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What I've Learnt - Emily Lubitz · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to welcome to the What I've Learned podcast, critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Emily Lubitz.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: She's at the helm of acclaimed indie folk band Tinpan Orange.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Together with her brother Jesse, their stylized folk music is described by Rolling Stone magazine as deep dives into heart-sleeved honesty, equally matched by the cinematic stretches of detailed string arrangements and brooding folk pop features.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: In 2018, they worked with Meg Mac and Courtney Barnett's producer to produce a suite of new tracks for the band.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: They've toured with indie legends Martha Wainwright, Iconic the Cat Empire, and Emily's voice was heard by 120 million people singing the train sensation Dumb Ways to Die.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So for those of you who haven't heard Emily's brushed velvet voice, as described by the Melbourne Age, here's your chance.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: As part of the Festival of Jewish Arts and Music, Emily joins a stellar lineup of talented women singing and paying tribute to the legendary Leonard Cohen.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you're working on the ladies who sing Leonard with some of the best female musical artists in the tribe.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: What has it been like working with them and what have you learnt from that collaboration?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really exciting to be part of this event.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because of um the nature of the world at the moment, it hasn't been as collaborative as one might have wanted.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't get down for it.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: So this one, we're all it's it's an online event, so we're all doing our own kind of um versions of um a Lennon Cohen song, and then it's sort of being curated at the other end and put on um as an online thing.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I wish I could be in the room with um Katie Noonan and Emma Donovan and Kate Soprano and all the rest of the stuff.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Deborah Conway.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that would be super great, but unfortunately, we will not be in the same room.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is that's interesting though, because the question is, can you know, how have collaborations been impacted?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you're not in the same room, but in a sense, I suppose you're on the same journey in that you're trying to obviously create this wonderful um experience and insight into the Leonard Cohen story.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So do you do you still feel like you're collaborating or you don't?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um I personally I feel a little um uh separated from that collaborative thing, um, sadly.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: I know Anita Lester, who is curating the show.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: She is probably, you know, she sort of, and and Lior, who who um is the artistic director of Faux, they've been working probably a bit more together on um that side of things.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I I wish, I mean, I've done lots of these kinds of tribute shows, um, and they're always such a joy um because of that, because of the collaborative aspect.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, I think we're all just sort of just like in our own little cells, yeah.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Little cells, somewhat interconnected but in a different way, and that's reflective of the pandemic and the the way that it's impacted the arts.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But hopefully by next year you'll all be on stage and it'll all be something that's yeah, I think so.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think we will, and there'll be a boom, you know, it's gonna be like after the war, everyone's just gonna be out and dancing and Melbourne's already starting.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's very true.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And tell me who chose your song?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did you get to choose the song that you the Leonard Cohen song?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: We all got to choose our own songs, and I'm not sure if I'm uh we're allowed to say who's singing what or what we're singing.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, I think it might have to be a surprise.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then it's good that you got to choose at least.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, put it this way so many.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can't go wrong.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can't go wrong, really.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be honest.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't matter which one that you you ended up singing, I'm sure it would be uh well received by your audience because he's written so many.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And as a songwriter, singer yourself, what have you learnt from some of the learn Leonard Cohen songs?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what is how have you been inspired by Leonard Cohen, like so many of us?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's like a little bit hard to um hard to avoid uh in in a in life and especially being a songwriter, um, which is great.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's not so he's not someone you want to avoid.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um God, I'd love I wouldn't avoid him, you know, at a party.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to hang out with him.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I grew up with him, like totally just in mother's milk, you know, like on the CD player all the time.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um he's sort of part of the furniture a little bit, and I think I probably took him for granted as a child, and also, and there was definitely a time when I really just hated his voice, like, oh, what is like mum?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: What what what are you listening to?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of thing, you know.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then as a teenager, certainly just finding the poetry and just being like, Oh, okay, yeah.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now you got it, you get it, yeah.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so he he's I've always um loved him and I've seen him uh live a couple of times, and he's very good live, he was very good live, and it was really quite a privilege to get to do that because obviously on stage he actually was quite impressive.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he was 75 or you know, he was quite when I saw him, and he was still up there and out there.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I was about to say he's cross-generational, which I think is reflected in what you've said.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, your your mum was listening, your parents were listening to him, and then you're listening to him, and now hopefully in next generation.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what what it is that resonates for you with some of and is there a song that stands out?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so many, so many.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I was just thinking when you were saying, you know, seeing him live.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think as an as an artist, I learned a so I've learned a lot from him just listening to his songs in terms of being a songwriter, but as a performer, I think I learnt so much from watching him perform and like he um his his generosity to the audience and his generosity to and his his deep respect for his band was just so cool.