‘It’s good to spend some time apart’

The McClymonts — sisters Mollie, Sam and Brooke — have a new album out this week.
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James Wigney talked to oldest sister and new mum Brooke.

Three sisters: The McClymonts website

Brooke admits being sisters and working together “can be quite difficult sometimes”.
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This album was made under very different circumstances to the previous ones — you are a mum — what did you think that would mean for the group?

I think it was a blessing really. When I fell pregnant I think all of us said, ‘Wow, we’re going to take a break now’. (But) we were back at Tamworth eight weeks after I’d had her (Tiggy Heart, born November 2012) and doing an acoustic tour. But it was good — we got to be on our own to go out and live a little and not focus so much on the band. I got the chance to be a mum. We realised that we should be doing it more often — addressing the work/life balance thing.

It was helpful to spend time away from each other after so much time together?

Absolutely — even though we get along really well it’s good to spend some time apart. Being sisters and working together can be quite difficult sometimes but thank God we get along well and know how each other work.

Now that you have your own family — has that given you a different perspective of what family means?

Yes. It’s amazing how one little human being can bring everyone so much closer together. It’s bizarre but I love it. She is going to come out on the road with us because I want her to experience what we do. She loves music, which is pretty cute, and she can play a mean harmonica. She will probably make an appearance at a show at some stage — she’ll run out when no one is looking at her.

Your husband Adam Eckersley is a muso too and is supporting you on the tour — is daughter Tiggy musical already?

She loves it. She has definitely been tarred with the brush of music. She loves what we listen to and she loves all sorts. She can recognise when our songs come on the radio and when her father’s songs come on the radio and says ‘Dadda’ and ‘Mumma’.

The sisters perform at this year’s Urban Country Music Festival in Caboolture.
Source: News Corp Australia

Has your new family changed the band dynamic?

It would have to. Mollie and Sam absolutely dote over her, but as far as how we all work together they know that if I have Tiggy they will have to work around that. So it definitely has changed things, but they are very lenient with me. But you have to work and love what you do and I just have to say ‘give me a couple of days’ notice’. But it’s worked out wonderfully so far.

It must have been handy to be able to record at home …

Our producer Lindsay (Rimes), we recorded a lot at his studio in Sydney, but he came up a lot to my place (on the Central Coast) to track vocals or harmonies or guitars. It was so easy for me to just get up and leave Tiggy in the house and walk 50m to the shed.

Mollie, Brooke and Sam McClymont hit the red carpet for the Country Music Awards in Tamworth.
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The song Blood Is Thicker Than Water sounds like it’s been a while coming for a band of sisters — about coming from the jacaranda town of Grafton and playing on cheap guitars — how do you reflect on those days?

They were wonderful — if we didn’t have that we wouldn’t have a story. We needed to do that to give the fans a bit of an insight into what happened when we grew up. A lot of people don’t hear about it and we don’t sing a lot about it so we thought it would be perfect for this album.

You have spent a lot of time in America — are the international ambitions on hold for now?

Yeah — we really want to focus on Australia for now and get to the top of our game here. We still have a lot of groundwork to do here — it’s a big country and we haven’t serviced it all yet. I have had Tiggy and it would be quite hard to travel with her, but it’s not to say it’s not going to happen. Maybe in the next year or two we might look at America again. But that’s the beauty of this job — it could take us anywhere.

Brooke says success is “making a good living and fans still requesting our songs”.
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Why were you attracted to America early in your career?

That’s the mecca for country. If you crack it there, you have really made it. The touring and the music scene is completely different over there to here. So every year we set ourselves goals of what we wanted to achieve — if you don’t have a plan then you just get lost. Like ‘this year we want to sing at the Grand Old Opry’ and we ticked that off the list. America was always on the list to go over and have a go and we did it and we are really proud of ourselves.

So many artists need international recognition before they are accepted at home, was it like that for you?

I don’t think about it that much — as long as we are making a good living and fans are still requesting our songs, then that is success to me. Whether you have made it in America or not, everyone has different levels of success so you can’t beat yourself up all the time. It’s so hard to make it in America and not everyone is going to.

The sisters pose for a photograph at Railway War Memorial Park in Tamworth.
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John Williamson had a go at the American influence on local country music and guys like Troy Cassar-Daley and Keith Urban last year — what did you make of that?

I think there is enough room for everybody. It would be like you telling me that you absolutely love western music and won’t accept anything else. And me thinking, ‘Well I won’t talk about what I want to talk about because I don’t want to offend you’. It’s an opinion, it doesn’t really matter — there is no right or wrong. I didn’t think it was really necessary but at the end of the day, I’m glad it wasn’t me. Everyone is entitled to make the music they want to make and listen to the music they want to listen to.

■ Here’s To You and I (Universal) is out Friday.

Originally published as ‘It’s good to spend some time apart’
www.news.com.au/entertainment/music