{"id":40473,"date":"2021-02-01T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=40473"},"modified":"2021-02-01T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T18:25:53","slug":"playing-melbourne-sarah-mary-chadwick-me-and-ennui-are-friends-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/playing-melbourne-sarah-mary-chadwick-me-and-ennui-are-friends-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Mary Chadwick Makes Friends with Ennui"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo Credit: Simon J Karis<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Multi-instrumentalist, visual artist and intrepidly candid singer-songwriter Sarah Mary Chadwick<\/a> will release her seventh full length studio album, Me and Ennui Are Friends, Baby<\/em>, on Friday, February 5th, via Ba Da Bing Records<\/a>\/Rice is Nice<\/a>. Known both for her solo work and for a decade spent as frontperson of Batrider<\/a> – which formed while Chadwick and her bandmates were still in high school in New Zealand – Chadwick has explored some dark places and difficult terrain. Going solo certainly sent her on a new trajectory \u2013 one that has kept listeners compelled to discover what she\u2019s just done and what she\u2019s doing next. Her latest album justifies plenty of curiosity and attention, not only for its exploration of intense emotions – she is, as ever, starkly honest, articulate and unfiltered – but also for the approach to recording it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ennui<\/em> is almost entirely singing and piano, all recorded live in one day with Chadwick’s friend, bass player Geoffrey O\u2019Connor. Chadwick and O\u2019Connor recorded on a Yamaha upright piano in her friend\u2019s studio. The upright added to the \u201cbar-roomy feel of the record, which wasn\u2019t intentional but definitely came through when we were recording,” Chadwick says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It immediately follows 2020\u2019s Please, Daddy<\/em> <\/a>– a painful, introspective work that, according to Chadwick, was more ambitious in terms of instrumentation. Though it seemed a logical trajectory to do something more complicated after its release, the stripped-down nature of Ennui<\/em> is a result of Chadwick’s conscious desire to free herself of expectation. “The last record had Geoff engineering, a drum and four other musicians. This was just me and Geoff sitting in a small, intimate room for a whole day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of doing it in one day, my thinking has always been that there\u2019s only so good I can play and sing a song,\u201d explains Chadwick. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t get better if I do it 50 times. I think you lose a lot of energy if you iron things out. I wanted to capture a lot of energy in this record. I usually only record in one or two days, with only two or three takes of a song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s all part of Chadwick’s effort to retain some of that \u201cdemo energy\u201d when recording songs for her albums. \u201cMy process is the same for music and visual art. Working fast, you\u2019re not afforded the space to second-guess decisions, so you get into the habit of making decisions quickly; you just make choices to realise what you think is important,” she says. “For me, that energy is so important. If you\u2019re doing it right, you\u2019re making good decisions that enable you to realise what is important about art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n