The lovely Katie Noonan is a juggernaut when it comes to music and the creation behind it. Transforming seemingly un-noticeabley from a partying uni student to a successful singer/ songwriter to having a host of acclaimed musical projects.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Our own Katie Noonan is doing us proud.

Katie Noonan somehow finds time to chat with me about all thing Noonan. Enjoy.

Where are you at the moment?

I’m in Brisbane at the moment.

How did you go with the floods?

Fine, just messy. I actually live up in the mountains an hour northwest of Brisbane and I’m on tank water so the rain was actually good but just a lot of mess. We had no power yesterday because they’re still fixing the powerlines.

How was 2010 and how has the start of 2011 been for you?

2010 was awesome, it was a massive year, very satisfying creatively, I toured a lot (four massive national tours around Australia). It was big and a bit exhausting and I haven’t quite totally recovered from it fully to be honest, big year for everyone on many levels! So I’m little tired and this year is going to be enormous as well in a different way. I’m excited about what we have achieved and really excited about this upcoming tour and I’ve slightly closed a chapter on this album with The Captains, this will be our last dedicated national tour for this album.

You’re sticking with The Captains after this tour?

Yeah, The Captains and Elixir are still my two main creative projects for sure, it’s just that Cameron our guitarist has moved to India for a couple of years and he’ll be back a lot and it’s exciting because he’ll be back to Australia for this upcoming national tour and we’re going to start writing our second album. It’s all good, just by Cameron living in New Delhi rehearsals get a little bit complicated. But it’s still my main creative project, we’re just going to get into writing mode and start writing the next album.

You always seem to have a ridiculous amount of stuff going on, you’re always doing different projects and what have you. How do you handle all this when most people would go crazy?

Well I do kind of go crazy, but I just try and take it a day at a time, the hardest thing has been because I basically decided to leave my management a couple of years ago before this captains project so I could take the reins and make all the decisions myself just to make sure the integrity of the project was sustained throughout all elements of the project which has also been satisfying but pretty exhausting at the same time. I just try to relax when I can and keep healthy, that’s kind of the only way to keep up with touring to eat well and try to look after yourself as well, but I love the music, the music is what fuels me so that kind of re-energises me every night and the people at gigs, you know, these beautiful stories and connections I have with people is a wonderful thing that is really energises and inspires me.

Is that why you’ve chosen a career in music? Because it gives you these feelings?

I didn’t really choose a career in music, it just kind of happened. George was my main project, I mean I was like any other uni student, I worked hard at uni but I certainly hadn’t planned my life beyond partying and finishing my music degree and George just kind of happened, it was completely a happy accident. We worked very hard but certainly the original conception and the original kind of inspiration for it was all very much a happy accident. So I didn’t really choose music, I guess music chose me but since then I’ve come the really be in awe of this wonderful thing that is music, its one of the most beautiful forces in the world, so it’s good to be a part of it.

You have a very unique sound and honestly one of the most beautiful voices I’ve heard in my life. What is your writing process because you don’t really seem to stick to one genre; you just kind of do your own thing?

Every song is different, every project is different, I guess I try to just keep things as honest as possible as I’m writing music. I think one of the worst things you can do is over analyse yourself as it’s happening because you’ll just lose all that initial magic if you go ‘ohh it feels too much like this or…’ you just have to be as honest and true to yourself as possible and hope that comes through. Co- writing is an awesome tool which I think you should only get to after you’ve written on your own a lot because obviously you could be overtly influenced by your co- writer but it is something that I’ve really embraced in that last probably four to five years and I find that’s a really awesome thing as well because ultimately it kind of helps you define your style because you’re doing it with someone else.

They say that to write a sad song you have to be sad and to write a love song you have to be in love. Do you think that if the lyrics and music are interpretations of real events you perform them better because they mean something to you?

Yeah definitely, you don’t have to kind of pretend in any way because you lived the song and I don’t understand people who have other people write songs for them and then they kind of sing them, I don’t really understand how you could do that all the time. But then also sometimes you can just find someone who can basically write exactly what you’re thinking (laughs), but that’s a pretty rare occurrence. But yeah, for me it’s definitely easier for me to sing sons that I’ve lived myself or songs that I’ve laboured over with the melody and the lyrics. Some songs take ten minutes to write and some take ten years to evolve and they eventually come out; for example, the song ‘Golden’ on ‘The Emperor’s Box’ record, I wrote that song literally about ten years ago and it just didn’t find it’s home until The Captains so every song is different.

I see with ‘Emperor’s Box’ you have collaborated with some Aussie greats like Tim Finn, Josh Pyke and Sia, what was that like?

It was awesome to work with people that I really admire and have looked up to my whole life particularly with Tim [Finn] anyway. People like Sia and Josh [Pyke] are contemporary whose music I have respected and enjoyed getting into over the last few years, but I learn a lot from every co- writing experience.

I want to know, and I’m sure many others do; what music do you listen to? What inspires you? What do you enjoy listening to?

I enjoy listening to……(thinks) Who do I love listening to?........ Clare Bowditch, Lior, Joni Mitchell is always in my CD player, Elvis Costello, Bjork, Jeff Buckley, Keith Jarrett, I really love Keith Jarrett the jazz pianist, I like contemporary Aussie is my favourite with people like Lior, Gotye, Clare Bowditch. Yeah.

What’s next for Katie Noonan? Anymore projects?

Katie Noonan and The Captains is still my main project but it’s slightly on the backburner on a slightly decelerated pace because we’ll be writing across oceans. My next project is an exciting one with the Sydney Dance Company and I’m doing a tour doing classical music and then I’m making another record with Elixir, so lots of stuff. The Elixir album will be out probably in the middle of the year.

Sounds awesome! Thanks for your time Katie.

No worries, bye.