In 2019, Brisbane singer-songwriter Tara Simmons died after a determined battle with cancer.
After marking the one-year anniversary of her death with the single release 'Let's Go' in January, the posthumous release of Tara's final album 'Show Me Spirit 'Til The End' (which she was working on with her friend and collaborator, producer Yanto Browning) will be available later this month (20 March) two days prior to what would have been her 35th birthday.“I feel really fortunate to have been able to help a really close friend with something that was that important to her,” Yanto says.
“Making sure her art and her musical ideas would have a chance to live on past her and that maybe her work could find an audience. I feel very much that my involvement in making this record was in service of Tara.”
Yanto, who has worked on albums with numerous bands and artists in the studio, says working with Tara on 'Show Me Spirit 'Til The End' was unlike any project he's ever undertaken.
Even as her condition deteriorated Tara persevered, even recording vocals for one song on the end of her bed in a palliative care unit.
For Yanto, the greatest challenge and emotional turmoil was having to complete production of the album in the wake of her death. “It was very much a studio record, especially compared to Tara's other records that featured more live musicians,” he says.
“The final song on the record, which was the only one that felt incomplete in that we'd just got the vocals done in the palliative care ward before Tara wasn't around anymore, that was the only one that required a little bit of production.
“I could work on the project for maybe a week or so after she passed but then I would need to take some time again; it was hard to see through it quickly. I also thought it wasn't a massive rush, so I thought it would be better coming back to it with a fresh, new perspective rather than trying to rush it for the sake of it being done.”
Yanto says the fact the album has been finished and released would mean the world to Tara, whose memory has been cemented with 'Show Me Spirit 'Til The End'. “She just wanted something to be working on and taking her mind off her situation,” he says.
“That was very much a driving force behind the record, but I think once she understood the gravity of her situation it was also about putting together a final collection of works.
“She always said she'd make another album. . . I think it was making sure she could fulfil that goal of leaving something behind, leaving what thankfully ended up being a full collection of songs.”
As for Yanto, though he dearly misses Tara, he is grateful for the opportunity to immortalise Tara and leave a living document of her music. “It means a lot that we managed to get it finished in a way that I know that she was happy with,” he says, “that's the thing I will always be thankful for.”
