Imogen Brough

With her spine tingling, angelic voice, wavy brown hair and exotic looks, Imogen Brough has unofficially become the poster girl of Geelong. She’s been the ambassador for Geelong Sidewalk Sales two years in a row, was successful in raising funds through a Pozible campaign for her second EP but, surprisingly, the focus wasn’t always on Imogen’s talent.
“Music was something I was always confident at and good at but I was never the lead woman,” Imogen says of her time with high school band the Sweethearts.
“I never got the opportunity to be the lead woman because I didn’t have a big soul voice. I had a really good ear so I was good at holding harmonies, but it actually improved my musicianship so much, so I’m really grateful for being in that position.”
Imogen soon went from singing harmonies at the back of the Matthew Flinders high school band, to having all four judges turn around on reality show The Voice.
Since then Imogen has shared her music with Geelong locals, a town she is more than proud to call home, and made the decision to take that process one step further through the creation of her second EP, which was recently crowd-funded through a Pozible campaign.
At first Imogen was unsure whether even starting the campaign was a good idea.“You just have no idea, and that’s kind of scary,” she says. “Do you want to put this out for the whole world to judge you?”
The campaign proved to be a success for the young musician, and after raising $10,000, with $5,000 for recording and the remainder for design, CD replication and marketing, we can expect the second EP in February next year.
After releasing two singles earlier this year, ‘Heart’ and ‘Love Is Like a Match’, Imogen has fallen in love with the orchestral sound and heavy drums incorporated into the tracks. An idea Imogen loved, but was made possible by working with producer Michael Paynter.
“The way they came out was incredible, I never dreamt of my songs coming out the way that they did,” she says. “They sat me in the middle of the studio so you had speakers on either side and it was really emotional because these are songs that I’ve written from the bottom of my heart.”
While her music has a great way of tapping into peoples emotions, music for Imogen, has also become a great way for her to share her feelings. When living out of home studying in Melbourne, Imogen told one of her sisters that she loved them in the best way she knew how.
“It makes you think how if you can’t express yourself as a person and your feelings for someone, it’s how to do it,” she says.
“You just don’t say that when you live with someone and they’re your sister, but I did it through song and that was so emotional.”
It soon becomes clear from Imogen’s experiences over the past two years that she’s gained a great deal of industry savvy and aside from releasing the two singles has ensured that she doesn’t get pigeon-holed as a musician.
“I’d like to be able to slot into all sorts of different genres, because I’m interested in so many different types of music,” she says. “I love house music, as silly and as lame as that may sound, I love having a dance and finding those songs that are really good to work out to and are really motivating.”
“Then I love theme music and really emotional music like the Lord of the Rings theme songs, and there’s a musician Lisa Gerrard who is just incredible, so there are all these different influences, they all kind of come under the one roof of having huge vocal and massive drums.”
Recently Imogen worked with local rappers Spit and Mac on a single for their new release. When asked what the experience was like, Imogen pauses, before singing the chorus to ‘The Price of Fame’ by 360 likening it to her experience to Spit and Mac.
“I think branching out in the music industry and finding other genres that you can link in with is really important,” she says.
“The song they chose to do with me I was in the chorus and it reminded me of a lot of Hilltop Hoods kind of stuff and that really worked with my voice somehow, it fitted together nicely.”
Though rap songs are a long way from what first ignited Imogen’s passion to pursue a career in music. A love that was realised through the introduction to the band Celtic Women from her Year 12 singing teacher.
“She sent me home with the live DVD of their performance in a castle in Ireland and that changed what it was I was all about,” Imogen says. “I’d had other moments growing up when I thought I need to do this, I loved Enya and as a five-year-old I often went to bed listening to her sing.”
Release: Look out for her second EP out February next year.
By Amanda Sherring