How Emerson, Lake And Palmer Helped Seja's Second Album Get Made

Seja Vogel is a delight. The German-born local songstress with the chatty nature and infectious laugh struck out solo in 2010 with her pretty and playful debut album ode to the analogue synthesiser, We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares.

She's broadened her instrumental palate across All Our Wires, moving away from the bedroom recordings and the childhood themes of her debut in favour of a more robust and considered effort that gets to the bottom of all her bountiful feelings while still honouring her instrument of choice.

“I had quite a few things that were on my mind I guess, and my friends always joke that I have lots of feelings! So I had a lot of feelings; I needed to get them out. I was actually thinking of calling the album So Many Feelings, but I thought that that would just be funny to my friends and everyone else would think I was a dick,” chuckles Vogel.

“The title track on the album is about untangling all your wires with people in your life. I think I reached a point where I just thought I really just wanted to be great with everyone in my life; I don't want any problems, I don't want any drama, I just want to have a nice time with the people I love…” she admits of the album's theme.

Vogel certainly has the musical chops to justify the title of synth whisperer, though is truly deserving considering she has a business replicating instruments in miniature using felt – mostly her beloved Moogs. Taking orders worldwide, Vogel had become so adept at her craft that she proposed to make a giant felt synthesiser for her album cover in a grant submission to Arts Queensland.

“Part of my grant application was to replicate this picture of Keith Emerson from Emerson, Lake And Palmer. Keith Emerson was famous for this huge modular synthesiser that he had and they used to call it the monster Moog and there's this famous story of him saying, 'It's not big enough' – so they put a television on top of the Moog so it would be even more monstrous. I had this picture and I thought that it just looked so amazing and I'm such a synth nerd that I love the way those things look anyway, so I was like, 'I'm gonna make this…'

"And then I got the grant and I remember thinking, 'Oh my god I got the grant',” she exclaims excitedly. “And then, 'Oh no, I'm gonna have to make this thing and it's gonna take me forever'. It took me about four months; I hand-sewed the Moog and I had one sewing circle with a bunch of my friends who helped me sew some of the knobs because I think I had to make about 164 of those felt knobs. So I just made some snacks and bought some wine and had a little knob circle!” she says with a big laugh.

Hiring a truck to cart her creation to The Hi-Fi for a photo shoot with Stephen Booth, Vogel played around with poses until an epic smoke-machine backed head-banger was captured. “It was such an amazing photo. I feel like it's a real misrepresentation of my songs, but Stephen said, 'Seja – you've made a giant synthesiser out of felt and hired two smoke machines – you've made a few decisions',” she admits in a fit of giggles.

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