The Audreys
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The Audreys

“Give a couple of guys guitars and it’s just going to be cocks out all the way!” joked The Audreys’ frontwoman Taasha Coates when asked about their newfound swagger on album number four, ’Til My Tears Roll Away’.
Taasha credits the inclusion of longtime friend/producer/engineer Shane O’Mara to the band line-up, and the joys of motherhood, with awakening a sleeping ambition in the triple ARIA Award-winning blues/roots duo. “We love working with Shane, but this time he didn’t engineer so much, he played more as part of the band which was really cool.
“We got our rock on. My inner rock chick has been lurking inside me the whole time. She just said ‘it’s time; time to come out and show the world!’ Motherhood was meant to mellow me but it seems it’s done the opposite.”
Taasha and Tristan are favourites around the Forte office – their natural manner and charm make them a pleasure to chat with, and this time is no exception.
Suddenly the line goes dead on our conference call and when we’re re-connected Taasha apologises by confessing, “My little one crawled under the table and pulled the phone line out! He’s mostly adorable – 90 per cent of the time,” she laughed lovingly.
In fact her deeper, sultrier vocals could be attributed to her little boy. “My voice got quite deep when I was pregnant and I thought, ‘well this is fun’, and it never went away which was cool … When it came time to start work on this album, everything just fell into place.”
’Til My Tears Roll Away has been received extremely well by critics, with one calling it a “triumphant evolution” and another regarding the use of fuzzy guitars and big drums as “seriously sexy rock ’n’ roll.”
“This album was so much fun to make.” To get the authentic vintage-rock sound, Taasha said they took a trip down memory lane – to the famed 1980s Rhinoceros Studios in Sydney. “All the tracking was done on a big old desk that used to be in the studio. So many classic Australian albums were made at Rhinoceros. We were able to get that big, full ‘band in a room’ sound. It was incredible!” Included in a long list of successful bands to use the studio back in the day are INXS, Midnight Oil, Richard Clapton, GANGgajang and Australian Crawl.
’Till My Tears Roll Away has become an instant classic, so I wondered if the pressure to win a fourth ARIA weighed heavily on their minds during recording. Taasha answered honestly with her usual wit: “Earlier on we did, definitely, and making the second record we felt that pressure, but I try not to sweat about that stuff. We don’t make records to win ARIAS. That would just be silly.”
Catch The Audreys, with their full band in tow, at the Golden Vine Hotel in Bendigo. Head to their Facebook page for more details, and while you’re there message Taasha and Tristan any song requests from their first three albums – chances are they’ll play ’em!
When&Where: Kyneton Town Hall, Kyneton – June 13; Ormond Hall, Melbourne – June 14; and The Vine, Bendigo – June 15
Writen by Natalie Rogers