Suzie Higgie | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Labels | Anchor & Hope/Shock |
Suzie Higgie is an Australian musician. She is the founding mainstay lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the Falling Joys, an alternative rock band formed in Canberra. She has issued two solo albums, Soon Will Be Tomorrow (collaboration with Conway Savage, June 1998) and Song of Habit (October 2001).
Suzie Higgie is the daughter of William Alexander "Bill" Higgie (1923 –2015), a Department of Immigration diplomat, and Jean Winifred née Stenhouse, from the same department. [1] [2] [3] Her older brother, Mark Higgie, is a diplomat, political advisor and former intelligence analyst. [1] Her younger sister, Jenny Higgie, is a novelist, screenwriter, art critic and co-editor of the London-based contemporary arts magazine, Frieze. [4] Her younger brother, Andrew Higgie, is a London-based theatre and TV producer. [5] [6]
After Higgie attended a boarding school in England, the family relocated successively to Yugoslavia, Italy, France and back to Australia. [2] In Canberra she completed her degree in communication and history before working short terms in an Israeli kibbutz and an Austrian ski resort. [2] Back in Canberra, Higgie and Jenny were members of a folk-pop group, Get Set Go, from mid-1983 to mid-1984, with Nic Dalton and Anthony Hayes (later known as Stevie Plunder). [7] Higgie later recalled, "[d]own at Commonwealth Park there used to be a tunnel with a power point ... My first band with Nic Dalton and Stevie Plunder... we wrote most of our songs down there." [8]
In 1985 Higgie, as lead singer and guitarist, formed Falling Joys, an indie guitar pop group, in Canberra, with Anthony Merrilees on drums; Robin Miles on keyboards and vocals; and Stuart G. Robertson on bass guitar and vocals. [9] Late that year Higgie and Robertson were joined by Ken Doll on drums and the trio played their last Canberra gig before relocating to Sydney in April of the following year. [10] Their debut single, "Burnt so Low", appeared in January 1987, which was co-written by Higgie and Robertson. [9] [11]
Falling Joys' debut extended play, Omega, appeared in November 1989. [9] Penelope Layland of The Canberra Times observed, "A tempting four-track EP from [the band]. Recent line up changes do not appear to have had a radical effect on the music, which is still dominated by the vocals and song-writing of Suzie Higgie." [12] According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, the group's recent singles and the EP, "gained the band many new fans. Higgie's breathy vocals on these records were just one of the band's trademark sounds." [9]
One of their singles, "Jennifer", appeared in April 1991 with a five-track EP version also available. [9] The title track is dedicated to Higgie's sister, Jennifer Higgie. [13] A live version also appeared as Jennifer – The Live EP, which reached the top 60 on the ARIA Singles Chart in September. [9] The group issued three studio albums, Wish List (November 1990), Psychohum (May 1992) and Aerial (August 1993), before disbanding in 1995. [9]
Higgie has participated in reformations of the group, including touring in February and June 2011 and early July 2016. [14] [15] [16] In November 2017 Falling Joys reunited for an Australian tour. [16]
Higgie's first solo album, Soon Will Be Tomorrow, is a collaboration with Conway Savage (from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds). [2] [17] She had started work on the "low-key and low-fi album of soft-hued country'n'blues tunes" in 1996, which was released in June 1998 via Anchor & Hope/Shock Records. [9] Higgie provided lead vocals, guitar and bass guitar; while Savage played piano, organ and keyboards as well as singing. [17] It was recorded by Matt Crosbie at Exeter House, Mount Victoria and co-produced by Higgie and Crosbie. [17] McFarlane described how, "To promote this album of sparse folk/pop tunes and quiet love songs, Higgie and Savage undertook a low-key tour." [9]
The singer-songwriter later recalled, "I wanted to do something really, you know, laid back... I had a few songs that I'd already written, and because my partner Matt [Crosbie], he's been Nick Cave's live engineer for over twenty years, so I'd got to know the guys through him, I heard Conway [Savage]'s piano playing and got to know his stuff he did and I thought, 'That's something different, let's get together with Conway, if he's interested.'… And that's pretty much how it came about." [18]
Songs of Habit (October 2001) is Higgie's second album. [2] According to Jon Casimir of The Sydney Morning Herald , "[it] began life as a series of titles in search of songs. Wanting to challenge herself, she decided to try writing a concept album, loosely based around habits (nuns' habits, drug habits, unconscious and involuntary habits)... There are folk, country and soul echoes, even a hint of lounge music. There are electronic and acoustic songs. But mostly, it's just a collection of tender, warm melodies, the kind of record that is perfectly out of step with everything fashionable in pop and all the richer for it." [2] AllMusic's Richie Unterberger opined, "[its] music suggestive of the moods of those between relationships, keeping pretty much to themselves as they drift through the day in relative reclusion, then sitting alone in smoky bars and clubs at night." [19]
Soon Will Be Tomorrow was re-released in April 2012: Higgie and Savage performed the album live in concert. [18]
Higgie's domestic partner, Matt Crosbie, was the front-of-house audio engineer for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, [20] and they have two children. [2] They lived in Mount Victoria, then Bowral and then moved to the United Kingdom in 2000. [2]
Higgie, Crosbie and children returned to Bowral in mid-2009. [21] By November 2017 the couple had divorced and Higgie was living in Canberra working at the National Museum – she "designs music workshops for people with mixed abilities, whether that involves preschool children or aged Alzheimer's disease sufferers." [16]
Her niece, Anna Higgie, is a Bristol-based illustrator and street artist. [22] [23]
Murder Ballads is the ninth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1996 on Mute Records. As its title suggests, the album consists of new and traditional murder ballads, a genre of songs that relays the details of crimes of passion.
