NEW SONG Closer to the Truth
The song speaks of the importance of having just one person who loves and believes in you to help you up off the canvas. Given the recent events with COVID 19, Closer To The Truth is a song written to help people to feel better and to heal as it is a difficult time for so many.
This project was assisted through Arts Tasmania by The Minister For The Arts
Film direction, videography, editing & lighting design by Rebecca Thomson.
Colour grading by Richard Turner.
Additional videography by Ursula Woods and Caleb Miller.
Costume design by Sabio Evans. Hair & makeup by Liz Goulding.
Tom Deliver
This was the first song I wrote after relocating from Victoria, Australia to my spiritual home of Tasmania in 2018 after 25 years away from the island. Having listened to Tom Petty’s album ‘Full Moon Fever’ on repeat for several months leading up to the writing of the song, Tom Deliver moves out of the doldrums and into a new world of giving and celebration.
A peeling back of the layers to find that everything I needed I already had and all the seeds I’d planted along the way were flowering, spreading and bearing fruit. In the song I put a call out to Tom Petty himself as a posthumous tribute and salute to the love I have for his song writing, requesting Tom deliver inspiration for my new music and the road ahead.
This project was assisted through Arts Tasmania by The Minister For The Arts
Film direction, videography, editing & lighting design by Rebecca Thomson. Colour grading by Richard Turner.
Costume design by Sabio Evans. Hair & makeup by Liz Goulding
Filmed on location at the Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart.
For Loving Who I Love
Interview and Song recorded live for the TSO Daily Dose. July 2020
I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with TSO Principal Bass Trombone Mitch Nissen in July 2020 to discuss my journey through music and what inspires me. Our conversation on the popular Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Daily Dose, is followed by a performance of my song For Loving Who I Love..
It’s been so exciting to rework my songs in this way. When I first heard the beautiful tonality of the musicians playing I nearly forgot my lyrics, I was just so moved by the music. I still can’t believe it actually, that my work has been presented in this way
Monique, July 2020
The TSO Daily Dose, is the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s way of staying connected with audiences, supporters and friends during these virally challenged times.
Each morning they post a clip, including excerpts from recent performances, interviews, show-and-tell demos, chamber music and tracks from their extensive recorded archive.
TSO Daily Dose is medication you’ll want to share. Circulate it through your online communities and help us stay connected #TSODailyDose.
To keep in touch with my collaboration with the TSO, be sure to follow me on social media, or better still sign up to my newsletter.
Poland
Poland is the 3rd single from my 7th album ‘Closer To The Truth’ set for release in 2020.
I wrote the song before the COVID -19 pandemic of 2020. I recorded acoustic guitar and vocals at my Thylacine House Studios in Hobart, Tasmania in December of 2019. We overdubbed the electric bass played by my dear friend and long time music collaborator Maryanne T Window.
This has been a creatively enlightening and informative time for me as an artist. The process was intense due to COVID-19, causing the ignition and galvanisation of my creative art practises to put my skills into working on something beautiful, poignant and meaningful. To complete the track I played and recorded string parts, electric guitar, backing vocals, cut in drum beats and mixed the track while in isolation over three weeks from March 20 – April 14, 2020 at my Thylacine House Studios.
My objective was to create thought provoking and emotionally expressive art to share with others at this time of pandemic. Through my meditations and isolation during this time of making this work, I felt a thoughtful and enduring voice resonating within me that I think many of us have experienced. My thoughts have been around treading a new course, rewriting the future chapters of life from a changed angle the redefining and questioning what is important and what matters.
The song tells the story of two women who fall in love but can’t be together and are forced apart due to life circumstances. One woman is with a male partner and has children and the other has just come out of a long relationship with a woman. I chose Poland as a place of reference due to the history of partitioning in that country and people being forced apart. There was a synergy too with the forced isolation due to the 2020 pandemic and I found myself wanting to create a musically and visually beautiful world to be drawn into. Many concerns sat with me while I worked. With loss of life, displaced people, family crisis’ & economic chaos all around, I wrote the final lyrics of this song as a mechanism to leave the listener feeling hopeful and to reach out in my own way to family, friends and others.
