Mind shift
Kimbra embraces New York’s rawness
You get introduced as a Grammy-winning singer now. Do you pinch yourself when you hear that?
It’s pretty funny when you hear it said out loud because it’s not the sort of thing you ever say. It’s crazy that it happened and I think I’ve been thinking about it more now that Prince passed away, because that was the biggest thing that I took away that night; that I got something awarded to me by my idol.
The cool thing about that whole experience was it proved to me that you really don’t know how far something can take you. You can put all your efforts into something with some real conviction and there’s infinite possibility where that thing can take you, so that gives me a lot of motivation and determination in my work that it’s something that can happen and may happen again, but it’s not why I do what I do. But it is exciting that it can happen.
Your last album, The Golden
Echo, came out in 2014. So when can we expect some new material?
It is one of those things where the creative process is still brewing so you don’t want to put a date on it, but I do plan to put out new music soon because I have a lot of songs done that may not be on this album. I want to start sharing with fans again and showing people what I’ve been up to. Even if the album isn’t super soon, there will be new music coming.
You’ve moved from Hamilton to Melbourne to Los Angeles and now to New York. How does the latest change of scenery impact your song writing process?
It’s funny because I’ll probably end up recording the new album in LA, because that’s where most of the studios are and New York is so crazily expensive. But by putting yourself there, in a place where you eat, sleep and make music, it’s affecting you. For the first time I have a real studio in New York, like I’m not working out of a small bedroom setup. I have heaps of drum machines I’ve collected and a proper room designated to working in and that’s a big step for any musician.
There’s a rawness to New York and everyone is there from all kinds of cultures, classes and status. You step out into the street and you feel immersed in this human culture. It’s all happening right in front of you and I find that very inspiring as an artist because you’re surrounded by so many perspectives.
‘There’s a rawness to New York and everyone is there from all kinds of cultures, classes and status. You step out into the street and you feel immersed in this human culture.’ Kimbra
Is New York the destination where you always dreamed of ending up?
From the moment I first visited New York I thought, ‘one day I have to live here’. It’s such an American question; are you living the dream? But yeah, New York has kind of been the dream for quite a while now.
So can we expect a New York flavour to your third studio album?
It’s always hard to say until you start recording because that’s when you start making choices about sonics and what are the key elements going to be. I think one thing I’m interested in is doing something different to what I did last time. My last album was very dense in a way and very colourful and cinematic, and that will always be part of what I do, but I want to explore a little more directness. I’m 26 now so you become more confident in stripping back the song and letting the voice stand as a statement without too much going on. I know I’ve said that before and gone back on it, but as I get older and more mature as a musician I get more interested in how I can do more with less.
When you come back to New Zealand where is the place you just have to visit?
I live in Hamilton so I go back there for Christmas but a big one is going back to Raglan. It’s so special, a blank sand beach, which is so mystical to me when I’m not there.
Plus the whole culture of Raglan is really special so we always make a special trip there. The lakes; Rotoiti and Rotorua, we would always go there as well. It’s like an hour from Hamilton.
Raglan seems like a world away from New York, what’s your must-do activity when you’re there over summer?
The classic thing is to go to Whale Bay, which is a great place to have fish and chips. That’s what I do, I sit out in the pohutukawa and on the black sand beach. It’s the classic thing to do and there’s always rad people out and strike up a conversation.
Raglan is so small you probably know half the people there anyway.
Do you find that a holiday back home in New Zealand helps to cleanse the soul?
It’s like a nourishment and an instalment of your roots and where you’re from. it’s almost a spiritual thing when you’re home and it’s a sense of belonging. Even in the trees I feel a sense of this is where I belong. Then you come back to America and you have a new energy for it and you can handle the cars and the noise.
There’s something about the stillness you can’t find where I live. You can go up state to New York but New Zealand is truly special. I can’t believe it’s my home.
I’ve been spending time in Ethiopia and Kenya, in Africa’s largest slum in Kibera, and I think to myself that things could have been so different if I was born there.
I have a screenshot of it on the background of my phone so I look at it and think ‘wow that’s my home and that’s where I’m born’.
I don’t think we realise how incredibly lucky we are as New Zealanders to have that everyday.