Caiti Baker On Going Home, The End Of 'Zinc' & Naming Her Tour After A Vitamin Deficiency

I can appreciate that not everyone wants to listen to my incessant boom-bap, lyric-driven, hip hop in the office. In fact, I mostly make an effort to indulge my colleagues with more than the same 10 tracks repeating on every station… 

Needless to say I was pretty damn excited this week when I got the opportunity to chat with one of our office favourites, the absolutely delightful soulstress herself, Caiti Baker. Between her relentless tour cycle she let me in on just what’s next for the incredible singer.

"I'm in Darwin and I'm moving house! Where I’m at now isn’t really conducive to outside living and I’m a very outdoor living human so a bit of a change is always good," she tells me warmly.

For someone who's on the road so much I questioned just what “home” is to the artist; whether tour life is so demanding the luggage instantly unpacks itself or whether she’s already got her next itinerary by the door.

“This is my first time being home for six weeks or more in over two years. Coming back to Darwin in between shows is kind of difficult so I just stay on the road. The tyranny of distance, Antixx!” she chuckles.

“It’s difficult for me to write while I’m on the road. I need a quite space, where people can’t hear me and I can’t hear people. So I hold it all in until I get home and have time to myself before I start writing. When I get home I get to settle back into my community, hang with my family and friends and catch up on what’s going on in their lives. I get into the studio and can write and produce new music… Home means I get to re-energise, put my feet in the sand and feel grounded."

'Recharging' is something I think we can all do a little more of. I get so excited for the weekend to come 'round so I can achieve the tasks I couldn’t during the week (shout out to the over flowing laundry basket in my room), but by the time comes I’m too busy enjoying not completing those tasks. I wonder if that’s something you’re conscious of when on tour (which I’ll point out, is an artist’s work)?

“Tour life is always a challenge to a certain degree because you’re, more than not, in other peoples' space a lot of the time. I tour with my band who are some of my best mates so it’s really important we have that relationship where we can look after each other. I really try to look after myself on the inside and outside.

After recently touring with The Teskey Brothers, I asked Baker if we’re seeing a surgent in blues 'n' roots music. Perhaps it’s just a Melbourne thing but I feel as though soul and blues 'n' roots and alt-country has really found its own in mainstream music recently.

“Well, I don’t really know what mainstream is," she answers. "The Teskey Brothers audience was so diverse, I was really lucky to have that opportunity."

"I think the music speaks to a lot of people no matter where you’re from or what you’re into. Personally I think blues 'n' roots are two very different things, but when you put them together it’s been around forever. It’s the foundation for popular music in a sense. Australia is quite anchored in Aussie or indie rock or country, more of the white rock artists that pioneered, you know? Blues lovers have always been out there, younger artists like The Teskey Brothers are helping expose the genre to a younger generation and I’m glad I get to be a part of that too."

I soon realised I didn’t actually know why her upcoming tour was titled "B6".

“To get my science nerd on,” she chuckles. “There was Zinc [Baker’s debut album] and now there’s B6, it’s a vitamin that one who suffers from Pyroluria is deficient in and when B6 (along with zinc and a few other nutrients) isn’t sufficiently supplied to the blood stream it can produce a bunch of mental and physical health issues. People might think I’m weird or wacky for thinking about it, but that’s the world we live in, the world of mental health stigma... We as a nation are really deficient in many nutrients — zinc for example, it’s why a lot of people burn badly. And if you don’t go out in the sun, you don’t get Vitamin D and Vitamin D supports your immune system so we’re all getting sicker, our mental and physical health is suffering. It’s just a science/health thing I’m into so that’s why the tour’s called B6.”

Baker has been killing it for the past year, she won the NT Song Of The Year, as well as the Blues 'N' Roots and Pop categories, and here’s the juicy bits on what’s next…

“I’ve been writing for the next collection of the songs. I have more of a production role on this one with more of a sort of dictating role I guess. It’s way more directed from myself. I mean it’s still collaborative, but it’s collaborative on my terms.

"We’ve given ourselves some limits and boundaries. I’ve definitely streamlined a lot in this body of work, which will be a lot more simplified. I’ve stepped away from the use of my dad’s guitar samples, there’ll be no guitar riff. It’ll be harking to my R&B, soul, hip hop influences this time around. Stripped back production, more hip hop and more vocally focussed.”

Baker confirms that some incredibly talented contributors will be lending their skills to her next project (great news for you hip hop heads, I can assure you), as well as some soon to be released singles before the anniversary of her debut album.

“It’s kind of a wrap up to the Zinc project. I feel stoked, I get to make rad music with rad humans and tour the country. I’m taking Stevie Jean on the road with me, she’s from Humpty Doo (Darwin) and she’s absolutely amazing. She’s an 18 year old soulful-rock indie artist and people will be absolutely blown away by her.”

Knowing that we’re absolutely blown away by Caiti, I’m going to take her word for it.