BUTTERLFY 9 ON A WING, A PRAYER AND A MEMORY FOR WIND BACK WEDNESDAY
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Last week I pulled out two albums from Sydney duo Butterfly 9, probably not played in four or five years but showings sings of how often they had been played in the decades I’d owned them, and the response – here, as I sang along, and online, from those who saw my post about them and were probably doing the same in their heads – spurred a search in the files for B9 business.
This 2005 interview found them soon after their second album’s release, counting costs and so nearly cleaning up the cash for an ad that should have been, and may yet be if some ad agency is reading. Another story that nearly was? Yep.
The band, and the couple at the centre of it, are no more but here’s something timeless about the back story – pop music made with guitars have never got much traction locally, for one – and something similar with the music itself. Good band.
                  ______________________________
Â
SUZY CONNOLLY THINKS she may have some peace at last as she's thrown a bright new toy in front of her 8-month-old son Geordie to distract him. Does this work with husband and fellow member of Butterfly 9, Matt Fell: throw him a shiny new toy and he'll leave you alone?
"Of the musical kind, yes absolutely," she laughs, remembering moments when Fell has lost himself in nerd heaven while in the studio.
"I love [the sound] really stripped back. When I went to the studio with Matt and [Sydney singer/songwriter/producer] Michael Carpenter, who was heavily involved in the last album, they are both huge Brian Wilson pop fans, so there was a lot of layering, which is great but live I like to keep things pretty simple. I don't have a really really loud voice so I find it hard competing with the huge drum kit."
On the surface Fell is the production and guitar playing half of the Sydney duo while Connolly is the songwriting and singing half. It's not that straightforward a demarcation of course; Fell, co-writes occasionally and even takes lead vocals on one track on their recent second album, One For The Birds.
It is a partnership which began romantically, bonded over a shared love for sophisticated pop music and then turned into a musical pairing six years ago during professionally grey days in the professionally sunny city of Los Angeles.
Connolly had long set her sights on L.A., figuring there was little hope for a songwriter in Australia who didn't want to be the next Kylie. Fell came along for the ride and was there while Connolly grew increasingly frustrated with the mechanics of the music industry.
"Matt came over when we were just starting to go out and we were forced to write with one another, forced to work with one another,' remembers Connolly. "It ended up creating this beautiful collaboration between us."
So why did the idea of a solo artist end?
"I suppose, to be honest, from a purely marketing point of view, there were at that time a lot of female singer/songwriter's and the kind of music I do is not the real confessional, my-heart-is-bleeding-from-my-diary kind of stuff. I didn't want people to think 'right here we have another one of them'. And Matt and I were writing together and thought let's call it something and we ended up giving it the most ridiculous name - that I have no idea what it means - and now we're stuck with it.
"Ah well," she adds philosophically. "There are worse names."
There is something to be said for the name nonetheless. It does vaguely suggest some of the classy, melody-rich guitar pop music which Connolly and Fell make. Music that has its most obvious comparison in the likes of Aimee Mann and the late lamented Melbourne outfit deadstar.
In other words, not the kind of music that is not generally allowed to pass through the doors of thick headed Australian radio stations. But as their web site logs reveal, the music has been getting out to places like Belgium and Siberia. And then there are their fans in the advertising world.
"We nearly got a tampon ad this year in the US. The amount of money we would have got would have been quite ridiculous," Connolly says incredulously. "It was Another Perfect Day from our first record, and we were so close. And God we have no qualms about selling out to a tampon company: women's needs etc."
There is always the chance to say "hey, we're big in Siberia". Not to mention the fact that the Lord - and Johnson & Johnson - knows that there are plenty of other hygiene products, and baby toys, that could do with a marketing boost from a great pop song.
"That's right," says Connolly. "If there any [manufacturers] out there reading, give us a call."
Â
READ MORE