Chrissie Hynde meets Sergio Mendes at a Bacharach retrospective. Lush, warm sounds and open-heart surgery lyrics. Hopeful and sweet.

11 MP3 Songs in this album (42:21) !
Related styles: Pop: Sunshine Pop, Solo Female Artist

People who are interested in 60’s Bacharach Chrissie Hynde’s cousin Psychedelic Doris Day should consider this download.


Details:
The Soft Ones was the first band I was in with my boyfriend and my best friends when I still lived in Perth. Most of us had been at Art school together and I was very strung out on being a serious artist. We did some pop songs, my existential ramblings and a 1 1/2-minute ditty called Toilet Roll Poll.
My brother and I moved to Melbourne to touch the rock and roll sky.
Very quickly I fell in with a bunch of R&B players and began to sing backing vocals, frock up, dance a lot and feel very pleased with myself. Even tho I had no idea what I was doing â which is probably why I was so pleased.
I was still writing my âgirlie popâ songs and rehearsing with various combos that never went anywhere and some that did⦠I have lots of rehearsal tapes where I sound way different than I do now⦠I think the Velvet Underground, and Nico in particular have a lot to answer for.
Then I ran away for a while, back to Perth, sang more R&B, fell in-love again and got an education in music, showbiz and survival skills. Then it was back to Melbourne - sang with a girl group, put together my first R&B/Country/Soul band, hired a piano and kept writing. I think this is when I really started to sing.
I was sooooo lucky that I met and worked with so many divine musicians â Iâve got a whole bio on my website that details some of my illustrious encounters.
I started to focus more and more on trying to record my songs and get heard⦠this is not so easy. But I had a ball doing it and played with more celestial beings and worked very hard, if I say so myself.
I was keen to marry all my influences from 60's pop, 50's r&b, Brill Building songwriters, Bob Dylan to Carole King, Patti Smith to Lou Reed, Patsy Cline to Aretha. At some point I started to play and write on my geetar instead of piano. I didn't know what I was doing so I just made up chords that sounded pretty. It worked for me and I wrote in a frenzy.
My band was performing a lot. People were liking it, I was loving it.
I recorded and released two mini me cdâs - Pefect Moment and Bloom.
They were both 'well received'. This means that we got airplay, interviews, reviews, TV appearances etc all of it positive and reassuring.
Then I kinda got very tired and emotional and decided that I just wanted to meditate for a while.
I was still playing a lot but my focus had shifted and I immersed myself in Eastern spiritual teachings, primarily those of Swami Shankarananda whose Ashram Iâve lived in off and on for many years.
Nothing like the cocktail of rock and roll with a dash of inner bliss â if you can do it.
Cabaret followed, more writing, more roots music, more enlightenment, deep falling in love and on it went and here we are *
And now âSuperdarlingâ is about to leap from a tall building near you. I wanted to make something lush and (hopefully) beautiful that was full of devotion.
Feel the love.