Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Gossling played the Sebright Arms in London on Wednesday 24th September. We caught up with singer Helen Croome before the show. Her new album 'Harvest of Gold' is out now.
How’s the UK treating you?
“Great! We’ve had, I don’t know if it’s normal for this time of year, only one rainy day, it’s been really nice weather. We started out in Portsmouth for the Southsea Festival and that was a beautiful and sunny day and it only just rained yesterday for the first time in Glasgow. But it’s been good and we’ve been in a little van driving around feeling like we know what we’re doing and where we are going [laughs].”
So how would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard you before?
“Well, that’s actually one of the hardest questions to answer I think. Well I usually just say we are kinda folk-pop genre and, I don’t know, I guess I’ve got a fairly unique voice so that’s probably the think that stands out most for the band I think.”
Brilliant. You’re growing pretty big in Australia at the moment, was being able to travel the world something you had ever dreamed of being to do with the band or did you have small aspirations when you first started out?
“Yeah, I think small. Before twelve months ago I had never dreamt about going overseas to play music. It hadn’t really been on my wish list or goals for my music which seems a bit weird that I had limited myself to that. I was just very content with touring around Australia and twelve months ago we had the first opportunity to go overseas and play some shows and since then I have realised that it’s pretty awesome to be able to come to the other side of the world and play music and have people listen and I’m very excited to be here.”
What or who influenced you most to start creating music?
“Well, Damien Rice who’s an Irish singer song-writer is the reason I started. Well, he’s the reason I wanted to be a singer song-writer. I heard his record ‘O’ and thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard and didn’t realise that a singer song-writer could be like that and have such genuine lyrics and they really struck me. I actually heard it when I was in Ireland and just on holiday and came back to Australia and went ‘Yeah, I’m gonna do music.’ Make it my career.”
And so hypothetically speaking, if you were in charge of your own music festival, who would you choose to headline and why?
“Woah…”
Any artist, living or dead…
“Wow, that’s a really good question! Well, I don’t know, I think I’d have to give a really lame answer and say that it would probably be… Well if it was including dead people then it would have to be The Beatles because I would love to be a part of that kind of craze. The thing that happens these days is I did a song with a hip hop artist by the name of 360 in Australia and he is quite big in Australia and so singing songs with him I’ve kind of been exposed to that kind of crazy fans kind of thing because I don’t really get that. He has, like, crazy fans so I think that’d be amazing. If there was a festival with The Beatles on I’d love to stand in the front row and be a part of it [laughs].”
So you’d be one of the screaming fan girls?
“Yeah, I would [laughs]!”
And so, what do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t creating music?
“Urm, I really don’t know! There’s nothing else that I’d prefer to be doing. I studied Psychology a little bit at Uni for a while before moving to music so I guess if I hadn’t have moved to music I would have stuck around and pursued that and become a psychologist.”
You’ve got quite a unique sound, how did you go about creating that? Was it something that just resulted from some jam sessions or was it a very specific sound that you had set out to achieve?
“Well I’ve had three Eps released before I did my debut record and they started out very folk-y, quiet acoustic stuff and now with my record it’s progressed to a more electronic synth sounds and yeah, I think it’s just been a development over time. I have a pretty keen interest in film compositions so I think I’d like to bring some kind of cinematic sounds into my music. I’m also a fan of Goldfrapp and those sort of artists that combine acoustic sounds with electronic sounds and do a really good job of having them both together comfortably so that’s where I tried to go for the album.”
As an artist do you prefer the writing and producing EPs and albums over tours or the other way round?
“I think it is the arranging side of things, not even the writing because sometimes writing is a bit of a chore for me and I’m not a hugely prolific writer, I don’t have a lot of material and I kind of have to really work hard at it but once I get it to the stage of demoing and I get to arrange it, where I use a laptop and keyboard and software to record strong demos and then get to go to the studio to record it properly, that’s my favourite part. To play all the instruments, drums and sample sounds, that’s my favourite part.”
Do you think we can expect more UK tours in the future?
“Yes! I think so.”
Brilliant. Finally, if you could give your ten year old self one piece of advice or tip for the future, what would it be?
“Ten… I think it would be that… Well ten you’re not in high school yet, are you? You’re still in primary school… I think it would be to not be so scared of authoritarian figures and just be a bit more… I don’t know how to put it… a bit more carefree. So not get as scared of authoritarian figures as I have been… If that makes sense! School teachers and people like that.”
Well thank you very much for your time and good luck with the show!
“Thank you! Are you going to get a burger here? I’ve heard they are pretty incredible…”
Words by Jack McLaren-Stewart (@jackmclstewart)