So hot right now

Kelsey Munro
August 4, 2007
What if there's some really bad photo - what if my dress is caught in my undies?
Jade MacRae ... "There's a lot of girls out there but we're still
fighting for attention."

Jade MacRae ... "There's a lot of girls out there but we're still fighting for attention."
Photo: Edwina Pickles

OF ALL THE conclusions one might draw from observing Jade MacRae's career to date, her being a sports fan is not one of them. Well dressed, frequently photographed, the pretty, petite singer is about to release her second album. She has been in the professional cast of Channel Seven's duets show It Takes Two for the past two seasons and once appeared on the cover of Billboard magazine as the face of Australian R&B.

Her self-titled 2005 debut album of R&B and soul-tinged pop yielded three singles, including So Hot Right Now, although the ironic intent of that track's lyrics was not evident from the slick video that accompanied it. In any event, none of these milestones screams sports fan. But she is, and that's why she nominates one of her three career highlights as singing the national anthem before the memorable Australia-Uruguay World Cup qualifier in 2005.

"I've been to quite a lot of big sports events," she says, "but the atmosphere in that stadium was unbelievable. It sounds corny but to do the national anthem in that stadium was an honour."

Her other two career highlights, for the record, were her 2006 nomination for best female artist in the ARIA Awards and the time she sang one of Renee Geyer's songs when Geyer was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. "I have to say it was one of the most nerve-racking but enjoyable events of my whole life," MacRae says. "I admired her so much."

Lowlights? "God. The lows could go on for hours," she laughs.

With the release of a new single, In the Basement, and an Opera House performance in Deborah Conway's national Broad tour both happening this month, MacRae is preparing to step back on to the promotional treadmill. (Not at all coincidentally, her new video co-stars Home and Away's Bobby Morley, her equally telegenic singing partner from It Takes Two.) Clearly, her team has already prepped her for the interview beat. The question of how old she is meets with a disarming evasion.

"Oh God, everyone's asking me this," she says, smiling. "I don't mind it but, I don't know - the record company and management get all stressed out. I'm in my mid-20s. To be honest, as I get older I feel better and better and I don't really care if anyone knows how old I am but they kind of freak out about it."

That may well say more about the music industry's chronic youth obsession than it does about MacRae, who comes across as far more down to earth and unpretentious than her glamorous publicity shots might suggest.

Is her record company heavily involved in how she's presented to the public? "Yes," she says. "But I'm really lucky that I work with a really great team of people so I don't feel like I'm being pressured into anything that doesn't suit me. And my opinion comes in all the way through it."

She is signed to Workstation Records, an independent label distributed by Roadshow Music. MacRae says she's happy to go the indie route. "I can trust them and they feel they can trust me as well," she says. "That's one of the reasons I signed to an independent. I think when you sign direct to a major there's just so many people having input, so many opinions, and it can be really hard trying to decipher who's right and who's wrong."

Her situation might be even more complicated than most, considering MacRae's partner, Tim Purcell, is also her manager. Tall and dark-haired, he's the one who shows up first to apologise and take the rap for MacRae's tardiness.

"We try to keep things pretty low-key in public," she later says of their relationship. "I think it really puts a lot of pressure on the relationship when it's everybody's property. Anyway we work together already so that's enough pressure as it is."

Born in London to professional musician parents, David and Joy, MacRae had an early childhood surrounded by music and also many stars of the time. "They were both working and recording and touring with lots of big artists. My dad was writing a lot of music for films and the BBC, stuff like that," she says. "It was really interesting, we always had a lot of random characters through the house: Cliff Richard or Olivia Newton-John. I was very young so I didn't know who they were, they were just people around."

She began learning piano at the age of three and, after moving to Sydney with her family, picked up the violin at eight. In her own quiet rebellion, MacRae initially steered away from her parents' contemporary pop and immersed herself in classical music, attending high school at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. But she was also a hip-hop fan.

"I was really shy," she says of her teenage years. "When I was younger I didn't really want to be famous, music was just what I did. I wasn't focused on making it [big], I was just playing. Because I was so shy, performing totally freaked me out but as you get older you become more confident. Now I love it - there's nothing like the energy exchange that goes on between you and the audience."

Already performing on the local live circuit, the young MacRae was famously discovered while singing backing vocals for Jimmy Barnes. "I sang with Jimmy for about a year and a half, touring on and off. He's amazing," she says.

Barnes returns the compliment. "I met Jade many years ago," he says. "She's a friend of my daughter Mahalia's and from the start I was impressed with her voice. She's a beautiful young girl with an awesome talent and she works her butt off."

Emerging as a bona fide R&B talent with the looks to match, MacRae was quickly embraced by the urban music community in Australia. Accolades outpaced modest sales for her debut album - it peaked at No. 61 on the ARIA chart. But among other nods, she took home two Urban Music Awards in 2006 for best R&B album and best female artist.

"With urban music in Australia, we're still searching for an identity within that," she says. "There are a lot of people who want to emulate American style. But there is also a lot of talent that unfortunately isn't being discovered."

Still, there's a sense that MacRae is ready to branch out. On her new album she co-wrote some songs with hit-making Swedish pop production house Maratone Studio, which has previously used its Midas touch on Pink, Britney Spears and the Veronicas.

"Lyrically, it's a bit more mature, and I think it's probably more fun and pop than my last album, which was more R&B and soul based," MacRae says. "I really relish the opportunity to do different things. Particularly in hip-hop and R&B, people can be a bit precious about things and don't take it very well if you're seen as branching out into other areas. But music is a universal thing, that's one of the reasons I really wanted to get involved with Broad, because it's all about defining everyone's differences as something special."

In Broad, the eclectic mix of performers - MacRae, Conway, New Buffalo aka Sally Seltmann, Anne McCue and Abbe May will share the stage, performing their own and each other's songs. MacRae is even thinking about re-commissioning her violin for the occasion.

"Everybody's at a really high standard both writing-wise and also performance, so it's exciting. Some of my most enjoyable experiences have been working with people from other fields."

Working with an all-female line-up is also a welcome change. "I'm always surrounded by guys - my band, and the music industry, is still quite male dominated. There's a lot of girls out there but we're still fighting for attention."

Not literally, of course. In any case, the photogenic MacRae has a natural advantage in the attention-grabbing stakes.

"Sometimes it really is fun," she says. "I love dressing up and having a great outfit and going out. But other times if you're feeling a bit self-conscious it can be really challenging too. It probably sounds silly but just the stress of thinking: 'What if there's some really bad photo, what if my dress is caught in my undies?' It can be a bit stressful but if I'm feeling confident in my outfit and I've had a good day then I'm OK. Usually."

Jade MacRae performs on Sundays in August at the Supper Club, Will and Toby's, Taylor Square.
Broad 2007's Sydney show is on August 19 at the Opera House.

