It’s always exciting when a musician explores a different, innovative avenue when creating and recording their material, which is exactly what one of Perth’s favourite artists is gearing-up to do this May.
The ever-eclectic songstress of WA, Abbe May, is prepping to record her next album, Bitchcraft, and the catalyst behind her forthcoming sonic tome is through live performance during her residency at Mojo’s in Perth. Before you brush this one off as just another artist using live recording as an album, let us assure – it’s not.
May will play both new and old tunes and will gauge the audience’s reaction to each song to help create a record that not only she but her fans dig, too. Speaking with May about the unique creative approach, she explained just how audience will shape the LP, “I tend to monitor reactions from audiences when introducing new sounds” she said.
“I’m interested in entertaining people as well as entrancing with the use of loops so that I can convey messages through the music. My work relies upon me being able to interpret information from audience reaction and participation and to use these experiences to make my music better.
“Audience body language generally isn’t misleading so it’s a pretty effective way of working out if you are achieving the goal of making something both deep and important artistically as well as something that brings joy and movement to people’s lives” May detailed.
An interesting and potentially risky movement, May told us how she came up with such an idea, “I’ve always found performing live to be on par with achieving 10 rehearsals. Live performance is so much more heightened and focused than rehearsing. You don’t have the space to fuck up when performing live so I find it makes me much more prolific if I develop music in front of an audience. I’m not on the touring or festival circuit so I have the time and space to use live performance in a different way.”
Speaking about Bitchcraft directly, May noted that she has “written about 10 songs” in which “3 will likely make it onto the album” however the “numbers are changing rapidly.”
A shapeshifter of sound, the Perth musician gave us a little teaser of what we can expect from Bitchcraft, “you can expect surrealist RnB. I’m really focusing on concept, tone, space, melody and lyric with big, bouncy, fat beats, piano, saxophone and big time fucking weirdness everywhere.”
She’s emphatic that this record will be her best yet, and nothing will hinder its process, “Bitchcraft won’t be released until I am ready to say ‘this album is finished. I’m ready to release it.’ I will gladly go broke for this process. I know I am on the right track, so, until the music is ready, I’m doing this my way and in my own time.
“I’ve given up boozing. I’ve thrown away my phone. I don’t look at the clock or calendar anymore. These devices are not important anymore. Bitchcraft will have to be my best work yet or else why am I bothering?” she questions.
If you want to be a part of Abbe May’s writing process, the talented lass is performing every Wednesday this May at Mojo’s Bar (6, 13, 20 and 27), jump over to the Facebook event for all the finer details.
