Jen Cloher: 'When Opportunities Arrived, I Was Ready'

Jen Cloher

She had an early start this morning due to a string of interviews, the first of which was for Triple R's Breakfasters during the community radio station's Radiothon, and now we find Cloher seated at a table inside her local Thornbury cafe, post-lunch and looking pensive while wearing a cosy-looking burgundy Fair Isle jumper. "The last time we spoke was just as the album [Jen Cloher] came out. So, a year ago," Cloher remembers, referring to The Music's interview ahead of the release of her fourth album, which also took place at this location. And so much has happened for this super-inspiring artist since then, including her first-ever European tour. "I'll be going back for my third European tour in October," Cloher enthuses. "So in a year, I've toured to the UK and Europe three times." It sounds like there's huge demand for Cloher abroad, then. "It's not like Courtney [Barnett] huge where it's just, like, bounding off into the stratosphere of getting bigger and bigger each time she tours over there, but definitely the awareness is getting out there and the rooms are getting a bit bigger. And obviously the tour that I'm doing there in October/November is solo, so more intimate venues."

Cloher also performed her debut US festival set at Newport Folk Festival in July of this year, which she says was "really fun", adding this festival's vibe is similar to Queenscliff Music Festival or Port Fairy Folk Festival where punters tend to sit and listen attentively. "The actual festival only goes from 11 'til 8pm, they don't go beyond because of some curfew or something. So it's very civilised, like, no one's smashed; they're total music lovers, there to receive music." Cloher and co were scheduled to play an early afternoon slot, following a band that utilised "a banjo and a fiddle and an acoustic guitar". "I was like, 'Oh, no! I'm playing a rock-band set on a fuckin' folk stage!'" she chuckles.

After tailoring her set to include a few more "country-rock songs from the past albums" at the 11th hour, Cloher recounts the rapturous reception her band received. "Halfway through the set, I think we played Analysis Paralysis - standing ovation. Then we played Fear Is Like A Forest - up [on their feet] again! [The crowd was] just into it, loving it by this stage. I got three standing ovations in one set!" she laughs in disbelief.

With both Cloher and her partner Barnett touring internationally so much of late, we can't help but wonder who looks after their Burmese cat (and Milk! Records CEO), Bubbles. "We have a lot of friends who love Bubbles," Cloher stresses. "It's very important that whoever stays really needs to love Bubbles, because she's very interactive and needs a lot of love and attention - much like a dog." Burmese cats tend to have penetrating miaows, is this the case with Bubbles? "Sometimes you wonder if a devil has possessed your cat," Cloher confirms. "It's like, 'What is that sound?' She'll come from outside into the house and just do this harrowing miaow and it's like, 'What? I wonder what's happened to you!' But, anyway, we have lots of great friends who are happy to rotate throughout the year and, you know, they get to come and have some time out in a house away from flatmates and stuff." 

Cloher's third album, In Blood Memory (2013), is a stunning collection of songs that somehow sound stark and desolate despite being rich in instrumental detail. The lead single from this record, Mount Beauty, remains this scribe's favourite Cloher song. "Mount Beauty - I still love that recording," Cloher admits. "That particular song, it's still magical. I just go, 'What did Nick Huggins do when he mixed this to make it sound so perfect, but so ramshackle?' It's not perfect. It's such a really amazing way that he's captured it and then mixed it.

"He had a lot to do - I think - with that song and I feel like that song was a real turning point from maybe the sort of folk-slash-folk-country stuff that I'd done on the first two albums (2009's Hidden Hands and 2006's Dead Wood Falls). It really did move away into a more, I guess, straight-ahead rock sound, but still was me... My delivery is a lot more relaxed and [I was] less worried about singing and sounding perfect. I just remember making that album and going, 'I don't care... like, I really don't care if no one likes this; I'm making this for myself, I'm gonna put it out on my own label and I'm not beholden to anyone else and what they think, or whether they think this should be the single.' And having that freedom, I think, really helped me to, I dunno, slowly move into being more myself or getting a sense of relaxing and exploring a different side to myself musically.

"I personally feel like In Blood Memory, as an album, is a much stronger collection of songs than my most recent album. As a whole, as seven songs together, they make more sense to me than the more recent one where I feel like it kind of jumps all around the place, 'cause it was written over a really long period of time and so it's not necessarily linear and perfectly married; that's just my personal feeling. I mean, I like the songs and I love the way the new album sounds and stuff, but I think what is different with the new album is that it reached out beyond my life a little bit more; even though I'm talking about my life, I'm incorporating a lot more into that discussion and even the level of detail that I go into around events - I think the more particular you are, the easier it is for people to relate; actually, you'd think it would be the other way around.

"I remember someone in America going, 'What's soldier toast?' I don't even know if it's a thing there - having a boiled egg with toast bits," she laughs.

Cloher's referring to some lyrics from Sensory Memory - from the self-titled, fourth set ("We sit and eat breakfast/ Eggs with soldier toast") - which debuted at number five on the ARIA Albums Chart and is her most well-received album to date.

We discuss how it seems to be about so much more than just the quality of your work that determines when it's your time to shine and Cloher contributes, "I think it's worth acknowledging that a looooooot of my time and energy has gone into doing Milk! Records and building a platform that was entirely my own, our own; not being in any way dependent on others to help you or to be the ones to take your music to wherever you think it needs to go, but being kind of in control of that. And learning a lot about the music business and how it works, and running the workshops [I Manage My Music], I've learnt so much. And over years. I've really empowered myself with knowledge and understanding, which means you make different choices.

"And then also having Courtney - who's in my band, who's my business partner, who's having her own pretty amazing run that I think is unprecedented, like, we haven't seen a woman like Courtney step up onto the world stage and be celebrated for being an authentic songwriter, great guitarist, you know? So it obviously made me a lot more visible by association. So I kind of look at [my career trajectory] and go - probably the best way to put it is: when opportunities arrived, I was ready. And I think that's the thing that I've really learnt, is just keep doing what you're doing, create your best work, learn about what you're doing, understand how things work and if things come along then you're ready to make hay while the sun shines. And if they don't happen the way you thought they would, at least you're continuing as an artist on your own terms."

As busy as 2018 has been for Cloher so far, she reveals, "I'm sort of finishing writing a few songs that I might play on the new tour and, yeah! I've been doing a little bit of writing again with Dyson, Stringer, Cloher so, you know, maybe I'll be recording some new stuff next year with them."