Carmen Fraser
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"Fraser Starts Her Own Country Party"

Alyssa Braithwaite
October 19, 2009 11:00pm

CARMEN Fraser, granddaughter of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, is forging her own career away from politics as a country music singer.

The 24-year-old from Mansfield has just released her debut album, Silhouette, featuring 12 self-penned tracks including her first single, 32 Days, which is attracting the attention of country music fans.

"I thought there would be a couple of co-writes on there, but when the producer and I went through all my songs we ended up just choosing all the ones I'd written myself," Fraser said. "That's why I called the album Silhouette - you can never get a whole picture of someone unless you are that person, but a silhouette gives you a pretty good idea."

Another part of the picture when it comes to Fraser is her impressive political lineage. Her grandfather led the country from 1975 to 1983, and was at the centre of the biggest controversy in Australian political history - the sacking of PM Gough Whitlam.

Malcolm's grandfather, Simon Fraser, served in the Senate and the Victorian Parliament.

Malcolm and his wife, Tamie, support Carmen whenever she performs.

But politics was never something the younger Fraser focused on.

Instead she has written songs from the age of 10, studied at the CMAA College of Country Music, and has been gigging around Australia for years.

Carmen Fraser is a full-time student at Melbourne University, and is choosing a major between creative writing ... and politics - in part to find out more about 1975.

Fraser admits she was "fairly ignorant" about Australian political history, and wrote on her MySpace page that she "didn't even know what the Whitlam dismissal was since I left school".

"That was a slight joke. I did know what the Whitlam dismissal was, but not a huge amount after that," she said.

"I have huge respect for everything Grandad's done.

"I actually wanted to learn, not specifically about him, but a lot more of the political history of our country."

Malcolm Fraser and his wife Tamie are now getting a taste of their granddaughter's chosen career, coming out to support her when she performs.

"Granny and grandad have been supportive, they've come to a few gigs," she said.

"I think they'd probably prefer I just focused on doing arts law or something like that but that's ok, and they're fairly supportive."

- Herald Sun, October 20, 2009


"Singer Making Her Mark on Industry"

Country Chat with Gary Turner

Published in
Country Music Writer
QLD Times Ipswich
South Burnett Times Kingaroy
Dalby Herald Dalby
The Daily Mercury Mackay
QLD Central News Emerald
Warwick Daily News
Western Times Charleville
Star News Mt Isa

Metro News Vic
Frankston Times Vic
Hastings News Vic
Mornington News
Somerville News
Sorrento News
Rosebud Times
Rye Times Vic
Queensland Times QLD


CARMEN Fraser (pictured
right) is another Victorianbased
country music singer
trying to make the break.
The ingredients are there,
talented songwriter, exciting
singer, charming and
determined to make it.
Carmen is serious about
her musical career and if it
means heading north of the
border we may see her landing
in Sydney or Brisbane.
Richard Wilkins described
her as huge potential
and Kerry O’Brien from
The 7.30 Report said she was
a rising talent and may well
have just what it takes to get
there.
In 2008 Carmen attended
the CMAA College of Country
music.
This week Carmen releases
her debut album Silhouette
(MGM) which includes
the debut single 32
Days and the single Wild
Dog Creek.
Her debut video clip 32
Days made the Top 30 of the
CMC Countdown.
The album was produced
by ARIA award-winning
producer Paul Wiltshire
who produced Shannon
Noll, Tina Arena, the Backstreet
Boys, Ross Wilson,
Vanessa Amorosi and many
others.
Carmen popped in home
last weekend after her performance
at T’Gallant Winery
on the Mornington Peninsula
not far from the
home of her grandparents
Malcolm and Tammy Fraser.
“I have had a positive
reaction from people since
the October 9 release of the
album,” she said.
“I am glad the album is finally
out there and I just
want to get out there and
play the album live – doing
more festivals and support
gigs.”
Her parents Anna and
Mark breed horses (warm
bloods) in the high country
and have been very supportive
of her country music
journey.
“Mum is always supportive
and toldmeto followmy
passion in life,” Carmen
said.
“My partner Mitch is an
officer in the defence forces
and a great fiddle player and
we often perform together
when he is free.
“Though my grandparents
would love me to take
a position as a lawyer I will
continue to study via correspondence
for a degree in
creative writing.
“This is very stimulating
and will help me with my
song writing.”
So does the Fraser clan
enjoy music?
“My grandfather Malcolm
loves Whitney Houston
and who wouldn’t?
Whitney has an awesome
voice,” she said.
“Mum and Dad love music
and listen to music most
of the time.
“I enjoy Australian country
music artist Travis Collins
and Kasey Chambers.
“I also enjoy Sugarland,
Bruce Springsteen and
Gretchen Wilson.
Best tracks on the album
include 32 Days, Wild Dog
Creek, the up-tempo Used to
Be, Then Wall, Farmer’s
Wife and the love song Today
I Leave.
Carmen Fraser is a singer/
songwriter with a story
to tell and an artist with tremendous
potential.
Visit www.myspace.com/
carmenfrasermusic
Win CDs
We have some autographed
copies of Carmen’s new album
Silhouette (MGM) to
give away.
Send your entry to Carmen
Fraser’s Silhouette CD,
PO Box 1, Mount Eliza 3930
or email countrymusic@
gmail.com
...Continued page 7 - Multiple Papers in Qld and Vic


