interview: rachel cearns

I first met Rachel Cearns briefly after a performance at her beloved Grace Emily Hotel many moons ago. Describing her sound as ‘lovingly crafted songs to make your ears happy and heart warm’ this was my exact experience with her set, and when I took the role of music sub-editor for lip, the decision to feature Cearns was an obvious one.

She is as quick to name artists such as Opeth, Tool and Led Zeppelin as influences, as Joni Mitchell, Sia and Massive Attack, showing her diverse interests and talent, and has recently begun melding a more electronic element to her folk music. A darling performer on the Adelaide music scene, and an avid supporter of her fellow musicians, Cearns was kind enough to spare some time for lipmag.

How did you get started with music?
I’ve always been drawn to music. My mum is a huge music lover, she actually played guitar when I was in her belly so maybe that’s where it started but I remember deciding specifically at six years old that I was going to write songs. It’s what I’ve always wanted.

And did you start when you were six?
Yeah! My parents bought me a little kid’s tape recorder and I’d just go through cassette tape after tape, just making up songs and singing them. We also had friends who gave me a little book with a keyboard in it and I taught myself to make music with it and I’d make up songs on the keyboard. I also had a recorder in primary school. Anything I could get my hands on, I’d make music with, I just loved it.

So you were pretty much self-taught?
Sort of but later on, I ended up getting proper guitar lessons and have been having proper singing training over the last five years. I feel I can express so much more than I could before and am always discovering new textures and new colours to play with with my voice. What you’re really doing with songwriting is telling a story and the more colours you have to tell it with, the better. I’m still on a journey of learning that which is really fun and I think I always will be discovering new parts. I’m also looking at performing a lot more covers because it is a great way of discovering other things as well. It influences me without knowing and gives me more to play with in my music. So I learn new guitar chords or vocal phrases, and it just all comes through and it’s another way to learn. I like that too.

Do you find it more important with covers to be true to the original or do your own interpretation and even mix genres?
I think truly honouring the song is doing it the best you can whether that’s just doing it similar or doing it in your own way. Like I have some songs where I do it in a completely different style and make up my own arrangement and other songs I just think, oh, I want to do it like the original but every song is different so it’s such a broad thing to explain. I do love it because it’s creativity in a different sense to songwriting.

In terms of female musicians, do you find that it’s advantageous having less to compete with as there are a lot more male dominated bands in Adelaide and in the world, or do you find it’s a disadvantage because you’re still competing with guys?
Adelaide’s so friendly so I haven’t really seen or felt any competition. It’s still at the point where it’s such a small town feel and you try to organise things with all your friends’ bands. I love organising gigs; I organised one with my friend Anya from Bird Wizdom – we got dress ups involved and got some models and did a fashion show and a gig. I wanted it to be a girls night ‘cause I’ve noticed that I’m always playing with bands that are guys. There are so many good female musicians in Adelaide and I’m so proud.

I’m really happy with the gigs I’m getting offered and I see more girls starting to play and I actually want them to play more, so I invite them to come play gigs with me. Maybe in bigger cities, there is a more competitive vibe but it’s just so friendly here that I love going to other people’s gigs as much as playing my own. Maybe I should be more cutthroat but I don’t feel I have to compete to get gigs.

How do you feel about using the Internet as a launching platform? Do you think it’s a help or a hindrance to musicians?
I think it’s really what you make it. I think people with the desire to really push their music can do really well on there, but that means a lot of really talented people who aren’t very computer savvy aren’t doing as well as they could be. I’ve had to start embracing it. I’m fairly new to facebook and Unearthed and all that but I’ll push all that more especially once I’ve done the album. You’ve got to embrace it, I don’t want to fight it and I think it is a good thing if you can get your head around it.

Who are your influences and how do they feed into each other?
I discovered Joni Mitchell’s music in early high school and I can definitely say she’s been a really big influence on my songwriting, just how emotive her songs and how she’s so honest. If you really listen to lyrics and realise that this person is baring their soul to the world and to people they don’t even know, that’s something that really kind of moves and amazes me about someone like her. I also love Eva Cassidy as a performer. She has done arrangements of other people’s songs and her voice is just so expressive and I love that. I love Tool, I love Maynard as a vocalist, just a really beautiful, emotive and expressive voice.

As far as new stuff goes, I love Sia. I think Sia’s a lot of fun and her song ‘Breathe Me’ was a real turning point with style and it got me into that beautiful ambient stuff. Massive Attack and Air are probably two of my biggest influences. They got me into the electronica side of things. Also, Led Zeppelin. You probably can’t hear it but they’re just one of my favourite bands of all time. Just love them.

How does the songwriting process come about for you?
Often I’ll go through a phase where words are constantly buzzing around in my head and I’m piecing together words and phrases and rhythms, just all fitting together. I get inspired by people. I love to watch and observe humanity and see how people are in relationships and the world. I also draw a lot of inspiration from nature, there are a lot of metaphors in my songs about the weather and how it relates to emotions. I think just people and the earth really. Some of my other songs are just prayers. One of my songs, ‘No Secrets’, was just me just having this chat with God in the middle of the night while I was holding my guitar. And so by the time I finished recording it was 4 in the morning and that was just me having a ramble to God with my guitar. I’m probably a bit nuts but I think you probably have to be if you’re going to write songs.

Where do you ideally want to be?
I love being in Adelaide right at this point because I feel like I’m still in the season of learning and gathering knowledge and inspiration and I’m surrounded by a lot of really amazing, creative people who are helping me and that’s really humbling. You know everyone and it’s a really good place to learn and to start out because there’s so much encouragement there but long-term, I’d like to move to the UK. Where I really want to go with this is to travel and see as much of the world as possible and play as much music as possible. I just want to be able to do this for the rest of my life. The beautiful thing about music too is that it’s such a relational thing. Without people, music wouldn’t be as valuable. You’re telling them the deepest things in your heart and you don’t even know them and all of a sudden, you’re so vulnerable. You’re inviting people in that you don’t even know and I think it’s a really beautiful thing. It’s scary but really beautiful.

Rachel Cearns regularly performs at venues around Adelaide, but if you’re not lucky enough to catch one of her sets, check her out on Unearthed!