The Baby Animals: Suze DeMarchi, livin' LA
» Sydney Blues & Roots Festival delivers a stellar final bill - July 4, 2011
It’s 9pm LA time and Baby Animals’ frontwoman Suze DeMarchi has stepped away from her dinner companions to accept a call from Australia. The background noise is distracting, the connection shaky and somewhere amongst the angst she manages a very Australian “Hi, how are you?”. Though she may reside in Los Angeles, living in the States for over ten years, home nevertheless is still Australia. Cliche perhaps, Peter Allen held a career on still calling Australia home but Suze is adamant that’s where home is.
Having had the good fortune to speak with her husband Nuno Bettencourt, guitarist from Extreme, he reiterated how much he loves Australia, how they would love to live here permanently but work is in the States and that is where they lay. In jest, Suze notes that the affable Nuno “as they say in Australia, he can talk the leg off a chair”. Perhaps he can but the other half of rock’s talent couple is a warm, open creature who has complemented Suze in many ways, one of those assisting on production and songwriting for the past Baby Animals album. Suze did not earn her stripes through her marriage, she did so via singing in pub bands since the age of 17, and some years later formed the Baby Animals in 1989.
The self title released in 1991 had three huge hits that catapulted them to the mainstream conscious – Early Warning, Rush You and One Word. The album spent six weeks at number one on the Aria charts, went eight times platinum. It was the highest selling debut Australian album, superseded in recent years by Jet. Relocation, marriage, babies and a solo career meant Suze had little time to carry on with the band. By her own admission, she’s not very good at juggling motherhood and tourng, resulting in the hibernation of the band. “I can’t juggle it, that’s purely the truth. That’s why we haven’t toured for so long. I’m just not good at it” The girl’s night out at the restaurant has moved to the cr and I am now talking through a speaker as Suze tells me how she and her aussie mates try to get together whenever possible.
On this particular night Naomi Watts is with them as Suze urges her to say hello. We exchange pleasantries, the girls are dropped off and Suze is all mine again. I am all ears as I am told of her excitement to be touring again. The band will grace us with their presence in April, touring most major cities with a yet to be released album. Privy to insider information; “it’s pretty heavy, really heavy. There’s a couple of slow songs but it’s quite different to our past work. We’ll finish the album after the tour, we just want to enjoy the tour.” With all the stop-starts our time is up, not before I enquire “What’s been her finest moment?’
Bewildered, almost apologetic “You know what, I don’t think I’ve had it yet! i’m really thinking about it and no, it hasn’t happened yet”. That’s reason enough to keep ploughing away.
Head to http://www.myspace.com/babyanimals for the latest Baby Animals tour dates.