"Political Progeny Votes With Voice"

CARMEN Fraser, the
granddaughter of former
prime minister Malcolm
Fraser, is forging a career
away from politics as a
country music singer.
The 24-year-old from
Mansfield, Victoria has just
released her debut album
Silhouette, featuring 12 selfpenned
tracks including her
first single 32 Days, which is
pricking up the ears of
country music fans.
Fraser has an impressive
political lineage.
Her grandfather led the
country from 1975 to 1983,
and was at the centre of the
biggest controversy in
Australian political history
—becoming prime minister
after Governor-General Sir
John Kerr sacked Gough
Whitlam. His grandfather,
Simon Fraser, served in the
Victorian parliament and
the Australian Senate.
But politics was never
something the younger
Fraser paid much attention
to.
Instead she has been
songwriting from the age of
10, studied at the CMAA
College of Country Music,
and has been gigging
around Australia for a
number of years.
- The Advocate, Tasmania


"Music industry a challenge for Fraser scion"

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT

LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1751004.htm

Broadcast: 20/09/2006

Music industry a challenge for Fraser scion
Reporter: Greg Hoy


KERRY O’BRIEN: She's a rising young talent on the Melbourne music scene, determined to make it to the top and according to old hands in the industry she may well have just what it takes to get there, but musical talent isn't the only thing that sets 21 year old Carmen Fraser apart. Depending on your politics, the best or worse thing going for her is her surname, since she's the grand daughter of a certain former prime minister. Greg Hoy reports.

GREG HOY: Around the rock haunts and jazz bars of Melbourne you will hear the music of Carmen Fraser.

CARMEN FRASER: Music to me is a powerful instrument and I think music has the power to really uplift people and that's why I'm passionate about it.

GREG HOY: She's a 21 year old singer/songwriter with loads of bravado and burning ambition. As they say in showbiz this kid can sing.

MALCOLM FRASER: Most people would probably think grandfathers are prejudiced. I'm prejudiced, I'm sure. But I'm also sure that Carmen has a great future. She's got enormous determination, total commitment to what she wants to achieve and has the capacity to push other things aside.

GREG HOY: But it's a long way to the top if you want to be more than a wanna be in this town.

GREG HOY: How many bright young musos are there out there in Melbourne?

SCOTT WOODHOUSE, ESPLANADE HOTEL: Too many to count. Absolutely too many to count. I reckon there are a few thousand bands down here and acoustic acts innumerable.

GREG HOY: Maybe you can help her there. How tough do you have to be to make it to the top?

MALCOLM FRASER: Carmen just has to demonstrate she's better than nearly all of the others and ultimately demonstrate she's the best.

GREG HOY: It's not your usual fairytale about some songbird from struggle town. Schooled in the hallowed halls of Geelong Grammar, where her grandfather spent his early school years before moving into Melbourne Grammar; Geelong Grammar is a place better known for producing affluent graziers for the Western District and pillars of high society, rather than rock stars.

CARMEN FRASER: I've all wanted to be a singer since I remember.

MALCOLM FRASER: At one point she thought her rowing capacity could have got her a rowing scholarship at Harvard. Well, that would have been quite something. But music came before all of these other things.

GREG HOY: You've said in the past that a privileged background can be a disadvantage. Could that apply to Carmen?

MALCOLM FRASER: I don't really think so, no. Again, that gets back to being prepared to work at something so people judge you for what you are, what you can do. Not really where you've come from.

GREG HOY: Fierce determination and a proud pedigree. Her father, Tammie and Malcolm Fraser's older son Mark, breeds German warm blood horses for show jumping in the lush green hills of Mansfield in Victoria's highlands, together with his wife, Anna, who is originally a Baillieu and is closely related to the Packers and the Hordens. There's a confidence around here that Carmen Fraser will outgrow the family history and the tall shadow of the family's political patriarch.

