‘I was always a singer-songwriter at heart’, Kate Miller-Heidke, a classically trained opera singer from Brisbane told OUTinPerth. In the beginning of her musical career, ‘My classical gigs were paying the rent, while I was doing shows at night in the seedy pubs.’ Eventually, however, she caught the attention of music executives and garnered an album deal with Sony BMG. This June, Kate Miller-Heidke will release her first full-length studio album ‘Little Eve’.
While vocally, Kate displays a range that belies her training, ‘a part of me has always felt an affiliation with a folk tradition of storytelling and taking people on a journey and giving them insight into my personality.’ The budding star sights among her influences, ‘the theatricality of Queen’ and the ‘old folkies of the Woodford Folk Festival.’
Even as she pays homage to great performers of yesterday, she has been blazing trails of her own and earning a reputation as one of Australia’s hottest live acts. ‘The space between the sound check and the actual gig, you are feeling boredom punctuated by anxiety, but it’s all worth it when you get on stage.’
Of course, there have been a few particularly memorable (read: embarrassing) stage shows, including last year’s Port Fairy Folk Festival, ‘They had an infestation of crickets because it had just rained. We were doing this gig, and as I was singing, crickets were jumping all over me. I went to hit a high note and opened my mouth wide and a cricket jumped in my mouth. Quite disconcerting! We have played Port Fairy again, but they didn’t have the crickets.’
With the crickets gone and the stage set for the start of her career, Kate is making surprisingly few predictions for the future: ‘As a musician, there is no job security. I have no clue where I will be in a year from now. Then again, it’s kind of exciting to know you could be somewhere totally different from where you are now.’
Catch Kate Miller-Heidke at her headline show on June 9th at the Hyde Park or in support to Evermore on June 10th at Metro City. ‘Little Eve’ hits shelves on June 16th. If you want to skip the record store queue, OUTinPerth.com has giveaway copies.
