Harmony James: In perfect harmony

20 January 2012

by Poppy Reid

From a home-schooled family of 14, lead by a Baptist preacher who forbade his children to listen to anything but ‘church music’ and his daughters from wearing pants or shorts, Harmony James has managed to shy away from ingrained influences, rising into national consciousness the old fashioned way – a strategy which still actually works in country music.

Growing up in Queensland with a teenage social life spent at church, James admits a childhood far-left of norm may have been all she knew, but she still recognised it was anything but ordinary.

“There are points in my life which I can now laugh about and think ‘that was odd’,” she says. Yet it’s that exact shelter that has now opened up doors most hairbrush-yielding young girls dream of. Without a country music reference or a Shania Twain to tell her how to think, James was able to bleed her emotions into an organic shape.

“Because of my lifestyle I haven’t been terribly influenced by another sound or genre or type,” she says. “I’ve lived on a cattle station since I was 12-years-old, no one’s told me how to write and I’ve never tried to write like someone, so I may have evolved a sound that is just mine.”

The appetence throughout 2009’s Tailwind, James’ independently released debut, was met with accolades that proved her pre- eminence. The title track topped Nashville’s International Songwriting Competition and James won both VCMA and APRA’s breakthrough awards that same year. The country music sphere couldn’t be more fitting for James, and not just because of all the jillaroo fodder she cleaves into her music; the traditional workings of the industry - which still sells ample physical copies and rarely comes across entertainment piracy issues – mean James’ sense of anomie will be less overwhelming for her sophomore release Handfuls Of Sky.

“I do joke and say I’m socially retarded,” she laughs. “When I have those moments when I’m learning something for the first time I do have that moment where I wish I was street smart or I wish I didn’t have to learn things publicly.

“But with all my experiences with media and everything that comes along with making an album I think I’ve done a whole lot to change my lifestyle and I think the new album documents a major transition in my life.”

This time around though, James now has two of Australia’s premier music companies behind her. Her recent signing to Alberts Music and Warner Music Australia mean this album won’t be delivered wrapped in faith and a blindfold. Reticent in nature, James puts her major label covenants down to her manager/ producer Herm Kovac’s passion and industry connections.

“I’m a bit of a ‘we’re not worthy’ type of person,” accepts James. “I’m quite shy but he’s not, he knew people and told them what I’d achieved without them, which isn’t too bad for an indie artist who popped up out of nowhere!” With her foot well planted in the open door of opportunity, James seems the most independent she’s ever been, and she is, except for when it comes to any religious iconography in her work.

“[Time Will Tell] is quite overt. It’s a little rebellious and it’s very tongue and cheek. I had a feeling my parents might take it the wrong way, so I had to give them a warning briefing. I’ve actually put in the liner notes ‘please skip track eight’,” she laughs.

Having quashed any expostulations her parents expressed, James’ next hope is for the rescinding of Australia’s country music industry.

“If I had a wish, it would be that it wasn’t so stigmatised,” she says. “I do feel that in Australia there’s a portion of the demographic who just assume it’s gonna be bad. I think I am seeing a shift though... Now that we’ve got the Taylor Swift thing, I think whether people associate those artists with the word country or not, they do open people up a bit to go, ‘okay maybe it’s not completely terrible’.”

For a jillaroo-turned-optimistic- country-darling with 12 brothers and sisters, it’s easy to assume she’s as tough as nails; the truth however is rather different.

“I’m well aware that whatever path you tread can be challenging at times but I just hope I’m tough enough to handle whatever they throw at me.”

Handfuls of Sky is out now through Warner Music Australia/ Alberts Music