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PULSE: The Mercury
Hobart, Tasmania
November 2002

The songs on Monique Brumby's latest album Signal Hill are ample evidence she has matured and grown as a singer/songwriter, but also show her heart is still close to her home state of Tasmania. Signal Hill has a sense of freedom and self-assuredness. The music is lighter, brighter, breezier and less intense than Brumby's debut album Thylacine, but the album also has its deeper, darker moments. Brumby said a lot had happened in her life in the nine years between the albums.

"I really wanted to focus on making this a positive album with real sentiments," she said. "I think people who are at a point in their life where they want something real will probably get a lot out of it. People carry a lot of anxiety and doubts around with them. For me this album is about letting go of that and being a woman in 2002. The pressures can be quite intense and I'm just happy I have a creative outlet. Music resolves my world. It makes me feel like I have something to contribute. I hope other people will relate to these songs and be transported."

However Brumby said not every sentiment on the album was positive.

"The music on Silver Dollars is quite light but the lyrics are quite dark," she said. "It presents a sentiment in a different way. I love melody and that for me carries a song. Prophecy is quite brooding in the verses but hopeful in the choruses. It goes from a minor feel to a major, uplifting type of chorus. It's more of a spiritual thing - what you give comes back. Silver Dollars is metaphorical in that it uses different tropical fish to represent people, and I feel like I'm all of those characters at different times in my life but the other songs are more personal and straightforward. Blood Money is one of the older songs and was written in quite a dark period of my life where I really felt a lot for someone and they didn't really meet my expectations."

There are a number of songs on the album with strong connections with Tasmania. The album title comes from the song Wired which is about the area near Lauderdale where Brumby grew up, and the sense of freedom it offers.

"A lot of the lyrics on the album are observations of colour, image and emotion," Brumby said. "Eventide was written when I was flying out of Hobart to Melbourne after my grandfather died. At the funeral they had played my grandparents'wedding song Abide With Me which has the line 'fast falls the eventide'. It was night time when we were leaving and there was a huge orange moon rising as I watched the landscape slide away."

Radiate refers to stopping for petrol and coffee at Campbell Town.

"Radiate was one of those songs that just came straight out," Brumby said. "I've done a lot of touring around the place but one of my favourite places in Tasmania is Campbell Town. We used to travel through there a lot on the trip between Hobart and Devonport and back for holidays or to see family. It's a great feeling when it's summer and you're on the road with loved ones, lovers or friends. Radiate is about that feeling - nothing can bring you down."

The first single from the album, As Sweet As You Are, has an uplifting and very engaging melody and stems from advice given to Brumby by both her grandmothers.

"It also reflects on the journey I've had in music," she said. "Some people try to manipulate you and tell you how you should be, how you should sing and how you should look. They see you as a product. I made a conscious decision to record this album independently on my own label, Little Wind. For me it is important to give people something positive in music. I wanted to make a record that would take people on a journey but at the same time keep it real."

Signal Hill is out now, distributed through Shock Records.