A fair while ago now, Philippa Nihill was a significant part of the wonderful Underground Lovers, providing the female vocal point for the band & creating with that band, some of the most fabulous music Australian music fans have had the good fortune to listen to.
Now out on her own, Philippa has already given us an ep, way back in 1996 & then we saw the first snippet of this album, the wondrous vocals fronting Airport 99, which is a truly amazing piece of music, sung in German, with it sounding simply stunning.
I
was lucky enough to catch up with the rather wonderful Philippa at
the release of her debut album A Little Easy, where we covered quite
a bit of ground, not the least of which was the album itself, as well
as her time with Underground Lovers & now on her own.
One of the first things I asked about was Airport 99 & the sound of the song in comparison to a lot of the other songs on the album.
"A few people have asked me about that before. Airport is a song that was, I don't know.... was really like a sort of loop over & over & the vocals were a repetition of themselves. I tried it in another language & in English, but it just sounded so good in German & broke it up for me when I was singing it. I'm glad that so many people have liked it & it's been around for a while, that's why it sounds so different to a lot of the other songs on the album."
Philippa's history with Underground Lovers made me ask why the change to a solo career.
"I guess it was just that I thought I really needed to make a... step out on my own. It wasn't that I wanted to do everything myself. I just thought I was able to get out & sing, which is what I really wanted to do. What's that old saying - change is as good as a holiday."
A Little Easy is quite a change to what Philippa's done before & I asked about the difference in style.
"Look, I wasn't... confident I suppose is the word, to put out an ambitious record with my first one. With this one, I sort of went & did what I liked to do, which is sing all sorts of things. There's very sweet poppy songs & some more moody music & the couple of songs which are a bit like Airport. I really like the way it's turned out, with the artwork, the production & everything & the people who have heard it, like yourself, have been really kind & said such nice things about it. You mentioned the difference in the style of some of the tracks & that's one of the things I liked, with the stripped back feeling of some of the songs, like Helluva Man."
Radio airplay is one of the obvious things that comes to mind with any artist & Philippa is no exception to the Triple J rule of loads of support, but what about commercial radio?
"That's something I'm really not too familiar with I guess. Triple J & as always, community radio have been great, but I don't think commercial radio is really interested in anything that doesn't really fit their format. I think I've been lucky enough to get a couple of songs played, but it's one of those things where you just don't hold your breath."
Lastly, I asked Philippa what was ahead for her now that the album was released.
"Well of course I'm going to be doing some shows to support the album. I haven't really thought much about the next album & I don't really have any real ideas about styles or anything, but I want to do another one. I just hope people like this one though, that's enough for me for now."
Check out Philippa's new album A Little Easy out now through
BMG.
