Out Of The Shadows

Despite being a homegrown Australian, the last few years of Lenka Kripac's career might be a bit of a mystery to home audiences. Before that, she was probably best known as an actor, with roles in everything from ABC drama series GP to hosting Cheez TV. Musically, you may remember her from the two albums she worked on with Decoder Ring. But that all belies the massive success she's had overseas, with a move to LA in 2007 foreshadowing success in the States and Europe.

“I started acting when I was 13, and by the time I was in my early 20s I was almost a little bit bored with it,” Lenka explains when asked what made her shift gears from acting to music originally. “Creatively, I wanted to have a little more control, and more involvement in the whole process of putting out something into the world, rather than just being an actor. I sort of grew up with music because my dad's a jazz musician. I never seriously pursued it at first, but I started to do a bit of singing through acting gigs. So I just sort of discovered that I was enjoying it more than the acting, I guess. I put a little bit more effort into it and eventually chose to focus on it. But it wasn't until the whole Decoder Ring thing happened that it really made me completely shift gears and make me focus on music entirely. And then it just took over everything.”

This journey has eventually led her into the songwriter's dream job: writing music for films and television adverts, all the while maintaining her own identity through three albums, the third of which Shadows, has just been released. While many may have been upset about her leaving Decoder Ring, she maintains her time with the band was a formative experience.

“I learnt a lot of the democracy of being in a band, and that collaboration kind of thing, and how special it is to create music with other people,” she says. “Which I still do, obviously; I love to collaborate, working with other musicians on my music. And I learnt a lot about the practical ins and outs of being on the road and the way it works with venues, the way it works with labels and stuff like that, just from the experience of doing a couple of records with them. So yeah, it was quite invaluable.

“I ended up feeling like it wasn't satisfying enough for me [though], because it wasn't a vocally-driven project, and I wanted to do more lyrical stuff, so that's why I [left]. But it was really an amazing experience for me, and I think it was a great way to start. Particularly from being in such a kind of indie scene, it was great getting out on the road and playing festivals. That, as a way to start, was really healthy for me I think.”

While Decoder Ring's electronic rock crossover did maintain some indie capacity, Lenka's solo output has been unapologetically in the pop stream. Her first two albums, Lenka and Two, are full of major-scale ditties and love anthems. With Shadows, she seems to have gained a lot more confidence in both her voice and her composition. While there's still the tales of love and happiness, there's a much greater depth to her message.

“It was a bit of a weird one, it felt pretty different,” Lenka says of Shadows. “It's supposed to be an album of nursery rhymes or lullabys, but for adults as well. I love the power of music that is subtle, that you can fall asleep to. And now that I've got a child and I'm married, there's different things that matter now. You care about other people, and I think that really came through in the music.”