Rip It Up

Naomi Keyte Interview

Words By

• Alice Fraser

It has been three years in the making and now local folktronica artist, Naomi Keyte, is celebrating the release of her debut EP, Edge of Morning. This seven-track speaks of life’s transformations, where the songs reflect the transitional highs and lows of everyday life. Rip It Up sits down with the leading lady for a chat about her debut release.

Since returning from Melbourne in 2010 where she studied contemporary and jazz performance, she’s played the stages of Laneway and Big Day Out touring as a member of Goldbloom and The Transatlantics. Why did it take three years for her solo works to evolve?

“Sitting with a body of work, crafting it and being considered in what you do with it isn’t a bad thing,” Keyte reveals. “It is so valuable to know what you want and how to control your sound. The tracks have definitely solidified over time and the way they have been recorded is the way they are meant to be. It’s taken me a while to feel comfortable with a release, but this record is a timely statement.”

The songs transform the melodic vocal and guitar loops of Keyte’s live show, into complex and powerful arrangements. With a vision to create this record on her own she enlisted the help of Format mastermind, Pat Lockwood, to assist with the recording. Naomi says that he was the “perfect person” to help her do that. 

“Essentially this whole record was recorded in my bedroom. We had time to work on each song and didn’t have the pressures of studio time, money or stress. Because of this, we were able to experiment during the process making this an incredible learning experience for me. At one point my housemate, who is from the band Swimming, came in to my room to record some hand claps.”

As a listener, the exquisite track balance takes you on a journey where you strive to understand your own experiences and the small ways in which we aim to find balance. Keyte’s fascination with dawn and dusk led her to the title, Edge Of Morning.

“They are really beautiful times of the day and are symbolic of an ethereal atmosphere. The whole record is about polarities and I feel that dusk and dawn are those transitional times of light and dark and in a thematic sense, transition from a melancholy feeling to a more uplifted feeling. In life there is always going to be both.”

Drawn to the aesethic pleasures of the German and Scandanavian landscape, Keyte will spend the next 12 months overseas where she will continue her studies of the German language and write her first full-length album before returning to Australian shores in 2014.

“For this trip I’m going to take my EP, my loop pedals and buy myself a new guitar. I plan to perform, listen to and write as much music as possible.”

WHO: Naomi Keyte, No Art (Syd) and Menagerie
WHAT:  Edge Of Morning EP Launch
WHERE: The Hotel Metro
WHEN: Fri Jun 28 from 9pm