DAVE'S DIARY - 14 JULY 2007 - KARL BROADIE INTERVIEW
KARL BROADIE REIGNS ON RADIO
"You won't hear me on the radio/ but you never know, they might play this one/ for treating you so unkind/ I wanna say I'm sorry/ if you hear this I want you to know/ you're still on my mind." - You Won't Hear Me On The Radio - Karl Broadie
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When
expatriate Scot singer-songwriter Karl Broadie used a radio metaphor
in a love song he didn't expect it to leap the myopic moat of the
corporate chains. But the singer received a pleasant surprise when he heard his song on JJJ-FM shortly before midnight on the day of release - 7-7-07. You Won't Hear Me On The Radio was not one of the two singles sent to stations to promote his third album One Million Emeralds (ABC-Warner.) "Ironically I was listening to JJJ about 11.30 p m on 7-7-07 and it came on," Broadie told Nu Country TV. |
"I thought
that was lateral thinking. The ABC AM stations and JJJ are both playing
me. And One Million Emeralds is the featured album of the week
on DIG Country on-line."
Broadie quoted famed poet Sir Walter Scott in the lyrics of the song -
the same quote used by Texan troubadour Dale Watson in his Lyle Lovett-Kelly
Willis inspired song Caught on his 1995 album Cheatin' Heart
Attack.
That line "what tangled webs we weave when we practice to deceive"
ensures Scott's legacy has an extended shelf life.
"The song has a message, not to radio, but the woman in the song,"
Broadie revealed on his promo tour.
"I have been lucky with ABC and community radio where I receive exposure
in some pockets around the country."
His record company ABC serviced two train songs - Sleepy Head to
urban stations and Country Bound to rural radio - to maximise his
audience.
Both were inspired by locomotive imagery in Edinburgh where Karl, now
37, spent his first 14 years before moving to London with his mother.
"Sleepy Head was one of my two train songs," Broadie
explained.
"It was based on real train trip but I embellished it. For some reason
the imagery was all set in Edinburgh, the same with Country Bound. In
both I was seeing the Waverley station in Edinburgh, you can see the castle
and moat. It was a New Year sort of thing - set in Edinburgh around Hogmanay.
I grew up in Edinburgh in Leith. It's where the Proclaimers sing about.
Although I moved to London when I was 14, I returned and got to know Scotland
as an adult."
SLEEPY HEADS IN REDFERN
"On the slow train back to the city you may rest your sleepy head on me/ and I'll wake you with a whisper at the end of the line/ sleepy head put your hand in mine/ I hate to say goodbye/ sleepy head curl up next to me, I hope you come around." - Sleepy Head - Karl Broadie
Broadie ensured
the video clip for Sleepy Head had appeal beyond the music genre
by choice of locale and love interest.
"We filmed the video at a disused carriage works for trains in Sydney,"
says Broadie who arrived in Australia as a backpacker in 1997.
"It was at the back of Redfern. It was like an aircraft hangar for
trains - big old doors with trains in the background. It's a gentle little
clip with a little escapism. My love interest is a stunning girl named
Tasneem Roc. She's an actor - she was in Heartbreak High. Abi Tucker was
in the clip for Long, Long Way and she was also in Heartbreak High.
I'll keep going there for actors for my videos until we eventually get
down to the extras."
Broadie's videos have received wide exposure on Pay TV channel CMC - Sleepy
Head will also feature on Nu Country TV in August.
SMALLVILLE
| Broadie's
multi-media career was accelerated by a quirk of fate that has seen
his songs in movies, TV shows and Starbucks Cafes. "My song Devil By My Side was used in the U.S. TV show Smallville," Broadie added. "We didn't discover it until afterwards. We had no idea in advance about Smallville - they didn't ask for permission. It's a huge show. Now my publisher is chasing the royalties. I just hope they don't get lost in legal fees." Smallville is set in Kansas but produced in Vancouver in Canada. |
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But Broadie knew well in advance that his songs were used in the Australian movie Love In The First Degree and Starbucks cafes.
"Starbucks
licensed two of my songs for use in their stores," Broadie recalled.
"We were asked to clear them first. They used Paperback Book.
