Gary Steel chats with Julia Deans and Anika Moa in anticipation of the June 25 Divas concert with the Auckland Philharmonia.
LATE NOVEMBER 2014, I met up with Julia Deans and Anika Moa at Salvation Kitchen in Avondale to interview them for the Auckland Philharmoniaโs magazine, Phil News. In anticipation of their Divas concert with the APO at Auckland Town Hall next week, hereโs the complete transcript of our conversation, minus the asides.
Anika Moa โ We havenโt seen each other for ages, because sheโs been busy and Iโve been busy with babies and shit. Excuse me for eating. If anyone wants to eat any of this just go for it.
Gary Steel โ I would but Iโm vego. [Itโs a Mexican wrap with big bits of bacon].
Anika โ Are you offended by me eating meat?
Gary โ No.
Anika โ Oh good.
Julia โ As a vegetarian you kind of get used to it.
Anika โ We went to a party last night and there were about 20 vegetarians, 50 gluten frees, and I was sitting there eating all the meat [cackles like a witch]. Suckers!
Gary โ I usually find the opposite. You go to a party, they say theyโre going provide for the vegetarians, thereโs one veg thing and all the meat eaters eat the veg thing!
Julia โ Especially when you order pizza, everyone goes โoh, this vegetarian pizzaโs really goodโ, and itโs like โuhhh, I only got one pieceโ.
Gary โ Iโve got my Japanese in-laws staying with me at the moment, so weโre having to put up with a bit of meaty stuff.
Anika โ Are both you and your wife vegetarian?
Gary โ Yeah. Weโve got a new bubba, 7 weeks old.
Anika โ Youโve got a new bubba! Weโve got a new bubba too! Ours is 6 weeks old! Natasha, she had him. Whatโs yours?
Gary โ A girl.
Anika โ Whatโs her name?
Gary โ Minay. M-i-n-a-y, which means โbeautiful musicโ, which is the name of the shop I used to run.
Anika โ Oh so cool!
Julia โ Congratulations!
Anika โ Itโs my third so itโs nothing special.
Julia โ Well you did get two at once.
Anika โ Just from having twins, having Soren our little boy is SO EASY. Natasha, itโs her first born, so she loves it but she struggles sometimes when he screams. Heโs found his voice. Takes after me!
Gary โ Have you got kids Julia?
Julia โ No. Not yet.
Anika โ Youโve still got time.
Julia โ Oh I donโt know if I do.
Gary โ So this Divas thing. Itโs going to be difficult answering questions about something thatโs so far in advance.
Julia โ Yeah, we havenโt even started looking at getting arrangements done, selecting the songs or anything like that.
Gary โ The basic idea is that you presumably select the songs of yours that you like a lot or that you feel the most appropriate with orchestral arrangements?
Julia โ Weโll take some older songs and weโve both got albums coming out.
Anika โ And thereโs lots of harmonies to be sung, eh? Eh?
Julia โ And weโll hang out together, and weโll probably do some covers as well.
Gary โ Will you do individual sets or will it all just be together?
Anika โ I dunno, I think so, I think we should be together.
Julia โ Because then we can laugh at each otherโs jokes onstage because no one else will.
Anikaโ That is true.
Julia โ Well no one will laugh at mine.
Gary โ Being a classical audience they might clap politely at the jokes rather than laugh at them.
[laughter]
Anika โ We both played a Christchurch Symphony gig separately, years ago, and I remember because they went โdo 12 of your songs and two coversโ, and one of my covers was โTo Sir With Loveโ and they said โoh, Juliaโs just performed that with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra two weeks agoโ. I thought โyes! Weโre so awesome! We did the same songs!โ It was nearly 10 years ago. Bic Runga did one as well. So thatโs pretty much my one and only experience with an orchestra except for when I was at high school when we used to be in the orchestra.
Julia โ And we did the Adults with the APO a couple of years ago and Anika and Ladi6 joined us for the songs that were on the Adults album. That was great fun.
Gary โ Everybody was raving about that. Youโre using Hamish McKeich too.
Julia โ Hamish is fantastic. We love him. With his velvet coat and hisโฆ I have this really exotic backstory for him. Itโs not necessarily true but itโs a really good story.
[laughs]
Gary โ Do you think youโll end up doing your respectively well-known songs in the gig orโฆ
Anika โ I feel that, you know when I see my favourite artistsโฆ I want to see Sinead OโConnor at WOMAD because sheโs one of my favourite artists, and Iโm going to want her to sing โNothing Compares To Youโ, and all my favourite songs. Not even off her famous albums, even some obscure shit. So I expect that of her, and I want that to be what people expect of me and her (Julia).
Julia โ I think itโs good to deliverโฆ I donโt think you have to deliver all the hits but you have to deliver a few of them because it is what people expect, and you get such a good response, itโs respectful.
Anika โ And when we do โLydiaโ, everyoneโs eyes light up! And people dance.
Gary โ Can a song like that translate to an APO thing?
Julia โ Oh yeah, Iโve done that in Christchurch. And I did Orchestra In The Park in Nelson, and we used the same arrangement for that, itโs really sweet, it translates really well because it turns it into more of the โ50s/โ60s rock song that I wrote it as. Itโs great.
Gary โ Whose idea was to call it Divas?
Julia and Anika โ Not mine! [laughs]
Gary โ I wonder if people will be expecting diva kind of material.
Julia โ I would have gone for โSomething In The Waterโ if it hadnโt been a Brooke Fraser song.
Gary โ What do you think of classical music? Do you listen to it?
Anika โ I used to, years ago.
Julia โ I grew up studying classical music all through school.
