Earthly Pleasures

If it's true, as the American writer David Foster Wallace said in an interview he gave in the '90s, that the distinction between good art and so-so art lies somewhere in the art's heart's purpose, having to do with the agenda of the consciousness behind the text, then Perth singer/songwriter Catherine Traicos' work falls definitively into the good art section of the dichotomy. Wallace went on to argue that good art practice is all about love, that it involves having the discipline to talk out of the part of yourself that can love instead of the part that wants to be loved. If this is also the case, Traicos' fourth album, The Earth, The Sea, The Moon, The Sky, qualifies without doubt as emphatically good art.

Not that there isn't heartbreak here. But Traicos' husky vocals and her band's compelling accompaniment somehow transcend the weepy conventions of even the most despairing of all musical genres – country – probably the style this music is most closely associated with.

And it has been the band, Traicos says, that has made all the difference here. The Earth, The Sea, The Moon, The Sky was two years in the making, somewhat in contrast to her previous semi-prolific output, but the sense of community engendered by working as a group is one of which she is very fond.

“I just really wanted to get this right,” she says. “We worked really hard to pick songs that were relevant. I'd write a song, or we'd work on stuff together, and it would either gel or it wouldn't. Sometimes we'd just jam something and then I'd record it onto my phone and go away and try and structure it into a song. That could take anywhere from ten minutes to a month. And it feels like a stronger album as a result. It's just more rewarding to work that way.”

Given the album is being billed as genre-defying, it seems germane to ask Traicos if this was a conscious plan or something that happened organically. Despite a little bit of uncertainty on her part, she's adamant recording the record was all quite a natural progression.

“I don't know a lot of musicians who consciously set out to work in a genre as such. Well, I suppose there's country musicians, rockabilly musicians, punk musicians… Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I know a lot of musicians who set out to work in a genre. But that certainly wasn't the case here. I mean there are signposts, I suppose, and I guess there's a part of me that wants to give people something to go by when they listen, but at the same time I didn't want to limit myself.”

There's also the Nullarbor to traverse because, as mentioned above, she's based in Perth, but none of these things seem to faze her. “We've toured together before, and we're all really excited that this is the first tour where we'll be doing all the songs that we've worked on together. So, there's a lot of excitement there. But we're just doing a small tour. We're just playing Melbourne and Sydney [and WA]. Funds are a little bit limited and we put a lot of money towards putting the record out on vinyl... It's beautiful. It's the same artwork as on the CD, but when you do something like that on vinyl it just becomes this whole other thing that makes it more real. It comes with a digital download as well. It's got a little secret at the end of the album so, you know, it's worth getting on vinyl. As far as sound goes, I think they're both really good, but I prefer the vinyl. I find that you engage with it differently. There might be some tracks that sound better on CD just because of the digital spectrum, but vinyl has that lovely, warm, comfortable sound.”

And talking of lovely, warm, comfortable sounds, this album appears to be one almost custom-made for the intimate live experience. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Traicos says this was the plan all along. “We did go into the studio with the aim of making it an album that translates really well to a live show. We didn't bring in any extra musicians; we didn't do, you know, any crazy effects that we couldn't emulate on stage. That's a bit of a challenge in itself, of course, and fun too in its way.”