Tasmanian-born singer-songwriter Monique Brumby has released her fifth album. The self-titled record is chock full of melodic pop rock jams with a wide range of inspirations and influences. Brumby caught up with OUTinPerth and told us all about her creative process.
“I write about all sorts of different things to be honest. I suppose when I was twenty and putting out my first album back in 1995 I sort of concealed a lot probably about who I really was and it had probably a detrimental effect on my feelings of self worth and I feel at this point in my career I just want to communicate and be really open and honest about who I am.” she said.
The new single, ‘Silent War’, is politically driven, with inspiration drawn from her personal life. “My wife and I got married three years ago, we had a commitment ceremony but I would’ve liked to have been able to be legally recognised in Australia as a married couple. So the song is a love song in between two people that happen to be of the same sex.”
Brumby had a wide variation of musical influences on the album, citing Suzanne Vega, Peter Gabriel, Tegan and Sara as inspirations alongside Australian artists Rebecca Barnard and Kerri Simpson. She said she’s inspired by strong melodies and engaging lyrics.
“So I look for lyrics that are just not your dime a dozen lyrics, they’ve kind of got a bit more thought and duality, the meaning. You’ve got to dig a bit deeper to get the essence of what the artist is trying to say. And ‘Silent War’ is not a song like that. But there are other songs on my record that are very much like that. You gotta dig a bit deeper to get the meaning; it’s hard to just put into a few words what the songs are about.”
Sophie Joske
