Monday, 7 April 2014

'HOLDING ON' WITH KARA 'ON MY WAY' TO 18 DEGREE !!!


“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.



People flying candle ballon during 18 degree
Kara playing holding on at 18 degree

author with Kara 
   

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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