“All I want to do is just talk to you and tell that that I want the best for you. That’s all you need to know right now.”
Poland, 2020
Photographer/Videographer Emma Phillips shot the initial footage of me at Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart, Tasmania in Jan 2020. It was supposed to be a photo shoot but we grabbed some video while we were there. Then the music video sat in pieces for several months as I was missing the key ingredient of shots that expressed female love and connection. The stills came to me by way of an old friend texting them to me as a nostalgic look at the past. Instantly I knew I had found the missing visual pieces. They were captured through the beautiful photography of Toni Fuller and Jim Kellam in a photo shoot in 1996. Thank you to the photographers and the women in the photos for allowing me to use them in the clip. I’d like to acknowledge the late American feminist filmmaker Barbara Jean Hammer who one of the pioneers of lesbian film for the inspiration while making this clip. Thank you Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart for allowing us to shoot in your beautiful venue.
CREDITS
MUSIC VIDEO Directed & Produced by Monique Brumby Videography by Emma Phillips – www.emmaphillips.com.au Photography by Jim Kellam / Creative Jim – www.creativejim.com Photography by Toni Fuller – www.coffsharbourphotography.com www.instagram.com/tonesphotography1/ www.tonesphotography.com.au www.facebook.com/tonesphotography
THE MUSIC Poland was written, recorded, produced, mixed & mastered by Monique Brumby @ The Thylacine House Studios, Hobart Tasmania Musicians: Monique Brumby – vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, beats, keys. Maryanne Window – electric bass Monique Brumby copyright control 2020
Drive Me Crazy
Drive Me Crazy is the 2nd single from my 7th album ‘Closer To The Truth’ set for release in 2020.
Directed by Monique Brumby & Emma Phillips
Produced by Monique Brumby & Stephen Harwin
Videography and photography by Emma Phillips Edited by Monique Brumby Drive Me Crazy – The Song Written, Recorded, Produced, Mixed & Mastered by Monique Brumby @ The Thylacine House Studios, Hobart
Tasmania Musicians: Monique Brumby – acoustic guitars, drums, keys, vocals Maryanne Window – bass, acoustic & electric guitars & backing vocals Monique Brumby copyright control 2020
A.I.
A.I. is the 1st single release from my forthcoming 7th studio album ‘Closer To The Truth’ due for release in 2020.
Written & Produced by Monique Brumby
Monique Brumby copyright – All Rights Reserved 2020
Musicians – Monique Brumby – vocals & lead guitar, Toby Lang – drums, Shannon Bourne – guitar, Maryanne Window – bass. Recorded & Mixed by Monique Brumby at The Thylacine House Studios Tasmania, Australia,
2020 Animation – Tiff Norchick. Special Thanks to Rolf Fehlbaum for permission to use the 1937 – 1973 vintage robot and astronaut footage from Robots 1:1 R.F. Collection at the Vitra Design Museum, Germany.
The song A.I. talks about the reality of artificial intelligence replacing human connection and intimate human relationships.
“I thought about the globe as our planet heats up with much of humanity seeking A.I. support exploring the concept that A.I. relationships are potentially easier to navigate for people than human ones. The song is a comment on the way in which our communication is changing with A.I. replacing human interaction. It questions what it is that individuals value and seek as A.I. becomes more and more a part of our every day lives.”
– Monique Brumby
‘That’s Me’ LIVE – Thylacine 20th Anniversary Show
In October 2016 I played the 20th Anniversary show of my 1996 debut Thylacine album at The Memo Must Hall in Melbourne. The album was performed in it’s entirety as well as additional tracks recorded in 1995. ‘That’s Me’ featured here, was Track 3 on the ‘Mary’ EP and recorded at the same time as the ‘Thylacine’ album tracks.
Musicians at the live show include – Maryanne Window and Nick Larkins on bass, Shannon Bourne, Rob Craw and Phil Wales on electric guitar, Chris Broomhead and Carl Manuell on drums, David Bridie on keys and Helen Mountfort on cello.
Videography by Sophie Turner and Tony Jackson.