. So this is your first
visit to Shillong, in-fact India, so how has been the journey
Kara: well, it’s been a long journey from Los Angeles, I arrived at the middle
of the night to Delhi. My luggage didn’t arrive so I had to wait for the next
plane to Delhi. Then I took a cab and went to the place where I was staying. It’s
one of those experiences where you have no idea what the city is around you.
And the next morning um pretty much around the bustling and beeping city of Delhi
(you know) and I basically went back to get my luggage then I took the flight
to reach up to here in Guwahati, which is a pretty different than Delhi and
then we drove four hours through the mountains from Guwahati, up with a very
narrow road which I guess is one of the main routes up to Shillong. And I guess
I didn’t know what to expect from Shillong. But I didn’t realise that I would
be be in a real village, a village atmosphere. There is something unique here
with so many tribes in distant areas mainly the Khasis predominantly then Jantias,
and Garo. So, that fascinates me I haven’t been exposed to many a places around
the world with that kind of real village community atmosphere. And it’s really
interesting that there are so many different types of people here. And I’m
loving it. It’s really rich tapestry, Shillong. The influence of Nepal, Bangladesh,
southern India, China, and the British, they all comes together here in
Shillong.
3. Alright it seems you have
done some sort of search here, now in these three days of the festival you may
have come across various folk tunes and instruments of Meghalaya so do you have
any plans to incorporate or fuse something from this part of the country with
your music.
Kara: most definitely, I have travelled to Inddonesia and I have been very
interested in working together with musicians over there and to using the
TAMLANG, and well as sound I have use it in couple of my song, but I love
Indian classical music.
4. Cool, so who is your
favourite Indian artist?
Kara: oh, sorry I can’t tell you. Because I’m still relatively new but the
sounds that I have heard are amazing. And I love them, it’s the sound of the
instruments that I particularly know rather than their artists right now but
you too will have to introduce me to them (laughs).
5.You can listen to Ravi Shankar.
Kara: of course, I have heard Ravi, may god bless his soul. And even his
daughter Anouska is amazing. In the west they put India in one block, a thing
you perhaps do with America too sometimes Australia but in India every
particular region is so
different and the music is
so different. I would love incorporate or well collaborate with Indian musician
6.You bear a very
distinctive style, one that evenly balances the blues with soul and root rock,
could you please introduce us to your style and genre.
Kara: well I have been pretty heavily influenced by a lot of southern soul music,
I absolutely love the sound of Joni Mitchel, Mavis Staples I think a few years
back that was the kind of sound or those were the kind of musicians that hit me
and inspired me.
But I love all kinds of music of course and I just like you know the heart felt
sound that is found in lot of southern music.
Now my music is a combination of inspiration from where I grew up in Australia.
Blues was pretty predominant in my town, there is a little town called Balmain,
Australia and most of the venues played that style of music. I love blues
because it’s just the playing or the approach to playing, it’s all about I
think the feeling. So, it’s all about using that emotion, feeling and combining
those and putting those feelings in simplified approach. I love that and that
way i think everyone else can pick up that music too.
7. You were a part of Sydney
based blues band Papa Lips, from Australia to US, so what made you take this
decision.
Kara: you know my brother had a pretty heavy influence on me. He started the
band Papa Lips, which was a soul blues band and we toured with the band up to the
eastern coast of Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and a little bit of
Melbourne and other parts of Australia. I was pretty young I just left school
when the band started, so it was a huge learning process for me. And the music
that other guys of the band brought into me has a great influence on me.
Many-many of the road trips, the bass player Rowan Lane and drummer Declan Kelly,
had a percussion player Danny Guerrero and they just exposed me to this
wonderful bluesy soul music. So that was my groundings.
8. So what made you take the
decision to go to the US?
Kara: aah! Well I signed with a label in
Australia and I think they were looking to expand and may be they also want the
best for me so they encouraged me to go there, and I was ready to explore apart
from Australia what else was there for me and was ready to see what’s the world
out there and I was really planning to go there for couple of years but I ended
up staying there, and its been seven years since.
9. Shiver and sigh, an insight.
Kara: yeah! Recently I signed with a record label called Eclecto Groove that is
based in LA and they got me together with a great producer called David Z, he
helped me finish up much of the material. he helped me finish up the recordings
when I was in the studio and obviously
great guys bonny in the rhythms section, Hutch Hutchinson(bass) with whom I
played many a times, Mike Finnigan(keys), and also
1had a couple of amazing
drummers James Gadson(drums) who has always been one of my favourites and we
used to listen to his music when I was in Papa Lips and also Jimi Bolt he is
also in drums. I also had a really-really great session with the guitar players. And
with them I have the album “shiver & sigh” which just got released.
10. I was going through your
website and there I found that a band called The Pacific Coast Horns who
featured in many of your songs, so could you please tell us a little about
them?
Kara: sure! They are also playing in the album. They are made up of Paulie
Cerra in the saxophone, Paulie Cerra is a brilliant saxophone player incredibly soulful and also a
great singer so check him out. George Stanford who is on trumpet is also an
amazing songwriter that you just absolutely love George Stanford and Paul
Litteral who also happens to play trumpet, they work a lot together.
11. David Kalish.
Kara: oh he was the producer of my first cd
GRAND AND GREEN RIVER, that I produced in Los Angeles.
12.Please tell us about your song
writing process , one of my very favourite track of you is secret soul, and
correct me if I am wrong but the first few lines goes like this , Taken by the wind with still so much to say
Darling maybe in our dreams we can find a way
Traveling on through this night, with still so far to go
But I will keep you safe inside, in my secret soul.
Kara: that’s exactly right, wow. I was
thinking, deciding whether to play that but I’ll have to play definitely. So, that’s one of my favourite song that I
have written too and its really just I guess just talking about when you meet
somebody you know sometimes it’s friends, family, relationships, somebody that
you become very close to and you become connected with, sometimes it feels like
to me that they remains a small part of them absorb on you carry around in your
pocket and if you miss them then that makes and helps you deal with not to
missing someone. When I was writing it,
that’s what I was going through.
13. So any last messages, I
won’t be bugging you much.
Kara: well I would just like to say my experience in Shillong has been
absolutely wonderful and it’s just an incredibly diverse rich cultural community
that you have over here. I am very inspired by the sense of community that you
have here. It’s still a village feeling that’s here, all have their jobs and homes
to carry out they are working for the whole of community and I think that’s
something that I am going to respect and admire. That’s the feeling I am going to
take away from this place when I travel. J
14. Khublai shibun thank you
so much for your time. Hope you have a great time ahead.
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