dirty streets
Reb Fountain woke up one morning knowing what she had to do. She called Dave Khan (who was touring with Marlon Williams in Europe) and told him she was making a record and she wanted him to produce it. It was time.
A pre-eminent singer and performer, Reb has for years been the musicians’ secret. She’s performed and recorded with Kiwi musical icons; Neil Finn, Marlon Williams, Don McGlashan, The Eastern, The Warratahs, Finn Andrews, Tami Neilson and Julia Deans. Reb toured Europe/UK/USA in 2019 playing solo and as part of Finn Andrews band.
Born in San Francisco, Reb immigrated with her family from North America to Lyttelton — the quiet port town out of Christchurch that’s been fundamental to South Island’s folk scene, raising artists like Delaney Davidson, Marlon Williams and Hannah Harding (Aldous Harding).
“It was sheer madness,” says Reb of her family’s decision. “It was just so far away.”
Tracing back to a long line of migrants, the family used music as a way of connecting to a new home.
“My dad wrote a songbook and we would have gatherings with other migrant families, and sit around and sing these songs together. It was mostly folk, blues and country stuff. Reb got her first guitar at the age of 6 and by 13 had developed a talent for turning her “really dark, melancholic” poetry into song.
The Battle of The Bands national competition final in 1990 described her as, “the best voice to come out of Christchurch in 10 years”. Then Reb travelled, first to the UK, then to her native America to attend jazz school in Seattle where she gathered a deep well of musical influences.
In 2017, nine years after her first releases, Like Water and Holster, she released EP Hopeful & Hopeless, recorded live at Auckland venue, The Wine Cellar, quickly followed by the album Little Arrows. Reb won the 2018 APRA NZ Best Country Music Song for Hopeful & Hopeless and the Recorded Music NZ Best Country Music Artist Tui for the EP of the same name. But the two projects were a long time coming.
Hopeful & Hopeless and Little Arrows were developed in collaboration with guitarist Dylan Storey and much adored NZ musician, the late Sam Prebble. For a long time after Sam’s death, Reb found it too emotionally hard to revisit their unfinished material.
“I reached the point where I needed to share Sam’s music - along with my own - to our family, friends and musical community,” says Reb. “I felt a sense of duty to do that. It was really painful in lots of ways, but also cathartic.”
To follow the release, Reb had booked a tour celebrating Nick Cave’s 60th birthday. Reb and her band tore through 17 Cave compositions in 90 minutes giving audiences fresh treatments of his rich songbook. The shows invited a sense of liberation from the angst of that period.
“It was the point where I could let myself free from a stressful time,” says Reb. “Embodying Nick Cave, there’s no fear…rather beauty, strength and filth. It was an opportunity to both embrace myself, my music and my experiences and move beyond them; the commitment it took to transcend the great suffering and allow myself to transform within Cave’s music helped send me on my way to who I am now.”
And so to 2019. Reb’s new self-titled album will be released via iconic NZ label Flying Nun in 2020.
The new album was recorded at Neil Finn’s own Roundhead Studios. Reb and Neil became friends after Reb was invited to perform, record and tour with Neil for his ‘Out of Silence’ album release. Simon Gooding - head engineer at Roundhead – is a close friend of Reb’s and they have worked extensively together on her various musical projects. He took the helm for their 3-week stint of recording and mixing alongside supporting Dave Khan with production. Ben Woolley (Yarra Benders) joined Reb and team for the recording alongside drummer Logan Compain. Finn Andrews and Elroy Finn both feature on the record. Chris Chetland – owner of NZ’s own premiere mastering studio Kog - mastered the album.
The first single, Faster, teased out in March 2019, was accompanied by a gorgeous, vintage-looking video shot on Super 8 film camera by Lola Fountain-Best.
“I chose Faster as a kind of bridge song, it was something that people might be more familiar with in terms of what I’ve done before,” she says. “The other tracks on the new album are quite different.”
Next single ‘Samson’ is released 29/11/19 along with the visually dazzlling music video starring Medulla Oblongata who shares a rousing and compelling performance. Filmed in Reb’s home, Samson was directed and edited by Lola Fountain-Best.
Reb Fountain’s new self-titled album will be released in 2020.
Website: http://rebfountain.co.nz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebfountainmusic/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/rebfountain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rebfountain
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWAmK-BMSASn5DNZS0lE3qg
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3wayc8vDx8ukvWV17IBZE1
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/reb-fountain/213834913
Soundcloud:https://soundcloud.com/reb-fountain
Bandcamp: https://rebfountain.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebfountainmusic/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/rebfountain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rebfountain
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWAmK-BMSASn5DNZS0lE3qg
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3wayc8vDx8ukvWV17IBZE1
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/reb-fountain/213834913
Soundcloud:https://soundcloud.com/reb-fountain
Bandcamp: https://rebfountain.bandcamp.com/