“My life isn't easy, baby, but it's the life that I need I got music livin' inside of me and I gotta set it free!“
It would of course be more charming to quote a motto from Patti Smith or Debbie Harry but Helen Schneider’s classic hit „Rock’n’Roll Gypsy“ (from which the two sentences above originate) perfectly fits Phoebe Killdeer, the singer, songwriter & performer in question. Not only because her artistic spark functions like that but because there is music, that lives in her, tears at her soul, works inside her, rumbles, sometimes even causing confusion and it must be let out, in the studio and above all, on stage.
But the word „Gypsy“ is obviously the most appropriate description for Phoebe Killdeer’s style, more precisely, her entire lifestyle. She is restless, a world traveller, constantly looking for something new. She’s already lived in Paris, Zimbabwe, London, Barcelona, „and that’s the most important thing for an artist, to find inspiration, collect experiences, meet new people getting new cultures“ she says. „The world has opened itself up to me. That’s where my songs come from.“
Its also essential to add: this is absolutely not meant as a hippie-like statement. Phoebe Killdeer’s travels through countries, towns, communities, dreams, lies and states of existence are everything but feel-good tourism.
Without it, an album such as „Innerquake“, the new, second studio album Phoebe has recorded with her band The Short Straws could not exist. The dangerously high octane sections, sinister dark corners and mind chasms that arent marked on any map make the album loud even when played quietly. It takes its ingredients from every type of Rock’n’Roll that hasn’t already ended up in commercials and call waiting queues: Stooges-like Detroit-Punk, Rockabilly of the petrol powered kind & David-Lynch-Psycho-Blues. This record, makes Phoebe Killdeer and her band sound like she’s a hitch hiker on the Lost Highway to hell with enough good stories up her sleeve to make sure the ride never gets bleak.
The Short Straws are Cedric Le Roux (Guitar), Raphael Seguinier (Drums) and Alexandre Maillard (Bass), three usually incompatible characters who didn’t need a lot of convincing to team up after various sessions in studios and rehearsal rooms across Paris in 2007. On Phoebe Killdeer’s first Solo album „Weather ’s Coming“ (2008) The Straws were still relatively fresh where today they form a craftily conspired unity. They could almost communicate entirely through secret hand signals having experienced so much together, their stories alone enough to fill innumerable nights.
„Innerquake“ is not just a product of the songs swirling around in Phoebe’s head, but a result of a mutual search for expression, musical language, a self made channel through which Phoebe Killdeer and her three musicians can send their messages to the rest of the world. „With this album, most of all, we wanted to hold on to what happens when we perform live“ she explains. „Quite often people would see us in concert and buy our first album after the show.. When they listened to it, they couldn’t believe that it was meant to be the same band. We bled and sweated on stage. We just had to capture this energy.“
This was achieved, mainly due to one man, that could almost be described as the fifth member of the band: Marc Collin, Executive Producer of the album, head of the label Kwaidan Records which released „Innerquake“ for the French market. He’s a notorious musical maniac, known to the public as the mastermind of the Frenchy Bossa Nova New Wave reworks project Nouvelle Vague which charmed the Cappuccino crowd with resounding success. Phoebe herself sang for the group for a while on tracks like „Dancing With Myself“ from Billy Idol, „Human Fly“ from The Cramps and „Bela Lugosi`s Dead“ from Bauhaus. She performed at over 400 concerts with the group worldwide. When she realised in 2006 that for her the concept had been exhausted and it was time for her very own music Marc Collin did everything to help with the new start. The rumours that she was thrown out of the band for bad behaviour sound cool … not true.
Otherwise Phoebe’s life was full of adventure. She was born in the Antibes on the Côte d'Azur, and lived the first part of her life in Aix-en-provence with her two sisters where her parents who had emigrated from Australia to Europe ended up. Her mother was a dancer which led to her daughter ending up at dance school pretty quickly which introduced her to the world of movement. Her mother was and remains one of her biggest inspirations. Her father is a businessman that has travelled around the world introducing original commercial concepts to different countries. The family has had its fair share of ups and downs along the way but that just makes life more interesting. The family moved around a lot. They ended up in London where Phoebe began her musical career at the age of twenty. A short stay in Africa had awoken her interest in hip hop and under pressure from her sister she performed her own raps at jam sessions. Warner Brothers offered her a record deal wanting to make a French Jill Scot out of her. Phoebe didn’t want this. She continued her work as a sound engineer and live mixer in London clubs.
