Jet frontman Nic Cester’s The Skipping Girl, a children’s book and album
As a young man fronting one of the most popular Australian bands of the 2000s, Nic Cester came to see Melbourne’s ‘skipping girl’ animated sign with fresh eyes.
As a child, Nic Cester saw the famous “skipping girl’’ animated neon sign advertising vinegar as an exciting landmark that indicated he’d reached the city of Melbourne.
As a young man fronting Jet, one of the most popular Australian bands of the 2000s, the singer-songwriter saw the sign with fresh eyes.
The skipping girl, known as “Little Audrey”, was stuck in an endless loop. What if Audrey wanted to break free?
For Cester, the metaphor applied to his life when Jet was midway through a three-album run that ended in 2009.
On clocking Audrey while stuck in traffic one day about 15 years ago, Cester told The Australian that he saw himself. “On the surface, I’m in this band, and everything’s going well; we’re having this global success, and there’s money and fame and all this stuff – but I wasn’t satisfied,” he said.
This concept forms the basis for The Skipping Girl, an illustrated children’s book and companion album that Cester has written, produced and independently released while based in Milan, Italy, the city he has called home since 2015.
Having co-written one of the great Australian rock songs of his generation in Jet’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl, the first-time author is comfortable comparing the task of writing a children’s book to that of composing a hit single.
“In order to communicate an idea, a story or a message to a child, you have to find the simplest, most crystallised form of that communication, which I love about it as a medium,” he said.
“Arriving at simplicity is so difficult, and that’s the beauty of it: if you do it successfully, then it can transcend age groups, times and places.”
For the eight-track album, Cester recorded in Rome with the orchestra used by the late Italian film composer Ennio Morricone. It is available on streaming platforms, but there is no Australian distribution deal in place for the book, which is published by Kite Edizioni and illustrated by Richolly Rosazza.
For now, the only way to obtain it is to order online, although Cester maxed out his checked baggage allowance to bring two boxes of his prized creation back to Melbourne.
“It’s pretty funny: we’re talking about 40 copies here, which is quite laughable, knowing my history,” he said, referring to Jet’s multimillion CD sales in the early 2000s.
“I had to bring them myself, in my luggage – it’s not like the old days! It’s definitely a passion project, but I don’t think I’ve done anything that I’m so proud of.”
Although the bones of the story came to Cester in a single mid-lockdown writing session, he continued finessing the words during regular readings with his first and best test audience: his three-year-old daughter, Matilda.
Having spent most of her life so far living in Italy while hearing about this famous neon sign, Matilda had some questions for her father on returning to Australia last week.
“As the plane was coming down to Melbourne, she was looking out the window at the city and she said, “But Dada, where’s the skipping girl? I can’t see her!” It was the first thing she was looking for.”
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