While the image of the rockstar life is one of glamour and instant gratification, it’s also one of obligation. Especially these days, musicians have to treat the road like their spouse and they often spend more time in hotels and tour buses than in the comfort of home.
It’s this drive to return to what you know and where you feel safest and warmest that served as the impetus behind Australian rock legend Suze DeMarchi’s new album, Home, a collection of covers, featuring works originally performed by the likes of The Clash, Adele, Ryan Adams, and more.
“Home was always on my mind,” says Suze. “I’ve always been drawn to stories about home, and love many songs about home that resonate with me now as much as they did during the years I was away. To celebrate my journey I’ve recorded an album of these songs, with some friends, and with those I admire.”
“Home is where my roots lie, where my folks are, where my history remains, where the air is sweet, where my friends reside and where I kiss the ground when I step off that plane.” Tone Deaf recent caught up with Suze to talk about her new album and the homes that inspired it.
The Childhood Home
“I grew up in Perth, which is clearly my home, my spiritual home, my family home, and it was an amazing place to grow up. I did a book, actually, for this album that had every home I ever lived in and I wrote a blurb about each place, with photos of every home.
“But the house I grew up in was a real simple, little home. We had no real money, my dad was a panel beater, so we really didn’t want for much, but we really didn’t have anything. It was kind of an idyllic, happy childhood, really.
“Coming from Perth, for me anyway, it was always so far from everything that you just have that natural wanderlust, that desire to get out of there in some ways, and now I’m always trying to get back.”
Leaving Home
“I moved out of my family home when I was 17 and moved to a rental in Perth. That’s when I first joined a band, so it wasn’t until I was 20 that I moved to London, where I was really on my own.
“I had a little apartment in London. I had a few different places I lived in there, but the one I stayed in the most was a little shoebox apartment, which was amazing, I loved it. It was this three buildings, these three different sky rise buildings and I had friends in each different building.
“We used to have sort of travelling dinner parties, we’d start at one apartment and move to the next one. It was just in a cool area in London and I lived there for a couple years and loved it. I went from there and toured a lot. So hotels became my home for a long time and tour buses and they can be home too.”
Home Away From Home
“Just pubs in Australia in general became my home away from home, I feel at home inside them. They all smell the same, that sort of musty carpet smell and I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of venues that I play at now, which I played in 20 years ago, that have the same carpet, which I love.
“A lot of the theatres are still standing, obviously, like the Metro Theatre, it’s been around for a really long time or Festival Hall. They’ve all changed their names a lot of them, but they’re still standing. We used to play at the Stockade in Perth, which is still going. There’s so many of them.”
Staying Connected
“I didn’t really talk to my family that much in those days. For me, maybe once every couple of weeks I’d call them. I’d try to only call them if there was good news or just generally good things to report or maybe if I needed clean underwear [laughs]
“It was very different in those days, there was no email or Instagram or texting, so it was very different. I think when I used to come back home, maybe I’d take a trip once a year and come home for business or whatever, it was a big deal.
“Growing up in those days, home, even when you left home, it was the Mecca. It was the place you looked towards, feeling like you’re going to go back there. I always felt like I’m going to live there again, but I’m not ready to do that yet.”
At Home Now
“Sydney, right now, which is where my physical home is, is home for me. I have a home here and my kids are here and generally home is where the people are, but my home, my birthplace is always going to be Perth.
“It’s where my family is, my extended family is, I always feel that’s where I’m coming home to, but my home for now is Sydney.”
Coming Home
“It was an idea I had when I first moved back about four-and-a-half years ago. I really loved the idea of doing an album of covers and there’s so many amazing songs about home. There’s so many, there’s hundreds of them, and I went through almost all of them.
“Originally, I wanted to do something with another artist and do something like the Raising Sand record with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. But when I started talking to people and thinking about people, I couldn’t figure out who would be the right person, because the songs are so diverse.
“So it became easier to do it with various people, getting people who suit the particular song. But it was really about my desire to come home and get back to Australia, ’cause the last few years in LA were really tough, really hard for me.
“I missed my family a lot and I had little kids and I wanted them to have an Australian upbringing as well, an Australian youth.”
Choosing Home
“I just chose songs that I really loved, really. First of all, I wanted to challenge myself a little bit, because doing an Adele song is probably stupid if you’re a singer because you think no one can do an Adele song justice, because they’re pretty perfect the way they are.
“But when you listen to that song, Hometown Glory, it’s really evocative and the way that she sings it, I didn’t want to just copy that because she has such a beautiful voice and mine’s not ever gonna be like that. So I really just had to put my own twist on that.
“And other songs I just loved and they were always going to be on the list. There were also other songs that I recorded but didn’t work. I did a Burt Bacharach song, ‘House Is Not a Home’, I loved that song.
“But we were trying to sort of tear the song apart and his song arrangements and chord progressions are so mad, it was almost impossible to do a different version of it because of the way it was structured.”
Suze DeMarchi’s new album ‘Home’ is available now.
