End Of Fashion discover their feminine side on No Man's Woman

Ever wondered how your favourite female artists’ songs would sound if they were recorded by males? And how it would feel for male artists to tackle the art of covering a female performed song? No Man’s Woman, a concept album on which noted Australian male artists cover classic songs by female artists, inadvertently addresses those questions. Appropriately dubbed ‘a tribute to women in voice’, the album is the brainchild of a music fan who, after hearing You Am I’s version of the Patti Smith classic ‘Rock n Roll Nigger’, was inspired to extend the idea. While its title, derived from a Sinead O’Connor song, has a slight feminist leaning, the artist and track listing implies there’s more fun in the project than the title alludes to. Some of Australia’s most prominent and popular male performers have taken their art to new levels to pay tribute to fellow respected and renowned women singers. Reading like a who’s who of Australian music, it includes Grinspoon covering The Divinyls’ ‘Boys In Town’, Paul Kelly tackling ‘To Bring You My Love’ by PJ Harvey, Expatriate covering ‘Missing’ by Everything But The Girl and Portishead’s ‘Glorybox’ getting a Powderfinger makeover.

A personal favourite, in both band and their choice of cover, is End Of Fashion and their rendition of Blondie’s ‘Hanging On The Telephone’. The Perth stars put aside their occasional balladeering to rock out on the 1970s classic hit. Communicating with End Of Fashion’s delightful vocalist Justin Burford via the rather impersonal means of email, he answers a few questions about the band’s involvement with the album.

The concept is an exciting and interesting one and Justin reveals that, when asked by its creators, indie label Dew Process, to perform on it he “jumped at the opportunity.” The process of selecting a song to contribute was just as enthusing. Justin explains: “We threw around a few ideas and learnt a heap of songs. Blondie’s ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ really stood out to us, it’s such a fun pop song. We had a great time recording it.” Did he learn anything new or interesting about the female performers whose songs were covered for this album? He jokingly responds: “Deborah Harry (Blondie vocalist) sings in a lower register than me!”

In true Aussie muso style, it sounds like the boys had a ball recording their songs. One glance at the song list shows some amusingly odd match-ups: rugged Tex Perkins covering Helen Reddy’s feminist anthem ‘I Am Woman’ (one can’t even begin to imagine…), hip hopsters The Herd adding their touch to Tracy Chapman’ soulful ballad ‘Fast Car’ and the rowdy Vines going bubblegum pop on The Veronicas’ ‘4Eva’. Justin names Josh Pyke’s version of Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ (“I have absolutely fallen in love” with it) and Bjork’s ‘Hyperballad’, revisited by Whitely, as favourites. Considering the array of talented female artists’ music that these guys had to work with, did it ever humble these rock stars into realizing that they need to lift their game as musicians, I ask light-heartedly. “There is something really special about talented female artists that just blows men out of the water. So yeah I guess it does make you feel you have to lift your game,” he confesses.

No Man’s Woman has joined with this year’s Legs 11 concert, making its live debut at the National Breast Cancer Foundation fundraising event. The concert, held on Friday 26 October at Sydney’s Domain, will feature the above artists performing the song they covered. Justin is excited at the prospect of performing at this charity gig. “It’s a great chance for us to do something for a good cause,” he says. But he won’t reveal if, as an ode to female artists, he will drag out the platinum blonde wig and shimmery, off the shoulder dress (a look that was synonymous with Blondie’s sultry chanteuse) for the performance. “Just wait and see!” he teases.

Aside from contributing to No Man’s Woman, End Of Fashion have been keeping busy. After releasing their highly popular debut album in 2006, they have spent the last few months recording demos for album number two. The band has reassessed the direction it will take on it as well, opting to have a more hands on and involved approach to pre-production, much in the same vein as their first two EPs. “So it kind of feels like our first record,” Justin reveals.

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