Laura Imbruglia On Using The Ween Excuse

It's been the best part of a decade now since young Sydney musician Laura Imbruglia started playing her trade on the touring circuit as a budding songwriter, but the passing of time has gradually ushered in a myriad of changes in her world. She now calls Melbourne home, has established a crack band of musicians in that city, and for the first time they've all contributed to one of her albums, her brand-spanking third effort What A Treat.

It's an assured, albeit occasionally melancholy, group of songs which were accumulated over the course of three years, and while there's no overarching theme to the collection per se, they definitely feel like they belong together. According to Imbruglia this is by necessity rather than design; partly due to her not churning out songs at a rate of knots, plus because she's a fan of bands who embrace a wilfully eclectic streak.

“I usually let the songs dictate [the feel of the album] because I'm not very prolific, and I struggle enough to just get enough songs to fill an album,” she reflects. “So if I was to dictate a theme or a particular sound that I wanted then I'd never get anything done, because I'd be constantly trying to re-write the songs or write songs that are more suited. I just use the excuse that I'm a Ween fan if ever anything goes astray – if an album's not cohesive musically I can just say, 'Well I like Ween and Ween do that, and Ween rule!'. That's my excuse for everything.”