CLEANING a mate’s house lifted Kim Churchill out of the doldrums and inspired him to write his latest single, Breakneck Speed.
The Canberra-based singer/songwriter had been on a whirlwind tour for a year with Billy Brag, playing the likes of Glastonbury and the Montreal Jazz Festival.
A month off in Canada had unexpected consequences.
“We hadn’t had a break for a long time and it was like falling off the edge and into infinity,” Churchill tells the Herald.
“It felt like we had played a bajillion festivals and toured forever.
“Everything was flying by in a blur that was disorientating.”
• Kim Churchill. Photo supplied
Celebration
Recuperating at his mate’s in Quebec, he grew tired of the messy house and whipped out the feather duster.
“Which made him really, really happy and I realised when I made him happy, it made me happy,” says Churchill.
“It stopped me thinking about me.”
Churchill says that Quebec’s stunning autumn colours inspired the single.
“We were racing around the province through these tunnels of colour…Most days were under this electric blue sky as well,” he says.
“I was kind of on the way up emotionally: that song was my celebration of it all.”
Churchill, 26, started playing guitar at the age of five, picking up tips from his mum she when returned from her guitar lessons.
When he was eight his dad offer to buy him an electric guitar if he went for classical guitar lessons.
While he loved the discipline of formal lessons he “got into Dylan”, and by the age of 16 discovered it was easier to earn money from busking than washing dishes.
“It was so much fun and where I learnt to write down my music,” he says.
He made a CD around that time: “Which I have deleted from history.”
Churchill is performing at the refurbished Fremantle Town Hall tonight, Saturday, June 3, having previously played at Mojos, Clancy’s and the Norfolk basement:
“On this tour we picked beautiful iconic venues,” he says.
He reckons this Freo show will be the “most incredible” of his many in the port city—and the biggest.
“We have seven on this tour, three on stage and me doing my normal one man band,” he says.
“It’s definitely a bigger show than I have done before…but still warm and folksy, with a busking vibe.”
Tickets at http://www.warnermusic.com.au.
by JENNY D’ANGER