Getting A Band Back Together

She’s released five albums independently since parting with major label, Sony Music, but it’s only now, as she’s working on an album with her new band, that Katie Noonan has opted to try Pledge Music to help fund things. 

“It’s something I’ve been pretty hesitant to do up until now,” Noonan admits, “I think because I’m not all that comfortable asking for stuff, and it is really kind of putting yourself out there, because I feel I ask enough with people coming to my gigs and buying my albums, and I feel so lucky, already, to have that wonderful support from my audience to enable me to continue doing what I do – make a living and be a full-time artist; it’s amazing.”

Noonan nonetheless took the plunge and achieved her goal in two days. “And it’s still going, which just means I can dream a bit more and have some more guest artists, make a film clip and all that kind of stuff. So I was quite hesitant to do it, but now I’ve done a full 360. I actually feel the Pledge model is really fantastic for independent artists to make their music. And it’s empowering.

"Actually with [her first band] george, we really wanted to make our album [2002’s] Polyserena fan-funded, and we went and saw our lawyer, and back then there was no infrastructure like Pledge, and he said the only way to do it legally would be to start a company, float it on the market and sell shares, and we thought, ‘Oh shit, sounds way too grown up and complicated and legally tricky.’ So the idea’s been there in my head for a long time.”

‘Oh shit, sounds way too grown up and complicated and legally tricky.’

With every pledge Noonan is giving away a taste of the forthcoming album in the form of an EP, Peace Is My Drug (Kin Music), the lyrics of which are from a poem by Michael Leunig, who wrote a second verse especially for her. As for the band, joining Declan Kelly and Captains keyboards player Stu Hunter in Katie Noonan’s Vanguard is guitarist Ben Edgar, who played with Renee Geyer on her track included on Noonan’s last project, Songs That Made Me.

“Last year I was at a little bit of a crossroad about what my next release should be. Fierce Hearts felt beautiful but I kind of wanted to get back to that band thing, and I was playing solo at the Granite Town Festival down in Moruya, on the [NSW] South Coast – I’ve been doing pretty quiet, intimate stuff for the last four or five years – and Declan Kelly was there, the drummer from [previous band] The Captains, and also Phil Stack, [bass player] from Thirsty Merc, and I said, ‘Dudes, why don’t you get up and play with me for a couple of songs?’ And it just felt so good. I didn’t realise how much I’d missed playing with a band – really missed it – and so that kind of cemented the decision.”