Sydney songbird Montaigne takes flight for an Australian tour, the third she’s undertaken for last year’s debut album ‘Glorious Heights’.
“I think it’s going to be a special tour,” Montaigne says. “It’s going to be bigger than any of the other shows I’ve done so far in terms of production and I feel like it’s going to be a victory lap. Three tours off the back of one album is pretty good and it’ll be a great time.”
Since its release in August last year, ‘Glorious Heights’ has earned Montaigne an ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist and secured her place as one-to-watch among some of Australia’s emerging singer-songwriters.
“I’m keen to focus on the album at the moment; I love performing live but I feel like most of my energy is going to be devoted to doing the album.”
Montaigne says the live response to 'Glorious Heights' has been overwhelming. “People like it and people resonate with it,” she says. “I get a lot of messages from people telling me they listen to it or dance to it or cry to it every other day, which is really lovely and moving for me.”
Montaigne is currently in the studio working on her follow-up album with returning producer Tony Buchen. Although it’s still in its formative stages, she says the next record is shaping up nicely. “I’ve been in the studio with Tony Buchen writing and recording some pre-production,” she says.
“I’m probably going to write with a bunch of other people and have written with a bunch of other people for the past year. I’ll be with Nick Littlemore from Pnau and Empire Of The Sun in a couple of weeks.
“It’s been challenging, as is any creative collaboration, because it’s two different people with two different perspectives and very different ideas. But when you can reach a compromise or at least hash them out to a point that it feels right, the payoff is huge. It’s not without its ups and downs, but it’s good.”
Where ‘Glorious Heights’ produced a lush, synth-driven soundscape, Montaigne says her next album will shift away from the heavy electronica to embrace an organic, live sound that still retains her distinctive style.
“People can expect a lot of the traditional Montaigne tropes like heavy backing vocals, songs that are very introspective, personal and vulnerable; songs with different subject matter as well and less ‘80s-ness about the songs.
“The last record was very inspired by Talking Heads and this one still is, but in a different way. It’s going to be less synths and more live instrumentation, organic sounds and percussion as well; it’s percussion heavy.”
Following her national tour, which winds up mid-August, Montaigne hopes to spend the remaining part of the year finishing off the album. “The majority of the back half of the year is probably going to be spent working on my album,” she says.
“I’m keen to focus on the album at the moment; I love performing live but I feel like most of my energy is going to be devoted to doing the album.”
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Montaigne Shows
Sat 15 Jul - Queensland Music Festival @ The Johnson Hotel (Brisbane)Fri 28 Jul - Adelaide UniBar
Sat 29 Jul - Capitol (Perth)
Sun 30 Jul - Mojo’s Bar (Fremantle)
Thu 3 Aug - Karova Lounge (Ballarat)
Fri 4 Aug - 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Sat 5 Aug - The Triffid (Brisbane)
Sat 12 Aug - Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Sun 1 Oct - Yours & Owls Festival (Wollongong)
