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SFX: Sia Furler

We all have those bands or artists or singers we love to think of as our own. We discover them early, suffer the blank looks and empty stares when we try to explain who it is we’re listening to and wish others would just wise up and figure it out. And then if the artist finally strikes it big we have ourselves a petulant sulk in the corner, lower lip outthrust and grump about how “I was here first.”

A couple years ago, a handful of us pick up Colour The Small One on import vinyl after hearing Anne Litt spin “Sunday” on KCRW. The album is like textured honey, if that makes any sense. It’s just got a nifty sound: the rasp of her voice, couched in swelling strings, enveloped in melody. You get the idea. We play it. We love it. We try to get other people to listen. (In some cases, they hear; I spin a “Sunday” at a wedding back in March of ’04 and the photgrapher’s assistant comes running up to me, “What IS this??”)

Yesterday Sia plays sets at both KCRW and Amoeba Music and I learn, at last, what’s taken her album so long to arrive in the States. Apparently, after her UK label balked on releasing the album overseas she worked on a new album–a pop album. The label not only refused to release it, they dropped her. So much for the career. And then the canny music supervisors over in the Six Feet Under camp saw fit to spin “Breathe Me” during the final episode of the series. Next thing she realizes, labels come calling, including her old one who says, “Sorry about that whole ‘dropping-you-on-you-ass’ thing. Wanna have tea?” That song, she says, brought her back from the dead.

It’s a good song. But “Sunday” is my favorite. Here ya go.

Sia Furler: Sunday (224 kps mp3)

And we’re not gonna go sulk in the corner. This is what we wanted all along.

[Incidentally, if you missed that link to her in-studio performance at KCRW, here it is again. While she’s quiet and introspective on the album, in person she’s adorably goofy. The question she asks Nick Harcourt at the halfway point has got to be heard to be believed.]

2 Comments

  1. The Trophy
    Posted July 29, 2006 at 2:58 pm | [link]

    I just want to thank you Sia for everything you have done for me with your magical music and thank you for practising your angel voice through the years..I really hope the best for you…Your songs helped me through some of the toughest times of my life.
    Don’t you ever let anyone tell you that your stuff is anything but brilliant:) I mean it. Not only do you connect to the listiner with your magnifiscent vioce, but do you also sing with your soul, and that is something I think many muscisians forget to do these days. Of all of the music I listen to on a regular basis your music is the one I adore the most, I may not know you but I care about your soul. You know, The first time I heard your record (Color the small one) I was in CD-store (they were playing it) and the moment I noticed what kind of melodies were being played, I asked the guy behind the counter if I could hear it in headphones.
    After listening to the lyrics behind the beautiful music I burst into tears. It was incredible. Convinced that I would never get enough of the cd, I bought it. The salvation in allowing those healing but still realistic songs flow through my heart, especially in times where it was hard for me to face my pain. I felt like the fragile me really got to be free. It was very relaxing, and sometimes it was easier to go to sleep after playing it for a while.
    Anyways, I just wanted you to know how wonderful you are Sia Furler and I hope you come to Iceland one day to allow the people here to hear your music, but if you don´t thats alright, I
    m just glad I got to find you…

    Your sinciere
    Soffía H

  2. Nina
    Posted May 31, 2007 at 10:12 am | [link]

    this page is fricken confusing

3 Trackbacks

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  2. By Sixsquare » Sia - Some People Have Real Problems on January 8, 2008 at 8:20 am

    […] last album, Colour The Small One, almost didn’t make it out in the U.S. I guess after lackluster sales of her debut a couple […]

  3. By Sixsquare » Sia Furler and Bionic Woman on January 29, 2008 at 3:19 pm

    […] of all, they shouldn’t have. Two years ago, Six Feet Under did it. As Sia herself described, it pretty much brought her back from the dead, which is a funny thing to say given the premise of […]

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