From A to Z

“Oh my God, it’s Jimmy Page, and he’s giving me The international praise for Zee Gachette aka Z-Star, the renowned British-Trinidadian musician, and her many musical incarnations, has come in thick and fast over the course of her career, the most resonant and surreal of which has come from the Led Zeppelin guitar god and other such music legends. You get the feeling Gachette’s head is still spinning over that as she speaks to The Music from the road in rural Victoria.

“I got this award for Best Live Act,” she recalls. “Jimmy and Roger Daltrey were giving out the award and they were in the audience. I’d just finished performing my song Murder On My Mind, which is on my new record 16 Tons Of Love. I finished it and Jimmy and Roger just leapt to their feet applauding, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God!’

“Then afterwards, backstage we were talking for quite a long time, and he was like, ‘Did you write that song?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah I wrote it!’ He was super impressed and he said, ‘Wow, you’re a force of nature.’ We’ve struck up a really nice friendship, I know his kids and his ex-wife and stuff. It’s like meeting your god.”

Gachette has been in Australia since mid-February, on a lengthy and comprehensive tour of the east coast, which has taken in everything from tiny country pubs to big festivals like Port Fairy and Blues On Broadbeach. The tour takes her all the way through to the end of June, performing as a trio with Beck Flatt and Jez Klysz. “Z-Star Trinity forms one part of the Z-Star universe,” she says. “It’s a power trio, and it’s pretty trashy, big songs, memorable songs. Then there’s Z-Star, the Mothership, which is the full band, and we’ve got Z-Star Delta which is the two-piece, where I play drums and I have my lead guitarist Sebastien [Heintz]. They’re all really different — and all really fun.”

The Z-Star Universe’s music transcends all barriers of age, race and religion, and brings people together in that spirit of music and fun. “From Port Fairy to the Blue Mountains, people have been saying, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t danced so much in years!’” she laughs. “And the crowds, it’s a real mix, it’s everyone from great grandmothers to little kids. It’s quite intense, but there’s always a great message in there: it’s uplifting, it’s deeply emotional and it’s going to take you to places.”

Gachette feels that this is what draws people to her music: “People connect with it, they connect with the passion of it all — it doesn’t matter where you come from or what you look like.”

Another great advantage of doing a tour like this is that she gets to escape a large chunk of the English winter and exchange it for an Aussie summer. “Woo, my God yeah!” she swoons. “I was just speaking to a friend of mine in England this morning, and she was like, ‘It’s still so dark and cold here, I’m so jealous!’ You guys are so lucky here, I love coming over here.”

Indeed, Gachette feels a very strong kinship and deep connection with Australia, having toured here extensively over the years. “It’s a great continent, I’ve got lots of friends here, people who’ve moved out here from the UK. The people are really warm, they love music, they still buy CDs, they go out to shows, it’s just a case of stopping the government getting in the way.

“It’s so crazy,” she continues, referring to the NSW Government’s crackdown on music festivals, and the impact of policies like the lockout laws on the Sydney music scene. “Music makes people feel good, it’s art, and there should be more investment into that, because we all need it. It’s not just the sunshine that’s going to give us all that buzz.

“We all need music as well.”

By Rod Whitfield