In New Zealand, singer-songwriter Brooke Fraser’s homeland, a star has already been born. Fraser’s first album, What To Do With Daylight, written and recorded in 2003 when Fraser was 19, was an immediate hit, eventually going seven times platinum. It featured, among other songs, the pretty piano ballad “Arithmetic,” which showed off Fraser’s innocent talents as a young and promising musician. Her time to shine came early; sometimes, it happens like that, and you won’t find anyone more grateful of the gift of success than Brooke Fraser.
But between her successful debut and a second offering, Albertine, which was released in the U.S. just last month, Fraser grew up and started writing songs dealing with more serious subject matter. She credits her travels to Rwanda for her new approach to songwriting – seeing firsthand a country where almost one million of its people were killed because of fighting between two ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis.
All the carnage happened in 100 days. Fraser felt the effect in just a few.
“My first trip to Rwanda was 2005, and then I’ve been back every year since,” Fraser says by phone from Los Angeles, getting ready for her third tour of the U.S. “I haven’t done this year’s trip yet, but hopefully I can get to that later in the year.”
When asked about her first trip, Fraser pauses. I can only wonder what runs through her mind.
“I can be a little bit impulsive, and if I feel if something is right, I’ll kind of just go ahead and go with it,” she admits. “I was 21 when I went to Rwanda for the first time, and I didn’t really…you know, I’ve traveled a lot, and felt like I was very self-sufficient and grown up at 21, so I decided that it would be a great idea to hop on a plane and go to Africa all by myself! (laughs) Which, maybe in hindsight, it’s not the most wise of things, but at the same time I wouldn’t have done it any differently because I really…I suppose absorbed kind of the full force of what I was exposed to.”
And perhaps her greatest discovery was a girl named Albertine, whom she met through her friend and guide, Joel Nsengiyumva, who told Fraser, “You must go back to your people and you must write a song, and I will tell you what the name of the song is going to be.”
Of course, the name of the song was “Albertine,” which is also the name of the beautiful album that features her blend of pop and rock on tunes like “Shadowfeet,” “Deciphering Me,” and “C. S. Lewis Song.”
You can imagine that it’s a special time for Fraser, to be able to tour an album’s worth of songs that mean so much to her.
“Especially in terms of the songs from this album, they are so close to my heart and what I am very passionate about,” she says. “So every night, it can kind of get almost a bit emotionally draining, particularly during “Albertine.” It’s a song that I really have to go there when I do it each night. Really, it’s such a privilege and a joy to be able to bring songs that you believe in. I really believe in what we’re doing with this thing in hoping that people will leave a show feeling inspired and like they can do something to make the world a little bit better.
“I’m really looking forward to this tour because it’s smaller venues than I play in New Zealand and Australia--it’s much more intimate. And I think you can really connect with people a lot better there, and get a greater sense of what’s going on with the audience. I think you’ve got to approach it with humility, and if people are going to listen to what you have to say, then that’s a privilege to be grateful for, and if they don’t listen, then that’s ok, too!
“Even the fact that I can tour in America, who would have thought that a random girl from Lower Hutt would find herself coming to a place like St. Louis and being able to share these songs with people?”
Catch Brooke Fraser this Saturday (6/14) at The Duck Room at Blueberry Hill
Doors 8 pm • Show 9 pm $12 flat
Video of “Albertine”