Sauce

With the new single from her forthcoming debut album out by the time you read this, Melinda Jackson has plenty to be excited about at the moment. But what could top that? The fact that Magic – a “celebration” of a song by none other than Sting – actually got an official nod from the man himself. That said, she’s also had a bit to be worried about – with the recent prison-sentencing of Oz industry figure Glenn Wheatley putting her on the fringes of controversy, which is never, ever a good thing …

So what’s happening in the world of Melinda Jackson?
Well, I’m just getting ready to release Magic, which is really exciting. I’m in the middle of all the bits-and-pieces with that, so, yeah … right in the middle of it. But that’s going to go out on the 15th of September.

When you say that you’re going to release it, where will you release it? I mean, it sounds like it’s a cage of doves that you’re going to open up, and it’s going to fly out there!
[Laughs] It is!

In what form? Where will you be letting it go to?
Well first of all, we’re starting here in our homeland of Australia … so we’re going to have the official release of the hard-copy CD into shops on the 15th of September, and also the digital release … so it’ll be available in the shops, and also on iTunes and other programs like that. So that’s sort of how it’s going to get released.

Did you go to … is it the Sydney Performing School of Arts or something like that? How has your career evolved to where you are now?
Well, I’ve been singing since I was really young. My family is musical – my grandfather was a lead singer with the Australian opera for a long time. So he came over to Australia – to Sydney – and auditioned for the opera, and he did that. So I guess it’s kind of a family thing. I never studied in any performing arts schools. I did singing lessons and dancing and that sort of thing, but it was more normal school, normal life, I guess. And then, when I left school, I decided I wanted to start doing gigs and singing with different bands, so I started doing that. And I’ve always been writing all the while as well – ever since I was little.

I interviewed Sam LaMore the other day … he mixed Fall In Love?
He produced it, and co-wrote as well. So he was one of the writers – I wrote that with him.

Was that a Central Station sort of joining?
That was wasn’t. Fall In Love happened through iSPY Records, so completely independent, and then through MGM as well.

How did you and Sam get together?
It was through a friend, actually, that I’d worked with in the past, and he sort of said, “Come and meet Sam – he’s in town.” He’d just gotten back from the States, and when he got back, it was like, “Oh, perfect! I’d love to do something with Sam.” So that’s how Fall In Love happened.

And Everywhere was a good release for you. Were you much of a Fleetwood Mac fan as a kid? Or were your folks into Fleetwood Mac?
Yeah, they were. I really liked Fleetwood Mac. I started getting into it when I was older, though. I’ve done that with a fair bit of music; as I get older, I’m starting to go back and listen to older stuff, you know? You appreciate all the sounds, and what they used in production and everything back then.

Amazing stories, really, about the life of the band – in terms of them all hating each other at various points in time, and still working together, and it all coming out in their music. I mean, You Could Go Your Own Way was all about, “bugger off! I don’t care!”
Yeah, I know! It’s incredible! I just can’t believe that they could tour like that! Like, honestly, they must have driven each other absolutely mad! But yeah … that was a really interesting story; that they could come up with such an amazing album, and get out on the road, all in the midst of break-ups and craziness!

Talking about getting out on the road – are you planning to do a national tour to promote Magic?
Yeah, I’m hoping to. [We’re] basically just lining up some gigs around Australia at the moment. We’ve also got some fun international gigs coming up, which is good – after we get it off the ground here. Then we’ll be hopefully releasing overseas with some of the partners over there, which is really good. Basically we’ve got to release Fall In Love over there, in some other countries, and then Magic as well. So that’s quite exciting. But yeah – definitely gigging around. I go on the road with my own band, which is great; it’s a six-piece band. And it sounds a little bit different to what it sounds like in the recording, but it’s sort of what I’m used to – working with bands – so giving it a different flavour, a different edge. But yeah, it’s good.

You are on the edge of one of the biggest sort of controversies and scandals in the Australian music business at the moment, aren’t you? With Glenn?
Yeah, with Glenn. I feel really, really bad for Glenn.

That’s how I feel about it too.
Yeah. I just don’t think it was the right … I don’t think it was handled appropriately, you known?

There’s such a fine line between what is done to minimise tax … and if you’re being advised, I’m sure he would have gone along with advice.
Exactly. Everybody goes along with advice.

Now the poor guy’s got, like, ten months in the slammer.
Yeah. It’s very unfair.

But maybe he’ll be writing some music, and he’ll come out and we’ll see a new Master’s Apprentices album coming out?
Yeah, that’d be cool! [Laughs] But yeah, my heart goes out to him and his family. It’s a very frustrating situation.

Look, there’s some really interesting things going on at the moment with some other big-name muso’s and entertainment types, because the Swiss accountant was advising a lot of different people in the industry, and across the entertainment industry. I noticed that Paul Hogan’s offices went up in a fire recently, and all his records were destroyed … It’s a bit of a difficult time for a lot of some of the icons of the industry out there at the moment.
Yeah … It’s not good.

How does something like that impact on you, in terms of management?
Well, because Glenn and Neil worked together with me, for Neil … he works very closely with Glenn, and he’s a very good friend of Glenn’s, Neil has basically taken care of business now with regard to my career. So yeah – they’re both fantastic guys. I love them both, they’re great. So I’m very lucky that I still have Neil here, you know, to help get things off the ground and everything.

It’s impossible to know everything, and impossible to do everything, and at some point or another, you do have to trust what you’re being told. The whole [concept] of taking advice from people – does that sort of freak you out a bit now? The fact that you are quite vulnerable to other people’s advice and knowledge and priorities?
I guess, in the end, it’s tough, because yeah, you do [feel vulnerable] … But I think it’s really important to read things yourself, and not just, you know, take advice from people – if you’re talking about people like accountants or anything. I think it’s important that people are as clued-up as they possibly can be, you know what I mean? Yeah, so I just try and make sure that I know what’s going on, as much as I can I guess. But yeah, it didn’t sort of freak me out that much, in terms of taking advice from people. I just make sure that I read things! [Laughs] I mean, obviously, my situation is nowhere near as complex as somebody like Glenn … I still have a very simple business structure that I’m working under – it’s not complicated. But I can see that, the further into the industry, and the more successful you are, definitely the more complicated it can get … the more you lose your control of what, where, and who’s taking care of what – that sort of thing. But for me, it’s still a very simple, basic structure, you know?

And would you like to maybe come and play some shows in Tassie one day?
I would love to! I’ve never been to Tasmania, and I have been saying that I want to come down for a long time. It’s beautiful, so yeah – really looking forward to that. Hopefully … I’ll definitely keep you posted! [Laughs]

www.myspace.com/melindajacksonmusic

Listen to an MP3 of the full interview Below