Music
Q&A: Debra Byrne talks Carole King’s Tapestry
Debra Byrne – one of Australia’s most prolific performers – will join Vika Bull and Monique diMattina to tackle Carole King’s ground-breaking Tapestry album in a performance that she describes as “a dream come true”.
The amazing songs of the legendary Carole King will come to life on stage when three of Australia’s most talented singers perform Tapestry: The Songs of Carole King at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Playhouse on August 5 and 6. Click here to purchase tickets.
Debra Byrne needs no introduction. Since becoming a household name on Young Talent Time in the early 1970s, she has been a staple on Australian screens and stages and has forged a formidable career that has spanned decades.
With stage credits such as lead roles in Sunset Boulevard, Cats and Les Miserables, and acting roles in film and television, you could be excused for thinking Debra Byrne has already achieved it all. But the singer has described her upcoming performances of Tapestry as a career highlight.
Debra Byrne has been a fan of Carole King since she was just 12 years old so it is clear she will bring genuine love and emotion to her performances in August. But don’t take our word for it; you can read all about it in Debra’s own words below. We hope you enjoy our interview with the one and only Debra Byrne!
Ticketmaster: You are performing Carole King’s Tapestry album with Vika Bull and Monique diMattina. What is it about the songs of Carole King that you were drawn to?
Debra Byrne: I have listened to Carole King since I was 12 years old and I am 59. I have always been drawn to the – I am trying to find a word that I would have used when I was 12, obviously it is different when you are older – but it really is the same thing that I love about it. It is so natural. Everything about what Carole does is so heart based and she uses words that just make good emotional sense. She can put you in a place. It is her story telling that I really love.
Even as a kid I was never really into pop songs. And I think we were pretty lucky that whatever it was that made it such a huge hit happened, because it’s not really pop music at all when you look back at the era, or any era. But there was something that obviously everybody – well not everybody – but millions of people were drawn to and I think it was that raw emotion of her songs that really made people feel very comfortable with that music.
Ticketmaster: Would you agree that Tapestry was ground breaking; and not just for Carole King but for the whole music scene generally?
Debra Byrne: Absolutely, yes. And yet it came at a time where that music was really being embraced. Because we also had Joni Mitchell, we had James Taylor and they were very emotional story tellers. And very poetic in the way they wrote music. The way they orchestrated music was very harmonic and I guess it was sort of like a push out of folk music.
Yes I think it was (ground breaking). I think it really introduced a whole new genre of music because after that we had Jackson Browne and later The Eagles and they were all kind of coming from that place. You know, Crosby, Stills and Nash, they were all coming from that very familiar place. They were talking about home life, talking about what was important to them. It wasn’t just all about love and getting jilted, there was other stuff that was being addressed in this music.
It speaks to your heart.
Ticketmaster: Can you remember the first time you heard Tapestry?
Debra Byrne: Oh boy. I probably heard ‘It’s Too Late’ on the radio like a lot of other people. But I got the album as soon as I could. I already had been listening to James Taylor because my brother had the albums, he is a couple of years older than me. So I was already very familiar with Sweet Baby James the album. And not just on the radio, but it was actually played at home. And Carole King came out of that.
Ticketmaster: Which is your favourite track from Tapestry?
Debra Byrne: My favourite track from Tapestry? Oh dear, that’s tricky. Home Again would definitely be one of my favourite tracks. Oh, I just love it. And when I heard it I was a young girl, a really young girl, and there’s always so much to cry about when you’re going through puberty. So that album was sort of like a good friend, a good ear. It was like she was listening to us – or to me.
Ticketmaster: Are you excited to work with Vika and Monique? Can you tell us about those two talented performers?
Debra Byrne: Absolutely. I didn’t know Monique at all until now. Vika, I have just admired Vika and Linda forever. I love their work, love what they stand for musically and I just love working with Vika, really just enjoy working with her. There is just nothing about Vika that isn’t easy to be with.
And Monique, that is a growing experience because I am getting to know her as we are rehearsing the show. And, you know, it is great. I am pretty much the old girl in the group! I am 60 next year so that certainly puts me as the old girl in the group.
