At what some might consider the height of Brooke Fraser's career with the release of her newest and highly acclaimed album Flags and her huge international success, Fraser looks to the future when she eventually steps away from the spotlight to start a family.
Flags debuted at No59 on the iconic Billboard Top 100 in the United States; No4 on iTunes USA and No3 on iTunes Canada when it was released in October last year. It also debuted at No3 in Australia and No1 in New Zealand. The first single off the album, Something in the Water, reached No30 on the Italian pop charts and is continuing to rise, something Fraser said was "really random and exciting" – especially as she had yet to venture into Europe.
Growing international interest in her soulful songs comes after a four year wait between albums and years of gruelling tour schedules trying to gain traction in North America. She often tells of touring songs off her second album Albertine for at least three years leaving her tired and burnt out, because of the rigorous tour scheduleand because the songs brought back personal memories of her experiences in Rwanda.
Albertine was inspired by a trip to the east African nation in 2005, 11 years after the genocide in which up to one million people are thought to have been murdered. The album and title track were named after a Rwandan orphan who was saved from the genocide.
Flags is more of a collaborative and happy album made with the help of friends, Fraser says. It's an album of firsts – with a recorded duet with Englishman Matt Hales, aka Aqualung, and Fraser taking the reigns as producer "not to try and prove something, but because I thought it was the right thing for that collection of songs".
With all the signs of a star on the rise, Fraser is still planning ahead for when she settles down with husband Scott Ligertwood, in a more permanent location in Sydney, and has children. When the 27-year-old songstress decides to temporarily step down from the stage she says she will swap music for another of her great loves – stationery. She plans to open her own stationery business, to help support her new family and give her a way to channel her creativity, but maintains the plan is still in its early stages.
"[It's] in an embryonic state at the moment, but it's something we are talking about, so watch this space. I suppose it's really thinking about the future and when I'm pregnant and have
"I need to still try and feed my family somehow and still kind of have a creative outlet.
"Stationery is a beautiful marriage of those things."
Before diving head first into stationery business ownership however, Fraser says she'll need to test the waters by possibly selling a line of merchandise through a boutique Australian stationery company she "really loves".
"I've kind of been talking to them so I think I might start with a line of y'know `Brooke Fraser for yada yada yada' and then see how we go."
She says her love affair with stationery stems from a markedly low-fi approach to life.
"I love journals and I love the physical act of writing things down. I love lists, I love journalling and scheduling – I love all these different things. I think there's just something for me about pen to paper."
A laptop and a blackberry phone are the extent of her gadgetry prowess, she confesses. She would be the reluctant owner of a Kindle e-reader, but prefers to dog ear pages in books and underline passages which pique her interest.
"It's funny because I always put my books in my carry on [luggage] and when I'm checking in I'll hide my bag behind a pillar so they can't check it to weigh it, but I don't get away with it all the time.
"Usually my carry on weighs 14 kilograms and it's all books, so just due to that and for the health of my back I should probably maybe look at getting a Kindle but it's not something that appeals to me."
Books, she says, give her more inspiration for song writing than music does. Many of her songs can be traced back to books and two of her songs, CS Lewis Song on Albertine and Jack Kerouac on Flags, were named after authors, although she says that wasn't a deliberate decision.
The songstress will be bringing her literary-inspired lyrics to the top of the south, coincidentally the birthplace of her first song, as the headline act of the More FM Winery Tour at the Villa Maria Estate in Blenheim on February 25, with support from Opshop and Midnight Youth.
The Naenae native wrote her first song, Sandfly at the age of 12 during a school camp at Teapot Valley, south of Nelson. She says she still sometimes does an impromptu version during a gig, but admits "it's not exactly the most sophisticated of musical tunes".
The Winery Tour will be just like being back at camp, "but touring around playing music" with communal meals and a friendly atmosphere with the other bands and the up to 50 crew.
"That's what I really enjoy the most – not just getting to play alongside them [Opshop and Midnight Youth] on the night, but just hanging out."
Tickets cost $65 and are available from ticketmaster.co.nz, 0800111999, winerytour.co.nz and Ticket Direct 0800 4 TICKET or ticketdirect.co.nz. Ritchies will have a bus service for $20 return per person from Seymour Square at 4.45pm.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
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