Biddy Connor Releases Debut LP As Sailor Days

Posted: 10 June, 2011

In a career now more than a decade long, Biddy Connor has worn a lot of hats: solo musician and performer, composer, string wizard for a host of bands (Tim Finn, Laura Jean, Kes Band, Magic Silver White).

A respected and multi-skilled composer, Connor's work combines classical, experimental and pop influences, and has been performed everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to regional playhouses to cosy Berlin bars. In 2005, she helped found Dead Horse Productions, which helped promote new Australian composition, and saw her, with a rotating cast of other Australian composers and artists, perform to packed houses around Melbourne.

Connor, who counts among her instruments violin, viola, guitar, keyboard and musical saw, has, up until now, worked primarily on her own solo projects, or with other bands. But her new project, Sailor Days, finds her working with a band to bring her own compositions to life.

Before Sailor Days, Connor put together two bands at different times to play her songs. Both bands recorded, but life got in the way and the projects never saw the light of day. Looking back, she says, 'I'm not sure I really knew how I wanted those songs to sound... I think I've learnt lots since then by working with different groups and in different areas of music.'

In 2007, Connor brought her songs to Jen Sholakis (Laura Jean, Jen Cloher and The Endless Sea) and Laura Jean Englert (Laura Jean, Kes Band), forming the trio that is now Sailor Days. Laura Jean and Sholakis, Connor says, helped expand her 'ideas into a fully formed shape.' Before this, she had been performing live solo, armed with just a viola, a loop pedal and some effects –– a set-up she says was helpful for composition, but not nearly as enjoyable as collaborating with friends.

'It was much more fun and inspiring,' she says of working with a band. 'I get easily distracted doing things on my own.'

The songs that make up Sailor Days' self-titled debut had been on the table for quite a while, but changed shape and form when Sailor Days came together -- some, like the album's beautiful first single, Species Counterpoint, being completely redone.

'Species Counterpoint changed quite drastically,' she says. 'I loved and hated the song and when I went to record the melody I couldn't do it; the words were awful and the tune sucked. So I went home and found some poems that my friend Maria Zajnowski had given me and rewrote the melody. Then it became my favourite song on the record.'

Sailor Days is a collection of the songs closest to Connor's heart, and it shows: each of the album's eight tracks is thoughtfully composed, deeply felt and beautifully played. Drawing on her experience in modern composition, Connor has created an album full of striking and unconventional songs, an album of experimental pop that remains wholly accessible and inviting.

Shot through with strings, organs, bassoons and vocal harmonies, Sailor Days is a rich and remarkable record by a writer and composer who we'll be hearing a lot more from.

The Sailor Days s/t lp and Species Counterpoint ep are out now via Gaga Digi.