Stephanie McIntosh chose the title of her debut album Tightrope for a reason. Plenty of blood, sweat and the odd tear have gone into the two-year gestation, and on the come-out-fighting opening track there’s even So Do I Say Sorry First - a bit of a one-finger salute.
The album is an honest document of a modern young woman’s life, albeit a particularly busy life that’s not slowing down any time soon.
“I feel life is a balancing act. Quite often you have to get from one end to the other, resolve things and get on,” McIntosh says. “There’s a bit of an analogy for life in there. I feel like I’m walking a tightrope every day.”
There was certainly a lot of juggling going on with making Tightrope. McIntosh had the slight issue of a day job – Sky Mangel in Neighbours – to work around her punishing recording schedule.
While McIntosh has grown up wanting to be a singer, and had the odd moment on stage at school, she’d moved into the acting side of her all-round-performer personality. Then one day British songwriter and producer Tom Nichols (he wrote Fever for Kylie, Black Coffee for All Saints and has produced everyone from Celine Dion to Tom Jones) sent a letter to McIntosh, via Ramsay Street.
“I remember the day so distinctly,” McIntosh recalls. “The UK publicist for Neighbours came to me and said Steph, there’s this letter for you regarding music’. Tom had written to me, he had found out I was a singer and wanted to work with me. I thought Is this for me?’ I didn’t believe it. I thought someone was pulling my leg, it was too good to be true.”
McIntosh forwarded the letter to her manager, Glenn Wheatley, no stranger to breaking musical acts. The two had been working on launching McIntosh’s singing career after Wheatley saw the young star in a pre-Neighbours Year 11 school musical.
McIntosh loved impersonating her idols from a young age, from Dusty Springfield to Britney Spears and Olivia Newton-John. Olivia was in the audience for one performance and thought it was hilarious. And ironically the Dusty Springfield song McIntosh performed on the night was Wishin’ and Hopin’, which she’d later cover.
“It was a strange coincidence but I love that song and while I wasn’t planning on doing a cover version, it came out so well we wanted to release it.”
Wheatley lined up a meeting between McIntosh and Nichols. “We hit it off straight away,” McIntosh says. “I was lucky to meet a lot of songwriters and producers in the process of making this album but I didn’t click with any producer like I did with Tom, and I think that makes the difference.”
Nichols wound up creatively steering Tightrope, either producing or co-writing every song. Other names you’ll see in the credits include Rami (from the Maratone hit factory who’ve steered hits for everyone from Britney to Kelly Clarkson and co-wrote the hit single Mistake), Greg Kurstin (Gwen Stefani, Lily Allen) to Peter Zizzo (Avril Lavigne) and Guy Roche (Christina Aguilera).
“There’s some amazing people involved, I feel really honoured,” McIntosh says. “Tom’s written every track with a different writer, but because he’s on every track it adds some consistency. I have a very diverse taste in music - I can listen to Robbie to Coldplay to Britney - they’re all very different artists and that’s what I wanted from the album. There’s songs on there that are chalk and cheese. There’s a thread through the album but it’s very different at the same time.”
It was in Los Angeles 18 months ago that McIntosh and Nichols had a Eureka moment. While working on a song (which didn’t even wind up making the album) they found their sound – pop/rock with edge and attitude. “It had strong guitars, it was edgy,” McIntosh says. “I liked it and my voice sounded good on it. That set the tone for the rest of the record.”
In Tightrope Stephanie McIntosh has made the album she’d want to listen to.
It ranges from the driving guitar pop of Mistake (her co-star Janet Andrewartha, aka Lyn Scully, has been seen bopping to it in the Neighbours green room) to the quirky 80’s tinged title track and the stark balladry of The Night of My Life, one of McIntosh’s personal favourites. “Lyrically it makes you stop and think about the loved ones in your life. I love lyrics that tell a story and I love the fact the last line says Thank you’ which is a beautiful ending to a record.”
There’s the Alanis Morissette hippy-gone-rock vibe of A Change is Coming and the Vanessa Carlton-esque piano driven Overcome. The opening track So Do I Say Sorry First gave McIntosh a chance to co-write with Nichols and Klaus Derendorf. “It’s about fighting with someone – your lover, your mother, your friends – whoever. The only reason you fight with someone is because you care about them,” McIntosh says of the song, which spits out lyrical venom over a Green Day-esque rock storm.
“It just came out on its own, that song,” McIntosh says. “A lot of people think you’re not serious if you don’t write all your songs. I don’t agree with that. It was a great feeling to write a song and I went through a period of writing songs when I was about 15, which I might do something with one day. But this is my first album. I’m going to put my trust into people like Tom who know exactly what they’re doing.”
Written around the globe and recorded with an ear on an international release, the album was recorded in Melbourne earlier this year. “I’d leave the set of Neighbours and literally drive across town to go and sing,” McIntosh says. “It was physically exhausting but also mentally, because you come off the set and you’re in the zone of your character. Singing is more personal, you have to change your headspace. But music is all I’ve ever wanted to do. It’s an urge for me.”
Cameras followed the recording process of Tightrope, which became the reality TV hit The Steph Show. “I’ve been playing a character for three years, and while I’ve been in the industry no one really knows who I am,” McIntosh says. “Doing the reality show was something new and showed that I was passionate about music, it wasn’t just something I was doing because I could. I want people to know I’m serious about this. This album has been a long journey, but I’ve come out the other end with an album I’m really proud of.”
Source: http://www.stephaniemcintoshmusic.com/index.php?q=biography
