A Rebirth

It has been a long time since Australia has heard from Butterfly Boucher. One of the reasons for this might be that her second album Scary Fragile wasn't given a proper release in Australia, and Boucher wasn't able to tour it here, resulting in the album going unnoticed. Thankfully, with her recent single 5678! and upcoming self-titled album, Boucher is reintroducing herself to Australian audiences and showing a side of herself that hasn't been seen since her debut album Flutterby.

Her upcoming album is her first independent release, and Boucher can see the pros and cons. “It's really freeing to be able to do this and the creative process has been amazing, to not have that pressure of other people's expectations because I already have my own big ones. But the promotional side and getting it all together… I've always been involved, but not this heavily, and it's just so much work,” she sighs. “It's really interesting, I'm learning a lot, but it's certainly stressful. [But] any time something good happens, you feel like you've earned it a little bit more.”

Although it seems that Boucher has been out of the music loop for a while, she has kept busy with collaborations and other projects, including touring as Sarah McLachlan's bass player, playing in her new band Elle Macho, and co-producing fellow singer/songwriter Missy Higgins' upcoming album. “It started out just writing some songs, and then we ended up demoing them together, and because I come from a production side of things as well, people started to enjoy even just the production of my demos. She was looking to work with a friend of mine, Brad Jones, who worked on my first album. It was funny that all these years later, she was looking to work with him and I was like, 'Well, I wanna work with you too, let's all work together!' because I wanted to work with Brad as well! So we all ended up doing Missy's album in Nashville, at the same studio that I recorded Flutterby in. It's like a full circle!”

Boucher feels that not focussing solely on her solo career for the last three years has been healthy. “I did my solo thing even though I had all these other things I really wanted to do, and at some point I got stuffed around so much [by her label and management]. Through that frustration I was just like, 'Well, fuck it, I'm just gonna start doing all this stuff'. I had just become so stagnant; I wasn't creating anything and didn't enjoy it anyway. I was like, 'This is terrible, this is very unhealthy,' and I just started saying yes to stuff. I really like the new direction of where my career is going; it's all broadened.”

Despite the pains of learning how to be an independent artist, there's undeniable optimism in Boucher's voice. In her video for 5678!, in which she displays silly dance moves, you can see how comfortable she is with herself. “Looking back, I can't believe I let people see me dance like that!” she laughs. “I can't dance seriously so I might as well take the piss out of myself.” She has also challenged her fans to what she has dubbed '20 Seconds Of Pure Dance'; she hopes fans will send her videos of themselves dancing, so she can edit them all together into a second video for 5678!.

Boucher's new take on her music will be reflected in her new album. “It was trying to get back to that mindset where I hadn't learnt the rules of songwriting and hadn't been tainted by that. So my approach to this album was to let myself be as creative as I needed to be and not limit myself. I'm really proud; I dont know if I would've said that with the other albums,” she confesses. “It's kind of like, 'Yes, this is exactly who I think I am and what I have to offer as a musician'.”