Laura Jean On Further Study & Parental Critique

With an album about to be borne into this world and some interesting live shows coming up, one would think Laura Jean would be in the throes of preparation. Instead, the Melbourne chanteuse is at home tackling her degree in psychology and legal studies. For what overall purpose Jean is not entirely sure of at this stage, but her field of study is hardly surprising given the intimate, psychoanalytical nature of her lyrics to date.

"I really just wanted to study and learn more," Jean reasons. "I've just started, but I'm really enjoying it. You're in there with all sorts of people from different backgrounds and you're there with the common goal of wanting to learn more."

Jean's raw and rugged lyrics teamed with her folk-pop stylings have been the backbone of her career since the release of 2003 EP The Hunter's Ode. With her latest, Devotion, she's five albums deep and towing an impressive musical CV behind her that includes shortlistings for the Australian Music Prize and nominations for The Age Music Victoria Awards. The new album brought with it an edgier keyboard-pop that Jean says eventually wrapped around the subject matter well: her family and, in particular, growing up with her mother and sister along the coast. Does writing for such close loved ones present its challenges?

"It's often my family that I write for, so in a weird way they often really love it," Jean laughs. "But when they don't, wow! I showed something to my dad and he said, 'Nah it's not there yet.' My friends and family are the ones that I aim to please; they know when you're being real and when you're not, and they know what you're capable of.

"It was a delightfully difficult album to write," she continues. "The songs came in a wave and my friend gave me this keyboard that he found on the street, and as I played it I found the sounds and rhythms on it were really evocative to my past. And then these ideas just sprung up in my head.

"Writing songs is how I process my world. I have breaks from it but the tension builds up and comes to me in big waves of work, then I spend the next few years refining those initial ideas into something relatable to the rest of the world."

Subject matter aside, writing about her past wasn't the only challenge in recording Devotion. Having first penned most of the songs in 2015, Jean said they eventually melded into the current shape with some help from producer John Lee.

"I wanted the songs to be as immediately effective and affecting as they could, so I worked on the songs for quite a few years just so I could refine the structure and make the lyrics all fit," Jean explains. "That part was challenging, because sometimes the songs just wouldn't budge and I had to play them over and over.

"It was a real puzzle for a while and finally John said, 'Can you leave me alone with it for a couple of days?', which was really hard for me. He said he just needed to let go and give it what it needed - which was really simple bass guitars, a lot of reverb - and it was perfect. From there it was just a matter of keeping that energy without overcooking it or undercooking it."

Looking back over a musical career that has been wisely and carefully curated, and with the knowledge that there will be more songs to come, Jean is refreshingly gracious in her estimation, where so many others can be quick to point out the negatives.

"I feel a lot of empathy for myself as a younger person trying to achieve these things," she offers, "and I think it's such a huge body of work and time that it's hard for me to neatly sum it up.

"But the main feelings are pride and I'm incredulous that I've devoted my life to something that is quite crazy; like, it's a kind of crazy thing to devote your life to in a material sense. You're always poor and always struggling, but what it gives you in return is so invaluable - a community and a [sense of] belonging."