MARK FRASER: I think if anyone knows Carmen they will appreciate a musical Carmen. They will forget pretty quickly, I think –

ANNA FRASER: The political side.

MARK FRASER: The famous one is yet to come in the family, I think.

GREG HOY: Are you really that confident?

MARK FRASER: Oh, yeah. I believe Carmen has got the goods to do really well.

ANNA FRASER: We both do.

MARK FRASER: We encourage her.

ANNA FRASER: Huge.

GREG HOY: Through picture postcard paddocks, Carmen Fraser has been training for a marathon concert tour of the east coast in October and November and before that through Central Australia to raise money for dialysis equipment for Aboriginal communities.

CARMEN FRASER: I think the amount of kidney disease in Aboriginals is nine times higher than that of the average Australian and their life expectancy is 17 years less than the average Australian. It's just a matter of access to medical facilities.

GREG HOY: Talk about a chip off the old boy's block. In his time, her grandfather once agitated for black rights in South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela and continues to push for Aboriginal reconciliation back home.

MALCOLM FRASER: If it is possible to contribute to making the world a better place, to making your community better, to help people who are disadvantaged, then I think people ought to act in that way.

CARMEN FRASER: I think it is great that he's done some great stuff and I'm sort of not trying to replicate it in any way. If it happens to be that, then it is.

GREG HOY: Malcolm Fraser is now 76. No question, particularly since he had both k - The 7:30 Report, ABC TV Network


Discography

"The Farmer's Wife" - EP
"32 Days" - single
"Wild Dog Creek" - single
"32 Days" - video clip
"Silhouette" - album

Photos

Bio

“She is the young talent who has huge potential.” - Richard Wilkins, Today Show Nine TV Network

“She’s a rising young talent… determined to make it to the top and according to old hands in the industry she may well have just what is takes to get there…” – Kerry O’Brien, The 7.30 Report, ABC TV Network

“A unique new talent…” – Gary Turner.

Victorian singer/songwriter, CARMEN FRASER has the ability to hold an audience captive with her distinctively unique voice and the way she conveys emotion through her songs. The Mansfield girl has been a passionate singer since she could talk, and discovered her love for songwriting at age nine when after being stranded in a far paddock after the motorbike ran out of fuel, she crafted her first well written song while walking back.

Growing up listening to her parents’ record collection including Bruce Springsteen, Carole King, Whitney Houston, Kenny Rogers and Garth Brooks amongst many others, Carmen developed an unshakeable obsession with emotive music. Despite graduating high school with the International Baccalaureate Diploma and a TER of 97.45, the pull towards playing and writing songs was so strong that there was never really a choice. Fraser is a dynamic country performer with the ability to transform life experiences into a lyrical poem, delivering a flawless performance from the opening line. The influence those great singer songwriters have had on her is evident in her well crafted lyrics and stirring melodies.

“I tend to write songs whenever I feel an emotion strongly – whether it be love, excitement, regret or hope… and I often think those songs just about write themselves. I’ve always thought that music is so powerful in that it can uplift people, be thought-provoking and inspiring, and it really excites me that I’m lucky enough to continually listen to, create, explore and practise it,” she explains.

After school Carmen had a year working at Timbertop (Yr 9 campus of Geelong Grammar) as the music and running assistant, working on songs, and has definitely been ‘paying her dues,’ having spent three winter seasons up at Mt Buller with residencies at the Mt Buller Chalet and other venues, playing four nights a week. Other residencies include 5-star hotels in Melbourne: The Grand, and the Sofitel. In 2006 Carmen did some shows on behalf of the Jimmy Little Foundation in the Northern Territory, and supported GANGgajang at The Tivoli in Brisbane, the Basement in Sydney and Manchester Lane in Melbourne, and also played the World Aids Day Concert in Federation Square in Melbourne.

In 2008 she attended the prestigious CMAA College of Country music, and throughout the rest of the year, while studying Politics and Creative Writing at Melbourne University, continued to hone and develop her skills, playing gigs on the weekends and writing songs for the album. The self funded debut album Silhouette was recorded in Melbourne by ARIA award-winning producer Paul Wiltshire, and contains twelve original songs – the pick of six years worth of writing.

The first two singles off the album, “32 Days” and “Wild Dog Creek,” have been very well received on radio, and the debut video clip, “32 Days,” made it comfortably into the Top 30 of the CMC Countdown. With recent supports of the likes of Bobby Flynn and Grace Knight, and multiple festival appearances imminent and the recent release of her Silhouette on October 10, audiences and industry professionals alike agree that Fraser is an undeniable force to be reckoned with, and from the response to the first two singles it is destined to be a huge success.