Ticketmaster: Well, we will call you the leader, how about that?
Debra Byrne: I am the leader. And I guess I am the one who has been with Carole since Carole came to us, outside of the songs that she wrote for other people. She has been with me all my life.
Carole King fans: Debra, Vika and Monique talk Tapestry
Ticketmaster: The performances are at Arts Centre Melbourne. Are you excited to perform at one of Melbourne’s iconic venues?
Debra Byrne: I love the Arts Centre and I have worked in the State Theatre a few times and Fairfax Studio, but I’ve never actually performed at the Playhouse, so I am really looking forward to that. I like the Playhouse, it has a really intimate feeling in there. I have seen shows there, I’ve just not had the opportunity to perform from that stage, so I am sure it is going to work really well in there.
Ticketmaster: Speaking of you on the stage, in terms of performance, you’re really done everything – singing and acting on both the stage and screen. What is your favourite performance medium? Do you prefer the screen or stage?
Debra Byrne: You know I don’t have a favourite genre as far as where; it’s really about the material. I have been really lucky, I think there has only been one show that I have been in, and it certainly hasn’t been something that a lot of people know about, that I didn’t fully enjoy. And I wouldn’t even name it but I have had so many great experiences.
A few years ago I did the Last Man Standing with Nick Barker and I had never worked with Nick and that was just a highlight moment for me. So it is really about the material it is not about where you are performing.
This (Tapestry) is a dream come true for me, to be able to sing these songs. I have always sung some of James (Taylor) and some of Carole and some of Linda Ronstadt’s old stuff. I’ve always had that stuff in my repertoire so this is just joy. It is like ‘yes, I get to do all of that’! This will probably be one of the highlights that I look back to in five years’ time and go ‘yeah, that was awesome’.
Ticketmaster: You have been a staple of the Australian entertainment industry since the early 1970s. Did you ever dream you could have a career in performance that has spanned decades?
Debra Byrne: No, I don’t think I ever thought about it as a career at that time. As a kid you are just doing something you love doing and you’re not thinking career; I certainly wasn’t. And Australia was very young back then and very naïve as far as the industry goes so people didn’t think that much about careers I guess.
But had I been on Young Talent Time now in this era, it would be a very different thing because everybody is so into marketing and so into creating a career. It’s a very different world. So yeah, I didn’t really think of it that way and I don’t know that I ever have thought of it like that.
I have been really fortunate to be involved with some wonderful shows, like Sunset Boulevard and Les Mis. And also the TV stuff has been great.
It’ not a career really, it is more like it is just my life. It is what I do. And I don’t always get to do it; there are periods of time at my age where there isn’t a role that is right for you. And I am also a carer to my grandsons, I have custodial care of my grandsons and the youngest has special needs. So I am a mother slash single grandparent. And I have a 15 year old daughter so my life is extremely busy when I am not working.
Ticketmaster: So how do you juggle all of it?
Debra Byrne: Just good management. I have been a mother since I was 22. And I have got two older daughters and I’ve got a young, 15 year old daughter and also a nine year old and 11 year old (grandsons). So I guess I learned a lot over the years and you kind of just make it work. I am a reasonably organised person so you just make it work. It’s what a lot of us women do. We are juggling all the time.
Ticketmaster: And finally, if you could perform on stage with Carole King, which song would you choose to sing with her?
Debra Byrne: You know for me, the Tapestry album is a masterpiece. The next album, Rhymes & Reasons I think is equally a masterpiece. I think it is an extraordinary album, Rhymes & Reasons, and there’s a song on that called Come Down Easy. I would be more than happy to sing that with Carole!
Ticketmaster: Thanks for talking to us, Debra. We can’t wait to see your show at Arts Centre Melbourne.
Debra Byrne, Vika Bull and Monique DiMattina will perform Tapestry – A Tribute to Carole King at Arts Centre Melbourne Playhouse on Friday August 5 (8pm) and Saturday August 6 (2pm & 8pm). Click here to purchase tickets.
