Reb Fountain shares stories behind seven of her favourite songs. Photo / Supplied
Reb Fountain shares stories behind seven of her favourite songs. Photo / Supplied
Each week we invite music lovers to share seven songs that have shaped their life. This week, we speak to Reb Fountain. Her new single When Gods Lie is released today, and her self-titled album is out on May 1.
1. Simon and Garfunkel - April Come She Will
When I was a kid, we migrated to New Zealand from San Francisco. One of the ways we connected with people was through music. My dad had made a songbook with a whole bunch of different songs, things like 500 miles and Gordon Lightfoot and the Beatles. April Come She Will was one of the songs. This particular song he [Dad] used to sing to me at night. He sung a lot of songs to me and they were all kind of my first inspirational songs that I learned how to play on guitar. April Come She Will really triggered it for me, it made me want to actually pick up the guitar. It felt like the story was about a woman who travels and I really connected to songs that made me cry!
Joan Armatrading was so massive for me. I grew up listening to records and cassettes and this albumwas really the first album that I completely lost myself in and I listened to it over and over and learned all the songs. She was just so badass, she was a woman and she was saying all of these things about being independent and she was really strong. The way she talks about love and relationships wasn't coming for a place or her need or her lack thereof. She was saying, "Actually, I don't need you. I'm sweet with myself." She stood out to me as someone so bold and brave.
3. The Topp Twins - Untouchable Girls
My friend showed me this song, she'd heard it from her sister, who was a lesbian and that was even a big deal, back when I was growing up. It just became an anthem. We were young and singing this because we felt that too. In a video of the twins performing the song, they say at the beginning of the performance: "This can be your song" and it really did feel like it was my song. It really started to connect me with New Zealand music. The Topp Twins helped me connect to more underground New Zealand music and it sort of blew my mind really.
4. Chick Corea (sung by Flora Purim) - You're Everything
I really wanted to include this song. Living in Seattle, working at the biggest jazz club on the West Coast of America and going to study jazz when I was 19 was huge for me. Things fell apart then, they always do. It was the first time I'd spent any proper time on myself and my music. I still didn't have a lot of confidence in myself. That time and this song - I was actually enough to see her live. I worked at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley in Seattle, you'd get amazing artists who would come in. I would be there to see and learn about jazz and think about music differently. I learned this song at jazz school because I thought, I'd never heard a woman play jazz like this before. It was great for unravelling the possibilities within myself.
5. Woody Guthrie & Family - Don't Push Me Down
This song for me represents my life as a young mum and my journey as a single parent. I could have put in a song from The Wiggles - but I didn't. This song taps into my folk side and not a lot of people know about it, which is why I also wanted to share it because it's just brilliant. I put it on every morning, with it saying, "Don't you push me, don't you push me, don't you push me down." I've sung it at protests before. For me and my kids, it was a way of listening to real quality music, while also doing something fun that was relatable for them. My kids grew up with me playing music, going to shows and having musicians stay at our house and touring. That was their life. This song for me really represents that time and my re-engagement with music as a mother.
6. Patti Smith - Privilege (Set Me Free)
I was lucky enough to see her perform, I got to go to this rocker-girl-like festival in Seattle. She was the star guest there and she'd been a part of my vernacular but seeing her perform there just by herself and a guitarist, you could see she was so present. I feel that everything Patti sings is so meaningful, considered and heartfelt. I did a Patti Smith tribute event that was for Woman's Refuge in Christchurch a few years back and raised a bunch of money. She even contributed to the fund. That's when I started performing her music as opposed to just listening to it. It really freed me up as an artist to consider other possibilities. Particularly as an older woman, I feel so inspired that we can have beautiful, strong women creating art now that I still recognise and they're not photoshopped.
7. Aldous Harding - The Barrel
I first met Hannah [Aldous Harding] when she was playing with the band The Eastern - and that was before I joined. She came up to Auckland with them and there was a little pop-up show and I went down and listened to her. I was like, "F***, she's got a really amazing voice." I chatted to her for a while, she was young and just exploring at the time and learning what it was like to be on stage. I'm super-inspired by her and her work ethic, she works so f***ing hard and it's really hard to be a woman, to write songs and create a career. We're constantly self-generating work. There's something that really connected with me and that is the way she found the challenges of the human condition and turned them into self-nourishing projects of music. I really resonate with it.
