New Zealand Musician, Feature, by Alice Shopland
June/July 1999, Vol 8, No. 3.
After two years strutting their stuff at Auckland jazz venues, The Fondue Set has released their debut CD. The wide appeal of “Stick A Fork In It” has placed it in the unusual position of being played both on easy listening station 1ZB and student station, bFM.
The Fondue Set is singer Caitlin Smith and guitarists Steve Gerrish and Graeme Webb. Steve and Graeme were already working together under the moniker Two Guitars when Caitlin joined two years ago. Graeme, “a jazzer pure and simple” according to Caitlin, teaches music, has a lawn mowing round and plays fretless bass and guitar in The Fondue Set. Californian Steve, with two solo albums to his credit, is an itinerant music teacher and plays a gut-string Godin and slide steel guitars.
“They’re both lovely to work with, and it is very much a trio despite the fact that the “Caitlin Smith” seems to get bigger on advertising and the “Fondue Set” seems to shrink,” says Caitlin.
The 13-track CD includes classics such as Fools Rush In, Moon River and Don’t Explain. It was recorded over various sessions at Auckland restaurants Iguacu and The Gables on a friend’s Fostex DAT, and mastered by Phil Yule of The Voice Box. A filtering programme (consisting of a Sadie 2496 work station, a Yamaha O2R digital desk, Cedar de-noise software and a TL Audio valve compressor) has removed all but a hint of busy restaurant noise. While most live albums have the sound of the appreciative audience kept in, The Set felt that the clatter of plates and chatter of patrons would detract from the music.
For Caitlin the album is a chance to showcase her own voice rather than helping other people with theirs. Recent voice jobs have included backing vocals for Jan Hellriegel, the New LoungeHead and Grace and vocal coaching for Frisbee and Beaver Studio acts, as well as teaching her own private students.
“I love teaching because you have to be right on your game to give the knowledge to others. It’s not just teaching the technical aspects of the voice, often it’s working with song arrangement, presentation, approach, attitude – you’re like a sports coach, really.”
Caitlin is certainly a versatile vocalist, so why choose jazz?
“It’s the most musically and intellectually challenging form of musical expression – a combination of the cognitive and the gut!”
Caitlin says she has been stunned by the number of people who assume singing jazz was a commercial jazz.
“Jazz is a small niche market, so if it had been a money-oriented choice it would have been a stupid one! In America only three per cent of albums purchased are jazz, and I’d assume it’s pretty small here.”
Caitlin says she can sing just about any style and feels most comfortable singing soul and “belty gospel stuff” but enjoys being challenged.
“I’d love to do more commercials and session work because that really draws on your musicianship – you have to give them exactly what they want.”
For a commercial job what they wanted – and got – was Caitlin singing Jennifer Warnes-style: “Let’s lift eggs up where they belong…”
Another recent job was vocal coach to TrueBliss, the stars of TV’s Popstars. That lasted just two months.
“In their individual sessions they were all saying they were worried about money, and asking if I knew when they would get paid. I strongly recommended they get themselves an entertainment lawyer to protect their interests.”
That recommendation didn’t go down well with the programme makers, who fired her soon after. On the positive side however, it did provide her with timely coverage in the Sunday papers, eager to find cracks in TrueBliss’ make-up.
These articles made liberal mention of Caitlin ‘coaching’ Courtney Love at the Big Day Out as well as her ‘blindness’. With only 5% slight in one eye and 10% in the other, Caitlin is officially blind meaning she relies heavily on the appreciative sounds of her audiences, rather than being able to see if they are enjoying the performance.
Meanwhile The Fondue Set’s future will hopefully include a studio album and some originals.
“I have to crank-start my songwriting, which ended when I got over my teen years. Hmmm, I wonder if Prozac is destroying songwriting by removing people’s angst,” she ponders.
Playing regular gigs at jazz venues and private functions around town is good for profile, experience and purse, but not always for the artists’ souls. After two years Caitlin is well aware that The Fondue Set’s brief on these occasions is strictly background, and she has given up insisting that people listen quietly.
“Still, music is the only situation where you can say “I played the other night” and mean you worked. Apart from sport, of course, and I’ve accepted I’ll never make it as a professional sports-woman.”