After The Dance

For any musician to attempt covering a Johnny Cash song they've got to be either a) supremely talented or b) clinically insane. Thankfully, Ainslie Wills falls into the former. Wills covered Cash's Ain't No Grave on SBS's RocKwiz last year. But the madness didn't end there, with Aussie rapper 360 also lending a hand. “That was not my decision!” laughs Wills. “I mean, I wasn't at the helm of choosing what song to sing. RocKwiz had already chosen this duet and that's the song that I was to learn and 360 was to rap over it.” In the end though, the pair sent goose bumps bubbling across the arms of all listening; stretching and squeezing the Cash classic into a different kind of morose monster, with Wills' angelic vocals adding a gossamer-like sheen.

Wills is gearing up for her biggest tour to date to mark the release of her debut album You Go Your Way I'll Go Mine, a feat she admits she's now more prepared for after learning the ins and outs of the music biz. “When I released my first EP my focus was on just getting it out there. I knew that bands toured, but I had no idea about distribution. It wasn't until people came up to me and were like, 'Who is distributing your album?' that I thought about it. So, this time around I've got all that sorted.”

It was during touring for her 2010 EP Somebody For Everyone that Wills decided to try letting go by relinquishing songwriting control and passing on some of the duties to her guitarist and now co-producer of the debut, Lawrence Folvig. “I had always written very autonomously, but it was in 2009 that Lawrence and I began writing music for the album. When I say we began writing together, I don't mean we sat in a room together and worked on a song. We still went into our on creative spaces to write and then once we were done we'd show each other and see what the other thought.”

Although the official word on the origin of You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine is that it's from the movie Hello Dolly!, Wills candidly admits it is actually something of a homage to the creative process between her and Folvig. “It's like saying he can go away and do his thing and then I can go away and do my thing, but in the end we meet somewhere in the middle,” she says.

To achieve the ethereal sound on the album, Wills set up shop during the dead of winter in a beach house on the Victorian Peninsula. Heavy layers of strings were then later added at a local church creating an almost haunting experience, with Wills finally laying down her magic and recording her vocals at the converted family home of her best friend. “I could have just gone into a studio and recorded it there, but I specially chose those locations to create the image I had for the album,” she explains.

Citing Radiohead, Beck, Feist and Jeff Buckley as inspirations, Wills says she especially looked to the latter's live performances for tips on how to balance her delicate sound in a large venue. “I guess we're not really the kind of act a raucous crowd would go and see, so I'm hoping the audience is pretty well behaved. I mean, yes, we have a softer sound, but we also have some songs that allow us to go a little bit harder on stage and I think Buckley and even Feist are artists who manage the different sound quite well. That said, I'll make sure that we will get to enjoy ourselves. I'm just so excited.”

Ainslie Wills will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 17 April - The Front Bar, Canberra ACT
Thursday 18 April - FBi Social, Sydney NSW
Saturday 20 April - The Great Northern, Newcastle NSW
Wednesday 24 April - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
Friday 26 April - The Grand Poohbah, Hobart TAS
Friday 3 May - The Hotel Metro, Adelaide SA
Saturday 11 May - Railway Friendly, Byron Bay NSW
Sunday 12 May - Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD