Early appearances singing Shangri-Las
songs aside, Sia’s musical leanings didn’t get
serious until she joined jazz-funk bar band Crisp at 17.
After three years fronting Crisp, Sia packed her bags and
headed off with an open ended ticket on a round the World
trip finally ending up in London. In 2000 Sia scored a Top
10 hit with her Prokofiev-sampling “Taken For Granted” single
and followed it up with her acclaimed debut album, “Healing
Is Difficult”.
Sia is perhaps best known however for her considerable contribution to Zero 7’s
hugely successful and widely acclaimed “Simple Things” album. In
fact, Sia credits the biggest influence on her new album as touring with Zero
7. “That’s when I actually started listening to music,” she
says with a grimace of embarrassment.
“ While we were on tour, the guys were always talking about artists I’d
never heard of, so I started listening to their James Taylor, Nick Drake, Harry
Nilsson, Randy Newman and Django Bates CDs. And it all just really blew me away.”
“Colour The Small One’s” lyrical
roots, however, run much deeper. ‘Bully’, the
track she wrote with Beck has similarly serious roots. “There
was this kid at school who I used to be really cruel to,
and I’ve felt bad about it ever since. It got to the
point where I was having nightmares about. Sia met Beck at
a festival in LA, when he asked her to perform a duet with
him after watching her perform. ‘You’re The One
That I Want’ from Grease, has never quite sounded the
same since.
Other standout tracks on “Colour
The Small One” include “Numb”, “The
Church Of What’s Happening Now”, the lilting
pianos and claustrophobic beats of ‘Breathe Me’, ‘Sunday’s’ enchanting
harmonium and breathless chant and the muffled rhythm track
and sensual cinematic strings of ‘Don’t Bring
Me Down’.
Click here to access
new Sia track 'Where I Belong' out 9th August as well as an exclusive live track and some special footage.
"The Don't Bring Me Down track was
recorded and broadcast live in Los Angeles on 89.9 KCRW's
Morning Becomes Eclectic with Nic
Harcourt on June 9, 2004. The session was engineered and
mixed by Ray Guarna. Morning Becomes Eclectic is produced
by Ariana Morgenstern."
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