Laura Imbruglia, Australian singer-songwriter and member of The Bin Chickens, is back after a six-year hiatus with a hard-hitting, politically-charged new single.
“I don’t normally write political songs, so I find it hard to talk about them,” Laura admits. “I normally write about matters of the heart, so it is pretty hard for me to put into succinct words what I’m trying to say, but it’s all in the lyrics. It’s pretty black and white.
“It’s about my desire for boys to be raised a little differently. For men to, from a young age, be encouraged to be softer and to not see vulnerability as a bad thing.”
So, for Laura, the writing process wasn’t easy.
“I spent the whole night coming up with a few different options and trying to figure out what my aim was with the song, and whether I was trying to lecture or actually get people to think about their place in the world and their ability to make change or their desire to see change happen, and the original lyrics weren’t serving that purpose, and so that’s why it got rewritten.
Image © Rex Kane-Hart
“They were aimed at specific types of men,” she continues, “like guitar store bros, or mechanics, and they were placeholder lyrics that I was never happy with and they were a bit joke-y and I always intended to replace them.”
The final version has a few updates.
“It has different lines that apply to different people. Some of it is directed at people raising kids, but it’s when you interact with children. If you’re a man, it’s looking at your privilege and looking at the things that you choose to ignore or that make you uncomfortable, that you look away from. Maybe consider looking a little more closely at them if they make you uncomfortable, and think about why it makes you uncomfortable, and what could be done to address it.
“Because I always thought that there wasn’t really an issue and that women are treated with equal respect to men,” Laura recalls, “But you can see it in the music industry with representation in festivals and on airplay.
“So next time you’re on a music venue website or walking past a venue, look at the posters and how many women are on those posters versus men,” she urges, “and then start thinking about what that looks like to a young person making music and how it makes them feel about themselves, or how much harder it might make their ambitions feel, or how much harder it is to achieve their dreams, and that’s just the music industry.
“You see it across pay-gap and all kinds of stuff. It paints a picture of ‘women are lesser’ and ‘not as good’ which is not true.”
She ends with one final wish: “If you’re in a band playing shows, think about that stuff when you’re booking the support acts, and when you’re booking the sound techs try and make diversity an important thing that you look for.”