Her first major public solo appearance, this time singing instead of rapping, was in 2003 as a guest voice on the Basement Jaxx album, „Kish Kash“. During this time, one of her sisters Chloe took over all the management tasks for Phoebe and sent a demo cd to Marc Collin who was looking for new singers for Nouvelle Vague. This was exactly the right move and indirectly laid the groundwork for the foundation of The Short Straws which took place during the preparations for Phoebe’s début album „Weather’s Coming“
„We are our own galaxy and Phoebe is the planet around which everything spins“ says guitarist Cedric Le Roux, and from that it should be clear: there is no longer a battle to see who is leader of the pack. That Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws couldn’t exist without all the wild influences from Progrock, Thrash Metal, Chicago Noise, Electro and Soul that the three guys contribute from their no less eventful lives, is a fact. Almost four years of touring have also left their mark, in the sound and the social fabric. Who or what is meant by „Highway Birds“, the stomping shamanistic song on „Innerquake“ leaves little to be imagined.
So, even if you already believe you know Phoebe Killdeer you should listen to the new album as a completely new introduction. Like a beginner’s guide to Gypsy life, that has so much more to tell us and gives us a whole lot more to taste than the tired old leather jacket stories. And watch out – because whoever wants to see Phoebe Killdeer and The Short Straws in concert soon should stand in line early for tickets because enough people have already noticed that this strange Australian French Freestyle Rock`n`Roll Brigade is one of the hottest live bands in Europe at the moment. Not only in Berlin, Paris and London but also in Budapest and Moscow.
Might Phoebe Killdeer even be gone tomorrow, never to return, a pin-up on the way to the unknown? One can never say for sure. She has finally found the place where she can get rid of the music that burns in her heart and lungs anyway. Its not on the map. But we can still hear it, loud and clear.
It would of course be more charming to quote a motto from Patti Smith or Debbie Harry but Helen Schneider’s classic hit „Rock’n’Roll Gypsy“ (from which the two sentences above originate) perfectly fits Phoebe Killdeer, the singer, songwriter & performer in question. Not only because her artistic spark functions like that but because there is music, that lives in her, tears at her soul, works inside her, rumbles, sometimes even causing confusion and it must be let out, in the studio and above all, on stage.
But the word „Gypsy“ is obviously the most appropriate description for Phoebe Killdeer’s style, more precisely, her entire lifestyle. She is restless, a world traveller, constantly looking for something new. She’s already lived in Paris, Zimbabwe, London, Barcelona, „and that’s the most important thing for an artist, to find inspiration, collect experiences, meet new people getting new cultures“ she says. „The world has opened itself up to me. That’s where my songs come from.“
Its also essential to add: this is absolutely not meant as a hippie-like statement. Phoebe Killdeer’s travels through countries, towns, communities, dreams, lies and states of existence are everything but feel-good tourism.
Without it, an album such as „Innerquake“, the new, second studio album Phoebe has recorded with her band The Short Straws could not exist. The dangerously high octane sections, sinister dark corners and mind chasms that arent marked on any map make the album loud even when played quietly. It takes its ingredients from every type of Rock’n’Roll that hasn’t already ended up in commercials and call waiting queues: Stooges-like Detroit-Punk, Rockabilly of the petrol powered kind & David-Lynch-Psycho-Blues. This record, makes Phoebe Killdeer and her band sound like she’s a hitch hiker on the Lost Highway to hell with enough good stories up her sleeve to make sure the ride never gets bleak.
The Short Straws are Cedric Le Roux (Guitar), Raphael Seguinier (Drums) and Alexandre Maillard (Bass), three usually incompatible characters who didn’t need a lot of convincing to team up after various sessions in studios and rehearsal rooms across Paris in 2007. On Phoebe Killdeer’s first Solo album „Weather ’s Coming“ (2008) The Straws were still relatively fresh where today they form a craftily conspired unity. They could almost communicate entirely through secret hand signals having experienced so much together, their stories alone enough to fill innumerable nights.
