Aussie indie trio tours the States and reaps the fruits of its labor

Keynes has succeeded in what she set out to do. Redhead creates soulful, lyrically oriented indie rock music with a punch—channeling the raw energy of Patti Smith and the melodic sensibility of Joni Mitchell in a bare-bones approach that relies less on elaborate instrumentation and more on straightforward, open guitar chords.

While in Fruit, Keynes shared the role of songwriter with Mel Watson and Sam Lohs. And although she liked the collaborative nature of Fruit, Keynes says Redhead is where she always wanted her music to go. She says she always had an itch to turn her amplifier up throughout Fruit’s 10-year, eight-album run—sometimes to the chagrin of her band mates. “It’s great,” she says of the complete creative control she now has in Redhead. “It’s like taking all the orange pieces out of the fruit salad and just eating oranges. And I think they’re good oranges.”

Each of the 10 “oranges” on Redhead’s self-titled debut were cultivated under the supervision of producer Paul Gomersall, whose resume includes Blur, Kate Bush and George Michael. The album is glued together by the solid drumming of Yanya Boston and bass guitar of CJ Rhodes, while Keynes strums her guitar and weaves narratives—sometimes wistful, sometimes forceful—about daily trials, failures and triumphs. “There’s a boat on a river,” Keynes intones on “Free,” a particularly moving number, which evokes sentiments reflective of its title. “There’s a flow that will shift her/there’s a boat, there’s a river, there’s a flow.” The song’s drifting nautical themes and smoothly plucked chords are carried atop a murmuring, wire-brush snare beat, which sounds like the distant chugging of a steamboat ferry. The song does, indeed, evoke a sense of the freedom one might experience when floating in open water—something Keynes, as native Australian, is very familiar with.

The singer, whose hair color lends its name to the new project, likes surfing and boogie boarding. She is looking forward to visiting the “friendly and creative” beach community of Santa Cruz, which reminds her of her home in Adelaide, Australia. But the ocean is not a prerequisite for winning Keynes’ admiration. In fact, she finds most American cities agreeable, whether they are on the West Coast or in the Midwest. “America is a country of opportunity,” Keynes says. “Even though the economy is in a really tough spot right now, I still find that people here are extraordinarily upbeat and helpful. And there’s always the most bizarre people that you meet that hook you up with the next thing,” she says, recalling a recent gig in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. where she met Pat MacDonald of Timbuk3, the ’80s pop group famous for their hit, “The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades.” The chance encounter turned out to be a fortuitous networking opportunity for Keynes, as MacDonald is the co-founder of the Steel Bridge Songfest, an annual three-day festival held in Sturgeon Bay.  “It’s these kinds of things that are amazing and always happen when you’re on tour in the United States,” she says.

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