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, he did these three-hour shows, you're just giving, giving, giving to the crowd, um, leaping around, you know, old man just leaping so kind of nimble and and he and his band, like whenever anyone did a solo, he'd I mean it's part of his shtick, I suppose, but it was just like for me, he would take off his hat and he'd just turn to them and he just listened to them, you know.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's it it was such a so gr so graceful, so much grace, and I think that was a huge lesson for me as a performer.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, if I could just get a little bit of that, you know, into into whatever I do, that's that would be cool.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's wonderful.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you're obviously, and I'm assuming that that's something you've imbued because you've toured quite a lot, you've done Europe, you've done, you've done a lot of touring.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have you found that you've honed that skill and applied some of that uh joie de vive that he has on stage?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I I like to I mean I like to think so.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, as an artist, um you're constantly looking, you're constantly looking at what other people are doing and um and sort of appreciating that and sort of um things are uh sinking into whatever I do, you know, it's we get sort of affected by the culture around us.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so yeah, I hope I hope that I've imbued some of that, you know, just some of that grace and that that respect that he has for just everyone around him, yeah.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you work with your brother, which is really interesting.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how old were you when you uh I suppose realized there was a creative synergy?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because um, you know, like we're musicians too.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: My brother plays music, I play music, but at the end of the day, making a career out of that um synergy is a very different thing.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, how old were you guys and what is it that brought you together?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we I mean, we fought like cats and dogs as children.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: They they always threaten, oh, we're gonna take it to the psychologist next time.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know why they didn't.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: God, I mean therapy is so cool these days.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Back then it was like a a threat.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, um, I so they um we we fought and for and then as teenagers, I think we just we started sharing friends.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's two years older than me.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: We started like sharing friends and do hanging out and going on camping trips and probably singing around the campfire and stuff like that, and um realized that we actually quite liked each other and we became good friends.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I mean, I didn't I never really planned a career in music um sort of until I don't know, my early 20s.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: I I did I yeah, I wasn't an aspiring musician as a teenager, I was quite shy.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and like I was never in the school musicals, or if I was I was like very much caught.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like the tree at the back.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like I get really nervous and I often start laughing on stage.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was really unprofessional.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't no one who knew me in high school would have would would have guessed that I would now be this would be my job.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, it kind of gradually crept up on me though, I think.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we would sort of just put we'd play um at open mic nights, and then we started like busking and just uh, you know, getting little gigs here and there, and then we started getting booked for festivals, and I think that's when it started sort of becoming more of a uh we just had a lot more offers, and um we got on the the folk festival circuit, I suppose, and and that was yeah, it started taking up a lot of light.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And do you work, do you find then, because obviously you're on the road together, and I know you've got a third party as well, third member, but do you do you find that you have to be super uh disciplined about the way that you're interacting?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously you have fun and it's great.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it's family, so at times you just want to go, can you cycle room?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think um, yes, definitely there's like that element of like you know, whatever we can press each other's buttons, we can um there's that yeah, irritation factor.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I think we have pretty good boundaries.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: And do you know what?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: He's hilarious.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I find him real like and my other bandmate, like we laugh a lot on tour, which is pretty cool, and especially now after all these years, when we get back on the road, like we just we we laugh heaps, and I think I'm so grateful for that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, that when you we get into weird situations, you know, on the road, like sometimes things don't go to plan, or you're staying in a weird place, you know, it's like you get to the hotel and it's you know, it's not actually hotel, it's just like Ralph's place, you know, and you're just like, hi Ralph.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well at least you know you're a bit protected, at least you know you've got sort of your brother there and he'll keep an eye out for you.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: That way it is, we're there for each other.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: And also, I think the thing with touring a lot is you miss out on stuff.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're away a lot, you know, we've missed you know, you miss you miss birthdays of friends and family, you miss weddings, we miss the birth of our first nephew.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're in we did this awful dig in Toboomba, and we were, you know, I was in the motel like through the night getting texts from my brother-in-law and just wishing that I would, you know, but to have my brother there, we could sort of um we could be be sad together about missing out.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I can I actually get that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I think there's something quite beneficial about having family on the road.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I actually think there's something nice about that because you could sort of, yeah, it just gives you a feeling that you're not away from home, even though you are.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's there's something quite special about that.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I actually could listen to you all day, I have to say.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I love the soulful, indie, peaceful, warm folk storyteller vibe that you guys have.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm obviously a slightly older generation, but at the end of the day, I think that's really quite sophisticated your sound.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have a really sophisticated sound, and I actually love it.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's quite special.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, is that something that you feel has changed over time?