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The Girls From The Clouds.
 When I was 18 I had a revelation. It was a two-night revelation held at the now-defunct Tivoli Hotel and it taught me several things. One, that live music was incredible and I wanted to dedicate my life to it. The second was that the Clouds were one of the best examples of it.
It was 1990, an exciting time to be an Australian indie-fan. The Clouds were touring with friends The Falling Joys, both bands were at their peak (the 'Joys had just released their second album, the Clouds were about to release their first), both bands were incredible and after the second show I had one of the most uncomfortable conversations of my life with Clouds lead singer/guitarist Jodi Phillis, during which I was fairly sure she wanted me to die, preferably immediately and painfully.
Over a decade and a half later I'm talking to Phillis again. Our lives have changed a lot in the intervening years: Phillis is a married mother of two with three solo records under her belt and I'm... well, still a jerk obsessed with music. But there's a good reason for my nostalgic reverie: Phillis has reunited with Clouds bassist and fellow singer/songwriter Trish Young and made a four track CD-EP named after their new prosaically-if-accurately-titled band, The Girls From The Clouds.
Given both Phillis and Young have enjoyed post-Clouds musical careers, I was curious as to what drew them back together. "We've always remained friends and stayed in touch - we both have two kids now so there's still lots in common - and it just kind of developed over a year or so. She was living in London, I was living in Tasmania and we just started swapping tapes and sending song ideas back and forth. We'd been talking about doing something for ages but it never seemed like the right time up until now. And when we started playing each other songs and working on songs together I think we both consciously decided that the way to go would be really fun power-pop, positive stuff - not dwelling on all the darkness like [the Clouds] used to do. Plus I've got my solo stuff and I like to be more introspective with that. So this was a really good opportunity to go in the completely opposite direction."
I confess that I got a shiver when I first heard their voices lock in that wonderfully-familiar and long-missed harmony. "It's very enjoyable to do," she assures me.
And I applaud the way in which they neatly avoided forcing Candle Records to follow SonyBMG's example with The Tears record (which features a prominent sticker saying "Brett and Bernard from Suede") by cunningly incorporating their key marketing advantage in their name. "It's good, isn't it? I'm glad we finally found that name," Phillis deadpans.
Then there's the disc's final song Beyond The Clouds: when I first saw the title I thought "oh yes, tres droll" - but then when I played it, realised that it's literally about the pair forming a new band that goes - ahem - beyond The Clouds.
"Well, I've actually been writing songs for children, and that was one of the rejects. And we turned it into something spectacular!"
She explains that she and hubby Tim Oxley have been enjoying a sideline writing songs for the children's TV show 'New McDonalds Farm', '...and both that song and [single] Bye Bye Wintertime came from that process. [Writing children's songs] was not something that I ever thought I'd do in a million years, but when I sat down to do it I discovered it came really naturally, like with the Clouds but without all the soul-searching and angst and trying to be clever."
Now that both she and Young have moved back to their former hometown of Sydney they're ramping things up again. "We're getting on with it: we're going to do an album now!" she declares. "That's the thing with this band: it's just great fun."
Andrew P Street
 | The Girls From The Clouds play at Fowler's Live on Fri 31 March with The Yearlings. |
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