Kelly Brouhaha

Award Winning Adelaide roots warrior Kelly Brouhaha is all about the ‘Feelgood’ side of life. With achingly soulful vocals her uplifting music is more than a simple band­ aid to the blues. Kelly is celebrating the release of her new single As Long As There Is A Smile as well as playing some shows around the place. Kelly has an awesome story to tell and she does a quick Q&A with Hi Fi Way: The Pop Chronicles.

When you look back at your musical journey to date do you finally feel satisfied on where you’re heading now?
Absolutely! I feel like it’s been such a stop start process, you kind of expect to have a linear kind of career where it just goes up, and mine has gone backwards and forwards – so to be on the up again is certainly a relief.

How hard was it making some of those tough life decisions?
Choosing between a human and music is the hardest thing ever. I think it’s really hard for anyone who has a vision for their creativity when your daily life and previous just doesn’t lineup with that, it certainly screwed me up for a while after i’d made the jump into music 100%, it took a lot of inner work to get happy with myself again.

The tiny house movement is intriguing, can you tell us more about this and how you’re making it work for you?
I’m living in my campervan “Pamela Vanderson” and really excited to travel with my house literally attached. To be able to cook in the carpark at gigs as opposed to buying a meal out, sleep when necessary between sets if I’ve drive a long way before a gig and park wherever I find myself at a gig – it makes touring way more sustainable. I’ll also be utilising my anytime fitness membership for a free toilet/shower and use their carpark to save on caravan park fees. Essentially I’ll be bringing my touring costs down to petrol and marketing only which is a huge help!

How would you describe your music to someone who doesn’t know much about what you do?
I’d call it feel good soul music.

The single As Long As There’s A Smile is great, what is the story behind that one?
I wrote this song about choosing happiness over suffering when you’re going through your shit. We all have that option to set happy as our filter, and I just think it’s too easy to spiral into negative thinking if you don’t practice using that muscle as much as possible to frame even the worst circumstance in a positive light. It’s really helped me get through my own stuff and every time I sing this song is kind of like a reminder to reset that filter to make sure its positive.

What was it like working with Marty Brown? Was he the perfect choice for you to work with?
He was amazing! He knew every inch of his studio down to a tee (which really helped with the limited time we had) and his musical choices really made the record. He’s so easy to work with and was great at helping us keep and awesome work flow and cruisy vibe which was just totally something else ! It was also really nice being in a studio with natural light !! The location itself was amazing !

Who has been the biggest influence on you musically and why?
Probably Allen Stone, I just can’t get enough of his records. His a soulful blues guy and I just love the heart and soul he pours into his music. His music really reminds me to give it my all, and let people see the soul behind it and I think that connection with your music is really important.
Are you looking forward to this solo and are you saving something a little special for Adelaide?
I’m really  looking forward to diving into the songs solo on this tour, however I’ll have my backing singers with me for the Adelaide show which we’ll record live to air on three d radio – when you hear those girls sing its just totally something else.

Interview by Rob Lyon

Tour Dates

July 15 – The Wesley Anne, Melbourne
July 16 – The Golden Vine Hotel, Bendigo
July 20 – The Commons, Newcastle
July 21 – No. 5 Church St, Bellingen
July 22 – The Music Lounge, Sydney

For more information head to http://kellybrouhaha.com.au/