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Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier have a 28 year working relationship

Deborah Conway tells Nathan Davies music is a long-term family affair for her and husband Willy Zygier.

Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier.
Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier.

Congratulations on The Words of Men, it’s a wonderful sounding record and you must be happy with it.

I am, I’m really thrilled, I think it’s a really strong collection of songs. But you know, you always think that about your last work. The songs were actually written very quickly in quite an intense period of writing. We actually wrote a lot more songs than are on the record, but we made a real effort to find the songs that worked together. I wanted to make a lively record, too. A bit of a foot tapper.

And you recorded it live?

Yeah, pretty much. We have such a great band, such great musicians, that there’s no real need to used excessive overdubs at all. So we didn’t. It was a really fantastic recording experience, on everybody’s part. The parts are complex and they go to unexpected places and they’re full of great catchy hooks – it’s very pleasing for me.

Willy Zygier and Deborah Conway play live.
Willy Zygier and Deborah Conway play live.

Is it more difficult, from a logistics point of view, to record live? I mean, you really have to nail those songs don’t you?

Firstly we did a week or ten days of intense pre-production and then we did three warm up gigs, which really keeps you on your toes. You have to know what you’re doing in front of a crowd, so that sharpens everyone up. Then we recorded.

They always say that it’s a risky prospect to work with people that you love, but you and Willy have defied that trope over, how many years now?

About 28 years. Something like that. I think it (being a couple) makes us better because we’re completely fearless about telling each other when something’s s--t. That’s a gift, a rare thing. You have to work with someone for a long time and have a massive amount of trust to be able to say, ‘look, I think you can do that better’ and for the other person to not take that too seriously. It rankles, but it’s always taken on board. For both of us. I think that type of very intense relationship often produces very good work.

Ultimately, I guess you only work with someone for that long if you really like what they do.

Willy Zygier, Hettie Zygier, Deborah Conway, Syd Zygier Alma Zygier and Buddy the dog.
Willy Zygier, Hettie Zygier, Deborah Conway, Syd Zygier Alma Zygier and Buddy the dog.

You have three wonderful daughters who have all, to some extent, pursued music. How different is the industry that they’ve gone into compared to the one you went into with Do Re Mi in the 1980s?

Clearly it’s incredibly different because of the way that technology has affected everything. There are pros and cons in that – recording is incredibly accessible, and anyone can make a record that could easily sit on radio with the best produced records in the world from their bedroom. Of course there are a lot more people doing that and they don’t need a record company and that’s a good thing, but on the other hand they can’t sell it. It doesn’t cost anything to make, but at the same time it’s much harder to make anything out of it.

People are always going to make albums, aren’t they?

Of course, but I don’t think music is the lingua franca that it once was. It’s certainly not a force that galvanises people anymore – it’s so fragmented and scattered now. Back in the Countdown days everybody was talking about the same thing. That doesn’t exist anymore. Now you stream your favourite song 100 times then never listen to it again.

It’s always slightly depressing to go down this avenue, but musicians are just the canary in the coalmine on this stuff and journalists are catching up real fast (laughs). Interestingly, the record companies seem to still be doing OK.

You’ve famously always been an uncompromising frontwoman – is it heartening for you to see all these talented women coming through at the moment just owning the stage and their music and knowing that you possibly played a role in that?

I’m not sure that I really played a role in it, but it is wonderful. It’s an interesting discussion because I’ve been told by various people that women really suffer, and we’re somehow behind men and we’re not represented enough and my experience is completely different. In this industry I can rattle off 20 names of incredibly successful women and would struggle to rattle off the names of 10 men.

Deborah Conway.
Deborah Conway.

Interesting. But if you look back to the Do Re Mi days, it was a pretty blokey industry.

Yeah, and bands probably tended to be more male oriented. I don’t know ... look rock and roll has double its age since then. Rock and roll is nanosecond really. It’s unrecognisable from what it once was.

On Don’t You Forget, from the new album, you sing, “What can an old lady sing if not Only The Beginning …” How do relate to that song now?

You know, it’s a sweet song, a happy song, an optimistic song – and that lyric is a bit of tongue in cheek too, playful, not cynical – but it’s very sweet that so many people still have a warm and fuzzy place for it in their hearts and in their record collections. Who am I to say? I have no problem singing it. I do wish that the radio would occasionally play one of my other songs though.

They don’t tend to play new music from established musicians do they?

Deborah Conway.
Deborah Conway.

No, there’s no real pathway. Nick Cave can do it, Paul Kelly can do it – that’s about it really. Anyway, mustn’t grumble.

Now, you’re going on the road with The Words of Men and (1993 classic) Bitch Epic – will you play both records in full?

Yes, that’s my brilliant marketing idea. Give people something old and something new! We’ll play The Words of Men in the first set and Bitch Epic in the second set, both in their entirety. It’s great to hear new material, but it’s always great to go down the nostalgia road as well. You hear those songs and you’re reminded of the smells you were smelling and the people you were kissing and the courses you were studying and the cars you were driving and the fights you were having with your girlfriend … whatever it was that was happening when those records were playing.

It’ll be terrific. We’re playing at The Gov, which is a really up close, personal and intimate venue and I really hope Adelaide comes out and sees us.

SEE: Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier, The Gov, May 30

TICKETS: thegov.oztix.com.au

Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/arts/deborah-conway-and-willy-zygier-have-a-28-year-working-relationship/news-story/32d47bac6c0ced11f522822ac980ac92