„Innerquake“ is not just a product of the songs swirling around in Phoebe’s head, but a result of a mutual search for expression, musical language, a self made channel through which Phoebe Killdeer and her three musicians can send their messages to the rest of the world. „With this album, most of all, we wanted to hold on to what happens when we perform live“ she explains. „Quite often people would see us in concert and buy our first album after the show.. When they listened to it, they couldn’t believe that it was meant to be the same band. We bled and sweated on stage. We just had to capture this energy.“
This was achieved, mainly due to one man, that could almost be described as the fifth member of the band: Marc Collin, Executive Producer of the album, head of the label Kwaidan Records which released „Innerquake“ for the French market. He’s a notorious musical maniac, known to the public as the mastermind of the Frenchy Bossa Nova New Wave reworks project Nouvelle Vague which charmed the Cappuccino crowd with resounding success. Phoebe herself sang for the group for a while on tracks like „Dancing With Myself“ from Billy Idol, „Human Fly“ from The Cramps and „Bela Lugosi`s Dead“ from Bauhaus. She performed at over 400 concerts with the group worldwide. When she realised in 2006 that for her the concept had been exhausted and it was time for her very own music Marc Collin did everything to help with the new start. The rumours that she was thrown out of the band for bad behaviour sound cool … not true.
Otherwise Phoebe’s life was full of adventure. She was born in the Antibes on the Côte d'Azur, and lived the first part of her life in Aix-en-provence with her two sisters where her parents who had emigrated from Australia to Europe ended up. Her mother was a dancer which led to her daughter ending up at dance school pretty quickly which introduced her to the world of movement. Her mother was and remains one of her biggest inspirations. Her father is a businessman that has travelled around the world introducing original commercial concepts to different countries. The family has had its fair share of ups and downs along the way but that just makes life more interesting. The family moved around a lot. They ended up in London where Phoebe began her musical career at the age of twenty. A short stay in Africa had awoken her interest in hip hop and under pressure from her sister she performed her own raps at jam sessions. Warner Brothers offered her a record deal wanting to make a French Jill Scot out of her. Phoebe didn’t want this. She continued her work as a sound engineer and live mixer in London clubs.
Her first major public solo appearance, this time singing instead of rapping, was in 2003 as a guest voice on the Basement Jaxx album, „Kish Kash“. During this time, one of her sisters Chloe took over all the management tasks for Phoebe and sent a demo cd to Marc Collin who was looking for new singers for Nouvelle Vague. This was exactly the right move and indirectly laid the groundwork for the foundation of The Short Straws which took place during the preparations for Phoebe’s début album „Weather’s Coming“
„We are our own galaxy and Phoebe is the planet around which everything spins“ says guitarist Cedric Le Roux, and from that it should be clear: there is no longer a battle to see who is leader of the pack. That Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws couldn’t exist without all the wild influences from Progrock, Thrash Metal, Chicago Noise, Electro and Soul that the three guys contribute from their no less eventful lives, is a fact. Almost four years of touring have also left their mark, in the sound and the social fabric. Who or what is meant by „Highway Birds“, the stomping shamanistic song on „Innerquake“ leaves little to be imagined.
So, even if you already believe you know Phoebe Killdeer you should listen to the new album as a completely new introduction. Like a beginner’s guide to Gypsy life, that has so much more to tell us and gives us a whole lot more to taste than the tired old leather jacket stories. And watch out – because whoever wants to see Phoebe Killdeer and The Short Straws in concert soon should stand in line early for tickets because enough people have already noticed that this strange Australian French Freestyle Rock`n`Roll Brigade is one of the hottest live bands in Europe at the moment. Not only in Berlin, Paris and London but also in Budapest and Moscow.
Might Phoebe Killdeer even be gone tomorrow, never to return, a pin-up on the way to the unknown? One can never say for sure. She has finally found the place where she can get rid of the music that burns in her heart and lungs anyway. Its not on the map. But we can still hear it, loud and clear.
RELEASES
