On April 6th at Meow in Wellington, singer/songwriter & ex-Chills Drummer, Caroline Easther will step out from behind her beloved drum kit and take to the front of the stage. Armed with her guitar and backed by her band The Cinnamon Girls, she’ll be presenting a collection of haunting indie-pop songs from her debut solo album Lucky, released on April 5th.

In her extensive career she has toured the world drumming and singing with bands and musicians such as The Chills, The Verlaines, Barry Saunders (The Warratahs), Let’s Planet and Hobnail but has always been a singer/songwriter in her own right.

Well known musician and composer David Long engineered and produced the album in his Owhiro Bay studio. He has brought his love of candid, organic sounds and his experience as a writer of atmospheric film music to Caroline’s songs and expertly infused them with space and light.

Caroline Easther got comfortable and answered a few questions thrown at her.

Why are you releasing an album now?

There was never any sense of urgency for me. I have had songs on the albums I did with my band Let’s Planet (3 albums, 1 E.P) but I knew the process of doing a solo album in the way I wanted it with the sounds I heard in my head would be a bit more of a process. Working with David Long at the helm was a priority and a side effect was finding time we could both fit in a day or two here and there for recording. So, it just happened to be ready to arrive now!

You're known to many for your drumming skills; The Chills, Verlaines, Warratahs, have you always been a songwriter?

Yes – I started writing at High School for music competitions but have never been terribly prolific or considered myself a serious songwriter, but I have written reasonably consistently and with the encouragement of Alan Galloway from Let’s Planet kept going.

How many years does this body of work span, and what's changed for you as a songwriter in that time?

I don’t think anything has changed for me as a song-writer over the – hmmm – 20 years or so these songs span.-.there are other songs within this time on other albums but these ones I have either written more recently or saved until the day I could really present them as I wanted without the time and money pressures of having a full band in a studio.”

Caroline will be touring with her band, The Cinnamon Girls who are Alan Galloway, Hamish Graham and Murray Costello.

The group begins an album launch at Meow in Wellington on April 6th then play Fairfield House in Nelson, the Mussel Inn in Onekaka, the Marton Players Theatre and St Peter’s Hall Paekakariki throughout May.

What's your song writing process: words first, or music first, or maybe even drums first?

It varies. I’d say music comes first with a line or two I really like and a ‘feel’. Then it’s hard graft – and the lyrical side really is hard graft. I’ve always heard the musical textures and shapes and emotions in the songs I listen to – I often have no idea what the lyrics are until much later apart from obvious chorus bits.”

As a fullah who released my debut LP at age 46 in a terribly youth based industry, what does it mean to you to be releasing now?

It just is what it is I think – there are plenty of people my age listening to and playing and loving music out there… all of us have loads more to play and listen to and love yet!

Two of the bands you drummed with are Flying Nun royalty, and another is NZ country crossover royalty...so what style of music can people expect from you and the Cinnamon Girls?

I’m a lover of guitar-based alternative indie-pop. I’d say Sneaky Feelings and The Chills, and The Go-Betweens are my great loves and influences. There is certainly a hint of ‘country’ in one or two of my songs but nothing you’d see on my sleeve. I do a duet with Barry Saunders of Hank William’s I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry because I adore singing with Barry. He is a fine story-teller and we just fit together musically so well.

When someone’s band is called the Cinnamon Girls, I had to ask the obvious question: Is cinnamon girls a Neil Young reference?

Absolutely. My first love. With Cat Stevens.

The LP's title is Lucky; what prompted that?

A lot of people don’t believe in luck and I understand that. Many people work very very hard to make their own luck and many many people don’t get any whatsoever. I had a great upbringing in a small town with all the usual teenage angst and parents that split up etc, but I was lucky enough to be born with a sunny, positive disposition overall.. So that’s genes not luck I guess but I still feel lucky. And very grateful. Possibly much of that feeling stems from surviving a really dicey motorbike accident at age 16 and learning fast to make the most of every opportunity and every moment.

So, you've got an LP release at Meow, and a North Island tour...and plans to come south, like Christchurch and Dunedin?

I hope so but I’m just small stuff really and it’s hard to get people out to gigs and it’s very expensive to get so far South. I would love to though. We’ll see how the album goes.

Is there anything blindingly obvious that I haven't asked you about your music, life in general, and all that jazz, that you'd like to say?

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