Broad
Every year Deborah Conway hand picks four Aussie female singers on the cusp of stardom and brings them together for the Broad tour. She tells Andrew P Street about predicting the zeitgeist
I recall that there was some doubt as to whether Broad was even going to happen in 2008. Yeah! You see, I've just got myself this fantastic new job: I am the artistic director of the Queensland Music Festival and so I'm spending a lot of time in Brisbane. And it was just a little too hard for me to put the amount of work that I previously had put into Broad to get it up, which was all of the marketing and publicity and every technical detail and how the ads look and the flights and every aspect of a large, touring event. So I wasn't sure whether [Broad] would go ahead until the wonderful Queensland Performing Arts Centre stepped into the breach.
So they're looking after the tour logistics? Pretty much. They've been a great partner for the past three presentations and have kindly consented to taking on a bit more responsibility this year. It's great. I've got good friends in Queensland. [laughs] It's a congenial place. I'm still the creator, but I'm not dealing with all the mechanical aspects. I can still be a mother hen on the tour.
This year's line-up has a lot of emerging artists. You mean more obscure - is that the word you're looking for? People say that, but I remember touting the bill last year and no-one had heard of anyone except for some faint recognition with Jade McRae, you know? Like "Sally Seltmann? Nup." I mean, they know New Buffalo now, and that's not to say that she hadn't achieved some level of recognition, but it wasn't really with the general punter, and Abbe May was unknown despite having won an award for Best Female Artist in Western Australia, and Ann McCue - no-one knew her, but since then she's been all over radio and even on RocKwiz a few times.
The first I'd ever heard of Kate Miller-Heike was via Broad, actually. In 2006, yes. And now she's a national icon! And Clare Bowditch is the same, and Mia Dyson the same. I have to tell you that with Sally, a few weeks after performing in Broad, a song she'd written [Feist's ‘1234'] became the iPod commercial and the eBay Australia commercial and subsequently an international hit! I don't claim to have anything to do with it at all, but I do claim to have somehow hopped on the zeitgeist just before it hits. What my plan is this time is to try and hit the zeitgeist at the same time. [laughs] I want that Big Day Out moment where Nirvana suddenly became the biggest band in the world right when they were touring Australia. That would be amazing.
Well, you've got time. You think so?
Well, there are still a few days in which Laura Jean can become an international superstar. Laura Jean will become an international superstar. I have no doubt about that fact. And have you heard Elana Stone's stuff? Her records are beautiful. Dianna Corcoran has already won herself a Golden Guitar, and Liz Stringer's got a very strong following in Melbourne, and she's a savagely good banjo picker and singer, and that's a rare thing in an urban centre. It's a great line-up.
So between this tour and your new job, what does this mean for your own music? It's a little bit on the backburner at the moment, but you're right, it is time I did a new record. I've written a bunch of songs that are waiting, bubbling along; well, actually they're simmering, on a very low heat. But hey, slow food is popular. I'm banking on that.
Deborah Conway, Laura Jean, Liz Stringer, Dianna Corcoran and Elana Stone perform with Broad on Sat 23 Aug at the Sydney Opera House.