Sound waves from Down Under

Her debut album, The Sound of White, started at number one on the Australian charts last September and since then, Missy Higgins has refused to back off, sealing a place as the hottest new star Down Under. In a telephonic chat, she took Goodlife on a trip down memory lane and gave a glimpse of the future, too.

Start me up

“I was in middle school when I first saw my Technicolor dream,” recalls Higgins. “It was my first solo performance in school and there was a spotlight on me and also a microphone. I remember loving it very much and deciding to become a singer and nothing else.”

It was her brother, seven years older than her, who introduced Higgins to jazz music, which would go on to be the basis of most of her musical creations. “I looked up to him,” she reminisces.

“He was writing great songs then, which I found the most amazing thing to do. He also had a jazz band of his own. So, then on I started listening to a lot of jazz and even started singing with his band for many clubs in Melbourne.”

But it was the demo competition conducted by the alternative radio broadcaster Triple J that turned the tide in Higgins’s favour. Still in high school, her song All for believing quickly became one of the station’s most requested tracks of 2001.

“I was 17 then and in my final year,” she recalls. “I signed a deal with a management and record label on the condition that I will go on a one-year backpack trip of Europe before recording. That’s something I had planned for a long time with my best friend.”

Settling in

After the year in Europe, which helped her “grow up as a songwriter and a human being”, Higgins started recording her first album. “The opening song was All for believing, which was the very first song I ever wrote. I could have changed the words since I had written it when I was all of 15. But I found something really innocent about the song. I didn’t want to tamper with the naive flavour. I had written the song without thinking how the audiences would feel about it. Something which came instinctively, naturally.”

Her fascination for instruments was also born. “I got very interested in experimenting with different instruments,” explains Higgins.

“I also wanted every record to sound different. I wanted to draw from different influences. So the use of strings could take me back to my liking for classical music. Then there would be a horn and a whole lot of percussion.”

The hit album was followed by several trips to the US. “The American music market is so very different,” she feels. “In Australia, there are radio stations for underground music, for non-mainstream musicians. But in the US, it’s all so categorised. If you don’t fall under a category, you don’t get played.”

More to come

Her musical journey also took Higgins off the usual course to East Timor. “Apart from the military folks, there were really beautiful local people. Some of the places there are amazingly different. It’s such a positive and optimistic country ? a really heart-warming culture. And my show was such a big thing for the local people there, who hardly get to hear any live music at all.”

Higgins’s inclination towards different cultures and traditions has also got her looking to India for inspiration. “While I haven’t quite heard pure Indian fare, I love the sound of the Indian way of singing. I am also a big admirer of London-based Indian musician Nitin Soni. His music is not entirely Indian but does have strong influences.”

Looking forward to more tours in the US and the UK, Higgins wants to come to India, too. “It may not be the best time right now but I would definitely like to come there as soon as possible.” The Sound of White, though, is available in India for those who want to board the Higgins bandwagon.

And variety, at the very least, is what you can expect from this budding star in years to come. “I guess, I am a songwriter first, then a singer, then a piano-player and finally a guitar-player.” Quite a line-up!