KATIE NOONAN

If you’ve had Jeff Buckley’s 1994 album Grace on rotation over the years, there’s a fair chance you’ve belted out ‘Last Goodbye’, ‘Eternal Life’ or ‘Grace’ in the shower, and you’re not alone. It’s also something award-winning Aussie artist Katie Noonan admits to. In fact, Buckley’s album was so influential to her music career, she embarked on a national tour to celebrate its 30th anniversary. 

Tierney White had a chat with her about her love of the departed singer, and why she wanted to commemorate Grace’s three-decade anniversary with a tour. 

Katie, it’s such a joy to chat with you. I was a fan of your band George back in the day! 
Ah, well, I was very much a fan of Jeff Buckley back in the day. He was a big part of the reason why I started my band, to be honest! 

What was the inspiration behind the tour? 
Well, you know, this is my desert island disc. If they said, you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, this would be it. And it came out when I was in Grade 12, and I discovered it in my first year as an independent young woman when I was 18, I saw him playing live at Seags on the Gold Coast … February 1996. It was a truly transcendental experience. 

I had just done a year of an opera degree and realised I didn't love opera enough for it to be my obsession, like, you know, my life goal. So, I quit uni and moved into an awesome share house, and then around about that time, I saw Jeff Buckley with my brother. 

I got in my brother's trusty Datsun Bluebird, and we drove down to the Gold Coast. It was sold out, I saw him play and just went, "whatever that is, I want to do that!” you know? And it was so transformative and inspiring, and basically the beginning of my career as an independent singer-songwriter. 

I’m a big Jeff Buckley fan myself, and didn’t discover his music until the early 2000s, a few years after his passing in 1997. What is it about his music that drew you in, and how has he influenced you? 
First of all, it's his extraordinary voice, I mean, he has an extraordinary instrument, and what he does with it is so unique. He’s sort of, genre-less really, you know? It sounded incredibly unique, he sounded like no one else … and he sort of gave me the agency to do the same thing when I was forming my sound as a young singer, I was like, I just want to sound like me – I don't want to sound like anyone else – I want to be very true and honest, and I want to make music from a place of vulnerability and truth because that's absolutely what he did as well. And so, yeah, I really learned from him a lot. 

He would have been about 10 years older than me, I think. And, you know, incredible songs, incredibly achingly beautiful lyrics. He was a Renaissance man. And then seven incredible originals and then three, you know, for want of a better word, covers or tributes … 

Obviously, he's had such a huge influence on you and the direction of your musical career. And you’re so lucky to have seen him, I mean, you must have been absolutely devastated when he passed in ‘97. 
I was. It was weird. I sort of had a premonition of it, it was really strange. I do have a bit of a sort of witchy, pagan, hippieness [laughs]. And the night before he died, I think I had a dream – or more like a nightmare – but yeah, it was very weird. It did seem like his flame shone so bright that he was here for a short time. He really was a star in that sense … like a shooting star, you know? 

And there was incredible sadness in his lyrics. You know, his father [Tim] died of a heroin overdose when he was a little kid, and I don't even think he remembered meeting him, but he met him once. And then, you could hear in his lyrics that living in the shadow of his father was tricky, and he was obviously in and out of love with beautiful lovers like Joan As Police Woman and Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins. 

You know, he lived big and lived hard. And some people just shine bright and intensely for a short time and yeah, I was incredibly sad, but also just so grateful that he left us this incredible record. And I got to see him live, and then it was the inspiration in my journey and finding my voice as an artist. 

And something about Jeff and his voice is his insane range. His falsetto is out of this world! 
Well, girls don’t have falsetto [laughs] … We don’t have Adam’s apples, so it's an incredibly challenging body of work for me, because of exactly what you’re saying, his range is absolutely ginormous. And so, I've had to take some of the songs up because they're just a little bit too low – not much – I've tried to do as many of them as possible in the original key. I've done at least three or four of the tunes in key … 

Well, singing along to a Jeff Buckley song is probably very good vocal training. I studied acting at uni and we had voice classes, and I used to belt out some of his songs in the shower – is this something you’re also guilty of? 
Oh, my God, yeah! I'm very guilty of singing along at the top of my lungs to Jeff Buckley tunes. Especially driving in the car … And as you know, it really is incredibly challenging music, because he's got about a five-octave range, so I do my very best! 

Well, we can’t wait to see you in Darwin, Katie! 
I'm thrilled to be coming … to Larrakia Country, because I haven't played Darwin in a really long time, so I’m really excited to be finishing the entire national tour up on Larrakia Country! 

Katie Noonan: Jeff Buckley's Grace 30th Anniversary Celebration 
WHEN THU 20 NOV | 7.30PM 
AT AANT CENTRE 
COST $65 | $60 MEMB/CONC 
INFO yourcentre.com.au 

_{Image: Tara Palmer}