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NOIRE. Image by Allyson
Alapont
Jessica Mincher and Billy James quit their day jobs and
moved out of their house in Surry Hills in inner city Sydney to a farm in
Queensland near where they both grew up. Stepping away from the stress and the
distractions of the city they were soon able to get back to making music.
Fenella Henderson-Zuel spoke to Jessica in Switzerland about the indie pop duo
known as NOIRE and their latest recording, Some Kind Of Blue.
Images by Blair Gauld
“You know, time just goes by so quickly and you realise
‘Oh my god, I’ve been in Sydney for so long and I haven’t really done that much
yet, I haven’t made as much music as I wanted to.’ There was a lot of
indecision and not feeling productive. It makes you feel depressed all the
time.”
— JESSICA MINCHER, SINGER/SGONWRITER FOR INDIE POP DUO NOIRE
When we finally
manage to connect our Skype call, Jessica Mincher is bitterly disappointed to
discover that the video feature isn’t working. “I’m in Switzerland and I wanted
to show you the view! It’s very beautiful.” The singer-songwriter is currently
road-tripping through Europe with fellow musician and songwriter Billy James,
the other half of Australian indie pop rock duo NOIRE.
“We started off in
Paris and then went to Berlin, then we drove down to Nuremberg and somewhere
else and now we’re in Switzerland!” Jessica tells me excitedly. “I think today
we’re going to drive to Italy.”
The pair are taking a well-deserved break
as they celebrate the release of their debut album, Some Kind Of Blue, and are enjoying the
freedom of living without a schedule.
“We’re just so unplanned, so every day
we’re like ‘where should we go today?’ It’s been awesome.”
Though writing songs is one of the most
important things in her life “so far”, Jessica’s greatest love is film. Asked
who were her main influences, rather than songwriters or musicians she
nominated directors David Lynch and Jean-Luc Goddard.
Visits to the cinema are "theatrical
and dramatic experiences", and her lifelong dream is to follow in the
footsteps of one of NOIRE’s other inspirations, Australian singer/songwriter
and composer Nick Cave, and write film scores.
She and Billy are currently working on
music for a filmmaker friend but Jessica’s “absolute goal” is to create music
for Lynch, Godard, Sofia Coppola and Wim Wenders. Their influence is clear in
deeply atmospheric NOIRE tracks like Real Cool and He’s My Baby.
“I think with our music it’s about
creating an atmosphere more than what’s being said. When I’m writing I always
think about visually, ‘How would this sound?’ Movies are really good in that
way.”
While this European trip and the impending
release of the debut album is exciting, the past two years have been tough for
NOIRE.
After
moving to Sydney from Gympie in regional Queensland five years ago, the pair
were soon profiled on triple j unearthed but found it difficult to sustain a
music career. “We released an EP but weren’t really getting anywhere. We were
just working [in other jobs] and Sydney’s so expensive. Then we’d have shows on
the weekend.”
Unable
to afford to focus on their music and support themselves in Sydney, Jessica
confesses that the band became disillusioned with the life of a city-based
artist.
“You know, time
just goes by so quickly and you realise ‘Oh my god, I’ve been in Sydney for so
long and I haven’t really done that much yet, I haven’t made as much music as I
wanted to.’ There was a lot of indecision and not feeling productive. It makes
you feel depressed all the time.”
It soon became clear that if NOIRE were to
survive and thrive, there was only one thing to do. Says Jessica, “Once we’d
made that decision it was fairly quick.”
She and Billy quit their day jobs and
moved out of their house in Surry Hills to a farm in Queensland near where they
both grew up. Stepping away from the stress and the distractions of the city
they were soon able to get back to making music.
“It was a really good decision for us,”
Jessica asserts. “We just went away for two months and decided to write an
album. We were like, ‘we just need to get a full body of work together’.”
That body of work became Some Kind
Of Blue, released last Friday. After putting the creation of the
album aside for so long the pair felt a need to complete the work as quickly as
possible and exorcise their city demons.
Taking a cue from Nick Cave, Jessica and
Billy treated the creation of the album like a full-time job. Setting a strict
timetable forced them to spend time on the album each day in an effort to put
their difficult time in Sydney behind them as quickly as possible and produce
their first major work.
“It’s just amazing to have it finally come
out. We were more concerned about getting it done, rather than the end product,
I think. We just needed to get something finished so we can move on.”
The album’s title perfectly captures both
the struggles of the past and the musical influences captured within.
“We went through a really rough couple of
years and I thought writing this would kind of focus on what happened but it
ended up not even dealing with what was making us so sad,” Jessica explains.
“We had this song called Some Kind Of Blue and it was
referencing that Miles Davis album [Kind Of Blue]. And the lyric was ‘I’m all
Miles Davis in some kind of blue’ and I really just loved those words.”
As is often the case, Some Kind Of Blue didn’t
turn out exactly as expected but it still managed to have the desired effect.
“It was meant to be about a darker time
and I think, even though we didn’t end up dealing with it, it was like the
healing of it. [The album] turned out a lot more happy and positive than I
thought it would,” she says while laughing.
The
pair now feel far more comfortable with their abilities and the possibilities
for the future, having proven to themselves that they can create music they
believe in when they set their minds to it. And Some Kind Of Blue is only the
beginning.
“I think we’ve still got a lot to
write and I would like to have another album out in maybe six months, that’d be
amazing. Whether that happens or not, I think it’s a lot easier now that we’ve
gotten over that first hurdle. I feel a bit more confident in writing songs now
as well and I feel a bit better that I’ve been able to produce something. It
has gotten a lot easier to keep writing.”
Some
Kind of Blue is out now. Follow NOIRE on Facebook and Instagram