The New Christs are an Australian garage rock band formed in 1980 by founding mainstay, Rob Younger, on lead vocals. Younger was the lead singer for punk rockers, Radio Birdman, and in other hard rock groups, New Race, Bad Music, the Other Side, Nanker Phelge, and Deep Reduction. The New Christs line-up since 2011 is Younger with Jim Dickson on bass guitar, Dave Kettley on guitar, Paul Larsen on drums and Brent Williams on guitar and keyboards. Over their career the group have issued five studio albums, Distemper (1989), Lower Yourself (1997), We Got This! (2002), Gloria (2009) and Incantations (2014). Three former members have died: Stevie Plunder in January 1996, Mark Wilkinson in December 2012 and Christian Houllemare in June 2014.
The Whitlams are an Australian indie garage band formed in late 1992. The original line-up was Tim Freedman on keyboards and lead vocals, Andy Lewis on double bass and Stevie Plunder on guitar and lead vocals. Other than mainstay Freedman, the line-up has changed numerous times. From 2001 to 2022, he was joined by Warwick Hornby on bass guitar, Jak Housden on guitar and Terepai Richmond on drums – forming the band's longest-lasting and best-known line-up. Four of their studio albums have reached the ARIA Albums Chart top 20: Eternal Nightcap, Love This City, Torch the Moon and Little Cloud. Their highest charting singles are "Blow Up the Pokies" and "Fall for You" – both reached number 21. The group's single, "No Aphrodisiac" was listed at number one on the Triple J Hottest 100, 1997 by listeners of national radio station, Triple J. In January 1996 Stevie Plunder was found dead at the base of Wentworth Falls. Andy Lewis died in February 2000.
Deborah Ann Conway is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and had a career as a model and actress. She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi with their top 5 hit "Man Overboard".
Stephen Donald Cummings is an Australian rock singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of Melbourne-based rock band the Sports from 1976 to 1981, followed by a solo career which has met with critical acclaim but has had limited commercial success. He has written two novels, Wonderboy (1996) and Stay Away from Lightning Girl (1999), and a memoir, Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy (2009). In 2014 a documentary film, Don't Throw Stones, based on his memoir premiered as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Sidewinder were an Australian indie pop group founded in 1990 in Canberra by Pip Branson on guitar, Martin Craft on bass guitar and backing vocals, his brother Nick Craft on lead guitar and vocals, and Giri Fox on drums. Early in 1994 Shane Melder replaced Fox on drums and in the next year the group relocated to Sydney. Sidewinder were staples of the Australian alternative rock scene in the 1990s and released two studio albums, Atlantis and Tangerine. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described them as "an accessible brand of distortion-drenched, harmony-driven, indie guitar power pop." Sidewinder released two albums and three EPS between 1992 and 1998, all of which were critically acclaimed and received solid Triple J and commercial airplay. These albums ‘traversed a broad sonic terrain, from Beatlesesque psychedelia to eardrum shattering ballsy rock’. Sidewinder were one of the ‘best loved live acts of this decade [1990s]’. had regular spots on festival bills, including the Big Day Out and played every Homebake from 1996 to 1998.
Stevie Plunder, born as Anthony Hayes, was an Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member of the groups, The Plunderers (1984–1995) and The Whitlams (1992–1996).
Falling Joys are an Australian alternative rock band formed in Canberra in 1985. The original line-up included Suzie Higgie on lead vocals and guitar and Stuart G. Robertson on bass guitar. By the end of 1988 Higgie and Robertson, now on guitar, were joined by Pat Hayes on bass guitar and vocals, and Pete Velzen on drums. They have released three albums, Wish List (1990), Psychohum (1992) and Aerial (1993). Both the latter two albums reached the ARIA Albums Chart Top 50. They disbanded in 1995 but reunited in 2011 and, again, in July 2016.