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you think is that you set out?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, oh, I think it's definitely changed over time.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I I I think I hope to think that we've gotten better.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, sometimes I mean, yeah.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: I sometimes I listen to the old stuff and I'm like, oh, yeah, okay.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Good that that's out of print, you know.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, I mean, I think I think we have honed it.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: We've honed our songwriting craft, we've honed um the way that we produce the music and play it.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, I so you have there's an evolution.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what you're saying is you can see your evolution.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually having a look at the rich man video.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love the song, I have to say, and um I also love the video.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was really creative and a little mesmerizing.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was sort of like I I'm imagining, and obviously you can extrapolate on this, but it was about transformation and a sense of growth.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I was curious, can you talk to me a little bit about that?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's it's interesting, it's quite a creative uh piece.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think um I think that what the piece is so it's sort of me sitting um in a chair, and um I have two hands on either side of me, kind of putting um furs and then taking them off, putting jewels and then taking them off, putting makeup and like kind of um, and the song is about a woman who is um with um a rich man.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I guess um the clip is kind of in uh uh uh uh it's about a woman maybe being controlled um and uh and being controlled with um with things, with money and wealth.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I read it, yes.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then you know, by the end f she sort of um takes everything off and I'm naked and I smear my makeup.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's taking you three minutes to get there anyway.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: So um uh yeah, it's it it's about that, and um, it was really fun to make actually.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: All my film clips, all our film clips, usually I come up with the idea and then I just get my mates to like help me.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they my mates will style, and um we'll often get a pr a professional filmmaker to to be on that side of things, but um that was a really fun thing to do.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh each arm is a friend of mine, and they're just like messing with me.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's very it's a very cool video, and also it really exemplifies what you're trying to say in this in the song.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually really clear from that video, and the simplicity of it is quite effective.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, no, I thought it was great.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so tell me, Emily, what's next for you?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do you what would you like to see, assuming we open up and the world becomes somewhat normal?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Normal.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be nice.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I um Tintman Orange will be releasing an EP early next year.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that'll be great.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll be touring, fingers crossed, um, early next year to middle of next year.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, during lockdown, I wrote uh um, I was writing, I pretty much yeah, wrote an uh children's album, which was really fun to do with my friend Jess Rivero.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's great.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's wonderful.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: For what sort of age group?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So like maybe three, four year olds.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And also your husband's a singer songwriter, he's he's with the Cat Empire.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you guys ever collaborate together?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you because the Cat Empire obviously has quite a very dedicated following, and I'm sure you've been to some wonderful concerts and been on the road with him too.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, what sort of do you ever collaborate you to?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: We do.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he has a lot to do with the tin pan orange recording.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, he he I I always have him in the studio with me, whatever I do, pretty much.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because he's just he's a wealth of kind of ideas, he's got good ideas and he often might engineer it or help produce um our work or my stuff.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean it it can get tense.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um more tense than my brother.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's maybe for me, it's easier working with my brother than my husband, but we I get it.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you know, and I just I wouldn't do it without him because he's yeah.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, I've s I s I often will sing um backing vocals on his recordings and stuff like that.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we do.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: We we often work together.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what have you learned from each other?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um patience.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, great, great answer.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um a lot.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can't say what he's learned from me.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it's a hell of a lot, but I what I've learned from him is he's got he's got amazing ideas, he's got amazing um just musical ideas, melodic ideas, pr production ideas, and um so often even sometimes he won't be there, and I'll sort of think, oh, what what would what would Harry do?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: What would Harry do right now?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: But um, so yeah, it he's he's good.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, lucky you, you you're surrounded by beautiful creative spirits, which I'm sure help facilitate your own creativity.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we're looking forward to hearing you perform uh the Leonard Cohen song of your choice, which we don't know yet, but we will all will be revealed.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to thank you for taking the time to have a chat to us and wish you well and look forward to hearing the new EP when it's out.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Pleasure.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for having me, Deb.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Absolute pleasure.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great one.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: You too.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you've learned as much as I have.
• 19:23
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• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: For more stories or for an opportunity to tell your own, head to my website, mindfell and publishing.com.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, stay curious, kind, and connected with life again.