Beccy ColeCountry music legend Dame* Beccy Cole (*she’s not, but she should be) is an incredible part of the Australian music industry.
For over three decades she's been a constant live presence, a self-confessed ‘gig pig’ who feels at home with a crowd. Over the last few years though there’s been a record drought on the Cole front, now broken with new album Through The Haze.
“I feel like in a way I haven't gone anywhere, but it's a return to the recording of my original music world,” Cole smiles. “So, yes, it is somewhat of a return, but, you know, it's not like I've stopped doing gigs or anything.
“Ever since I was 14, like doing gigs in my mum's band. I think the longest break I ever had before COVID was when I was pregnant, but then I was eight-and-a-half months pregnant on stage, then took a two week old on the road! … COVID taught me to, you know, not fill every single weekend with gigs. You know, I learned to have weekends off.”
Cole’s big recording break has been a very long one – seven years since her last originals release. The break included some significant health issues including time in hospital and the need for extensive art therapies to rebuild her mental health, struggles Cole explores as part of the album from a range of perspectives.
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“You know, I was always really against therapy because I was worried about what can of worms it might open up, you know, but I needed it. It was actually life-saving for me,” she explains. “I had so many different aspects of therapy, I had rapid therapy in a facility after my breakdown, I had equine therapy with horses, which was amazing, and music therapy.
“But of course he didn't know what to do with me because he said normally say ‘sit down and write a song’ I said ‘well I do that for a living, but I can't do it right now,’ I'd lost my voice.”
Recovery from mental ill-health is something Cole is open and passionate about discussing. “The breaking down of your mind… and rebuilding myself from there has given me a newfound understanding and empathy for people who go through it,” she explains.
“And there's nothing wrong with you [if you have mental health struggles]. Like if you've got a broken arm, people say ‘oh are you all right? Does it hurt?’, you know, but if you've got a broken brain for a little while there can be a stigma, although hopefully that’s changing.”
Through The Haze was recorded on sacred country music ground at Kasey Chambers’ property and studio, Rabbit Hole Recording. “This is my favourite record I've ever made because of where I made it and who I made it with,” Cole explains. “My best mate's place basically, and with all my favourite people, my favourite musicians, my son … so surrounding myself with the right people.”
The result is a beautiful collection of funny, clever, tender and at times just out and out kind country music – accomplished and carefully put together.
“When it gets too serious, I'll make a joke. And I've always done that with my music as well because I think people can relate,” Cole laughs, talking about opening track Shit Magnet. “There's a lot of truth in that song, even though it's funny and I love having a laugh at myself.
“It's self-deprecating, which we Aussies do pretty well. But when I reflected and looked at, you know, the roadkill that's on the highway of my love life, I go, ‘wow, I really can pick them!’. And they haven't all been bad, but they've mostly been bad. I have wonderful relationships with some of my exes, and some of them I'll never see again.
“And some of them I've been in, you know, hard battles with, obviously. And so that song just takes a lighter look at it,” she adds. “It basically says, if you're drawn to me, then, you know, history shows you're probably a piece of shit.”
To bookend this is Too Broken, a tender song also about failed romance, but with a completely different tone. The laughter is replaced with kindness for all sides – it was still not going to last, but there’s a beauty to having tried.
“I think that song's reporting on one of my softer breakups,” Cole explains “I am friends with that person and I think that it's it was really important to mark the fact that you know when you're older and you're entering relationships or you're trying things out, you do come with baggage… but that song proves that you know, you can have a respectful uncoupling.”
Lifelong relationships and musical muses also return here, with The Gardener & The Flower inspired by Cole’s lovely grandmother Gloria (also the star of the song Gloria's Rose on 2011’s Songs And Pictures.
Cole’s son, Ricky Albeck (also an artist in his own right), is a constant, this time helping to get Cole back into the studio, get the songs out and ultimately also have her finally debut her music on vinyl.
“He's got an incredible talent, an amazing heart,” Cole gushes. “He's got his dad's [Mick Albeck] heart and he's got just an ear and an eye for things that are amazing. He got this project up and running, he basically liaised with the record company and everybody to do with it all, I’m just am so proud of him.”
Also keep an ear out for Happiness Is In Your Hands (Mason’s Song), Beccy’s tribute to her three-year-old grandnephew. The road has been rocky, but the future is bright.
Beccy Cole’s Through The Haze is out now.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