I made a lot of new friends from that. I got emails from people who heard
that song in Starbucks in Moscow. A guy in London heard another of my
songs It Lasts in Starbucks in Las Vegas. He had to ask who it
was - it then resulted in interview with Johnny Walker on BBC in London.
The guy was a photographer who did a shoot for me in Brighton a couple
of years ago. It was unexpected and has a snowball effect gathering friends."
PATERNAL PAINTING
"And I have dreams of you painting a picture of me/ painting a picture of you/ and I have thoughts of you leading me down/ to where you know it's safe." - Painting A Picture - Karl Broadie.
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Broadie
embellished on his genetic artistry in the evocative paternal paean
Painting A Picture. "Dad was at Oxford and dropped out and followed his passion that was painting," the singer recalled of the song that includes the album title in the lyrics. "He was pretty well known in the seventies when I was born. He is Barry Broadie - a painter. He still paints now and still inspires me - he is now 65. It's also a tale about my mum and dad. My dad was my mum's drama teacher. There was a forbidden love scenario going on between teacher and student. Then my brother and I came into the world. They split up when I was six and I moved to London with my mum." |
Broadie also
attributes his song Sunday's Bells to the support of his parents.
"It's about never giving up, I never saw another option," he
added.
"It's kind of like me advising others to do the same."
DIANA CORCORAN
"Eight days out of seven we're all covered in cloud/ eight days out of seven you won't see anyone around/ and when that sunlight comes bursting through/ it's a beautiful view, stranger if you choose you can put your baggage down." - Count Your Blessings - Karl Broadie
Broadie didn't have to look far to find the perfect partner for the duet on Count Your Blessings - a song destined to be a radio friendly single on a level playing field.
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The
pairing of Parkes born belle Diana Corcoran and urban raised Broadie
is more than just smart cross fertilisation of vocal nuptials. "It's a happy song - a fun song," Broadie enthused. "I used to stay in lots of little villages when I went back to Scotland - small towns where everyone knows each other's business. You get people from the city who worry about things that are not important. It just arrived in my head one day. My imagery is based on my village visits. I loved the tune and message, love it to be my next single." |
The duo met
through a songwriting sojourn.
"We were asked to write with each other for Diana's latest album,"
Broadie revealed.
"We wrote a few songs. All Gone Blue made it onto her new
album Then There's Me. During those sessions I heard a side to
her voice - a real raw voice. My producer Matt Fell and I were floored
by her voice. Man she can sing. I didn't know about her yodelling until
much later. She's a wonderful singer and wonderful girl."
Melanie Horsnell also duets with Broadie on Tears - a tune they
co-wrote for the disc.
BILL CHAMBERS
Fell
and Broadie assembled a diverse cast of musicians for the disc deeply
rooted in lyrical country genre that fuels many artists across the planet.
"Bill Chambers plays lap steel and dobro on record," Broadie
added.
"He had never played on my records but I had played live with him
before. He's my new friend. He played on four songs and shines on all
of them."
Broadie also discovered his Victorian fiddler in Tamworth in 2006.
"My fiddle player John Kendall from Chelsea," Broadie explained.
"He does a lot of work with Tom Curtain and tours with him. I met
him in a shared house in Tamworth at the festival in 2006 and we had a
jam on the porch. He's the first fiddle player in Australia that I have
played with that is very Celtic. He's only 24 and carries around eulogies
from an old fiddle teacher of his. Some times on the notes he hits he
can feel the guy watching him."
Broadie wrote all 11 songs on the disc that follows 13 originals on 2005
album Black Crow Callin', his 2003 album Nowhere Now Here and
two EPS - Everybody's Gold in 2004 and Woodsmoke in 2006.
Broadie is touring nationally to promote his new disc - his appearance
at the 30th Port Fairy folk festival in 2006 won him a wide new audience.
"That gave me a lot of support in Victoria," said Broadie who
is touring NSW in July and August with Nik Phillips and James Blundell.
Broadie and Blundell also play Wellers of Kangaroo Ground on September
29. Karl will also be appearing in-store at Basement
Discs on 28 September.
CLICK HERE for
a review of Black Crow Callin' from the Diary on April 2, 2006.