"I Jumped At The Chance" To Work WIth Bernard Fanning

The discovery of two small nodules on her vocal cords soon after releasing her latest album forced the postponing of the original tour, but now Kasey Chambers is back on track, and on tour. For that latest album, Bittersweet, she called on American-now-Australian resident Nick DiDia (Pearl Jam, Springsteen, Powderfinger) to produce it.

“That was actually a suggestion from my brother Nash, who’s produced all my records, so I don’t know if he was getting sick of me or something. Probably sick of not being paid yet!” Chambers laughs. “Look, he probably just sensed that I… I dunno, I was up for a bit of a change. I’d gone through a lot of life changes in my personal life and everything and just sort of had this new outlook I guess and wanted a bit like a fresh start.

“At first I was a bit freaked out by working with somebody else. I’ve always really loved working with people who I know really well on a personal level, not just musically, because you’re sort of puttin’ your heart and soul into what you’re doing and your songs are like your little babies, so you want people to be on the same page. And I guess I sort of worried that that wouldn’t happen with somebody who I didn’t know personally, which I was completely wrong about ‘cause he was amazing and I instantly had a personal connection with Nick the first time I met him.”

"I’d gone through a lot of life changes in my personal life and everything and just sort of had this new outlook I guess and wanted a bit like a fresh start."

Chambers hadn’t really known much about DiDia or his work and admits she’d spent more than a year thinking about different producers. “I’d planned to make the record long, long before I did and I’m glad now that it didn’t happen when I was first thinking about it because I ended up writing so many more songs and stronger songs I think that are on the record. I was second-guessing myself so much about working with new people and I wasn’t in the right headspace to make that sort of decision, though I thought I was!”

It was DiDia that suggested a duet partner for what became the album’s title track.

“DiDia worked on and off with Bernard [Fanning] on a couple of things, but really just one-off little projects and I’d always loved working with him but it was Nick’s suggestion to use Bernard on the record, because I said to Nick right at the start the sort of musicians I wanted to get were people that think about songs rather than session guys that come in and just do as they’re told when you give ‘em a chart. I sort of wanted to create a little band with what I was doing, and Nick said, ‘You know, Bernard’s not doing anything at the moment and he lives just down the road from where he did and we’re really good friends.’ So I jumped at the chance.”