Anika โ I used to go around to this ladyโs house, she was a hairdresser, she used to play classical music when we used to walk her beagle. I was a geek. All I wanted to do was walk the beagle and listen to classical music.
Gary โ But snoopy likes jazz!
Anika โ I donโt listen to it now. I like country music. I went and saw Tami Neilson the other day, she was amazing. At the Winchester. There was a whole crowd of dressed up country people. Awesome.
Gary โ So your new album is going to be country and western?
Anika โ Itโs electronic. Iโm a Gemini. Every time I do an album I change it musically. No, itโs totally electronic, Joel Mulholland did it, he produced the whole thing, and we just wrote the songs together. Theyโre half my songs half his, so it should be our album, but Iโm calling it my album because itโs my money [emphasizes the word], first and foremost, and my song ideas soโฆ heโs amazing, heโs my fat Joel, Iโm Lorde, heโs my fat Joel.
July โ Fat Joel! Ha-ha! Heโs not even fat!
Anika – Heโs fat Joel because of skinny Joel, skinny Joel Little. So my albumโs out in April, and Iโm releasing a single in December. And whenโs yours out young lady?
Julia โ Iโve got to finish it first. My life has been taken over by Jesus Christ Superstar and I also did a psychology paperโฆ just doing fulltime rehearsal and studying assignments for exams. And then my exam was on opening night during production week, and we were at the theatre basically from 10am to 11pm every day, so it was kind ofโฆ my brain got completely wiped out.
Gary โ You wouldnโt want to have a breakdown while you were doing a psychology paper, would you?
Julia โ Ha-ha! Or would you? I was going to do a summer school paper, but Iโve just decided not to. And Iโm supposed to be trying to do my album at the same time butโฆ
Anika โ Why donโt you try adding a baby in the mix?
Julia โ I find it hard just to keep on top of the dishes. Honestly, our house has turned into this BOMB site.
Anika โ Because youโre never home. Iโve lived with yuzz, I know.
Gary โ So your albumโs not recorded yet but youโll be looking at doing itโฆ
Julia โ No, itโs recorded and weโve got two songs to mixโฆ one and a half really.
Gary โ Does it have a tentative release date?
Julia โ Not at the moment. Iโm just still getting my head back on top of things and getting my head in the routine of doing seven shows a week. But the last couple of days Iโm finally starting to get my head back, so itโs good.
Gary โ And have you both got labels lined up?
Anika โ Iโm distributed by Rhythmethod.
Gary โ It will be independent?
Anika โ I dunno. I had a meeting with them the other day. Thatโs all I remember. [laughs]. They said letโs release it and Iโm like yeh-yeh-yeh-yeh!
Gary โ A lot of artists donโt even seem to have a label now, just a distributor.
Anika โ Well Iโm distributed through Rhythmethod but Lisa Paris is doing my promo, soโฆ I give them the product. I had my baby. I recorded it and said: here you go.
Gary โ I still havenโt heard โMusic For Bubbasโ. Now Iโve got a baby Iโve got to get it!
Anika โ You have to get it! Thatโs on your top two things to do today!
Gary โ You didnโt know I had a baby!
Anika โ But I think our show will be good. Obviously we havenโt at all been able to think about it, but weโve done shows together and I know how beautiful and luxurious her voice is and our voices are very compatibleโฆ
Gary โ A good blend.
Anika โ And weโve got the same sense of humour. Weโre both amazing! And weโve both got such a long catalogue of music. I love Taylor Swift at the moment, just so you know.
Gary โ Do you like that new album?
Anika โIโve never liked her before, but her songwriters are amazing.
Julia โ That guy from โShake It Upโ is the same guy, that Swedish guy whoโs written just about every pop hit ever for the last 15 or 20 years. Crazy.
Gary โ Parts of what she does Iโm okay with, but parts of itโฆ thereโs a chipmunk thing.
Anika โ Itโs young.
Gary โ Yeah Iโm an old fuck.
Anika โ Youโre right you ARE an old fuck. [laughter]
Julia โ I like her because sheโs not doing the whole Iโm going to take all my clothes off and be sexy thing. She sings about relevant emotions to young people, but sheโs not about โyou have to be thisโ. Itโs โno, be yourselfโ.
Anika โ Have fun, shake it off.
Gary โ It sounds real, itโs unpretentious. Itโs not like that Sia thing, โChandelierโ.
Anika โ She loves it!
Julia โ The thing that I like about that song is that I know it would be great fun to sing. Itโs such a singerโs song.
Gary โ Great karaoke potential.
Anika โ How can anyone sing that high? I canโt sing that high, itโs ridiculous. You can.
Gary โ Itโs that Whitney Houston thing.
Anika โ I love divas. Howโs your voice holding up?
Julia โ Really good. It was really tired last week and then on Mondayโฆ I did eight shows last week so I spent all Monday in bed and I didnโt talk to anyone, the same on Tuesday, I just lounged around the house until I had to go to the show and I feel so much better now.
Gary โ Itโs a real strain on the voice singing those rock opera songs?
Julia โ No, in all honesty itโs not. The songs that I have lead on sit really comfortably in my range, itโs just that we all sing in the chorus, so weโre pretty much singing the whole show, and thereโs lots of running around, so thatโs crazy.
Gary โ Is your album electronic too?
Julia โ Well sort of, I wrote on keyboards using old synth sounds, so I just wanted to changeโฆ itโs not electronic per se but Iโm incorporating electronic sounds. I wanted to take old synth sounds Iโve used and translate them into orchestral sounds, use the fullโฆ
Gary โ Palette!
Julia โ Thatโs the word!
* Divas, Auckland Town Hall, Thursday June 25, 8pm.