For the American band with a similar name, see Blackeyed Susan.
Pel Mel were an Australian rock band, which formed in Newcastle in June 1979. They issued two studio albums, Out of Reason (1982) and Persuasion (1983). They toured until the end of 1984 and disbanded in the following year. They reformed in 2012 as Pel Mel Organisation to play occasional shows; they have released a compilation and a live album in 2016.
Conway Victor Savage was an Australian rock musician.
Jennifer Higgie is an Australian novelist, screenwriter, art critic and editor of the London-based contemporary arts magazine, Frieze.
Donald Hugh Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter who wrote many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Walker is considered to be one of Australia's best songwriters. In 2012 he was inducted into the Australian Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
Charles Lothian Lloyd "Charlie" Owen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and producer. He has been a member of The New Christs (1987–90), Louis Tillett and His Cast of Aspersions (1990), Tex, Don and Charlie, Tendrils (1994–99) and Beasts of Bourbon. His solo album, Vertigo and Other Phobias, was released in 1994 on Red Eye/Polydor.
Nicholas James "Nic" Dalton is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and record label owner. He was a member of various Australian bands including, The Plunderers (1984–95), Godstar (1991–95) and Sneeze (1991–present); as well playing with Ratcat and The Hummingbirds. He was the bass guitarist for American band, The Lemonheads in the early 1990s. He also runs the record label Half a Cow, which he co-founded 1990. His current bands are The Sticker Club and, until recently, the Gloomchasers.
Dirty Three is an Australian instrumental rock band, consisting of Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White (drums), which formed in 1992. Their 1996 album Horse Stories was voted by Rolling Stone as one of the top three albums of the year. Two of their albums have peaked into the top 50 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Ocean Songs (1998) and Toward the Low Sun (2012). During their career they have spent much of their time overseas when not performing together. Turner is based in Melbourne, White lives in New York, and Ellis in Paris. Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane described them as providing a "rumbling, dynamic sound incorporated open-ended, improvisational, electric rock ... minus the jazz-rock histrionics". In October 2010, Ocean Songs was listed in the book 100 Best Australian Albums.
The Plunderers were an Australian band which formed in May 1984 in Canberra. The group's founding mainstays were Nic Dalton on bass guitar and vocals and Stevie Plunder on guitar and vocals. The group issued three mini-albums, Trust Us, Sarah's not Falling in Love, and Home Movie (1992); a live album, 13.7.91 Live! Live! Live! (1991); and three albums, No Era Is Safe (1986), Half A Cow (1986), and Banana Smoothie Honey (1992). Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described their sound as "a punky brand of power pop that mixed frantic guitar riffs, sharp harmonies and diamond-hard pop melodies" before starting to "explore a more tripped-out kind of psychedelic revivalism". In 1989 Dalton and Plunder and their drummer, Geoff Milne, formed a side project, Hippy Dribble, playing their more psychedelic songs. In December 1990 the trio also formed Captain Denim to play "more laid-back songs mostly ... influenced by the likes of Buffalo Springfield, Country & Western and folk rock". Both these groups issued material including a split album, Silver Apples/Fade in 1994. In 1992, Dalton joined US band The Lemonheads and former Plunderers' keyboard player Andy Lewis and Plunder formed The Whitlams with Tim Freedman. Plunder died on 25 January 1996, at the age of 32 years and Lewis died on 12 February 2000, at the age of 33 years.
"Never Be the Same" is a song recorded by Australian singer Jessica Mauboy. It was written by Mauboy, Anthony Egizii and David Musumeci, and produced by DNA. The song was released on 7 March 2014 as the fourth single from Mauboy's third studio album, Beautiful. "Never Be the Same" is a mid-tempo pop and R&B power ballad that speaks about "the confusion of growing up and the fact that changes in life are inevitable." The song received positive reviews from critics, who noted it as an emotional and powerful track and praised Mauboy's vocal performance.
The following is a list of notable events that have happened in 2013 in music in Australia.
"Satin Sheets" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Sharon O'Neill, which was released in 1990 as the lead single from her sixth studio album Edge of Winter. The song was written by O'Neill and Alan Mansfield, and produced by Mansfield and Carey Taylor. "Satin Sheets" reached No. 106 on Australia's ARIA Chart.
I Really Hate My Job is written by Jennifer Higgie and produced by 3DD Productions' Andrew Higgie and Dominic Saville, Matthew Justice and Alan Greenspan.
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