Conway and Zygier tour supports new album

Deborah Conway has never been one to shy away from provocation.

Across four decades in the Australian music landscape, from Do-Re-Mi’s 80s heydays to her ARIA award winning solo career and platinum and gold album collaborations with her long-time creative and life partner Willy Zygier, Conway has remained steadfastly unwilling to play it safe.

And now, once again in collaboration with Zygier, Conway’s new album, Right Wing Propaganda, has been released independently on her 66th birthday.

The new album was self-produced from the pair’s Melbourne home studio, and is underpinned by Zygier’s deft guitar work and Conway’s crystalline, unmistakable voice.

Conway and Zygier have returned to the roots of musical expression for this album, which will be supported by a national tour titled Songs You Can Trust which will include a show at Avoca Beach Theatre on September 25.

This is the couple’s 11th album together – a trademark blend of folk-pop melodies and lyrical directness.

Right Wing Propaganda is raw, acoustic collection of 14 songs written, performed and recorded solely by the long-time collaborators, joined only by the voices of their daughters Syd, Alma, and Hettie Zygier.

There are no session musicians, no auto-tuning, no studio polish – just guitars and voices.

“Machines are making music right now, with and without human intervention, with no care about connection, audience, or even remuneration,” Conway said.

“Music without body, without ego, without soul.

“This is not a judgement on the quality of the music, just an observation.

“This is not a complaint.

“Wonderful music has been made this way and will continue to be made this way but … we have responded by making a record with as little on it as possible, pretty much just our acoustic guitars and voices, and the voices of our daughters.

“We retreated inwards; no other musicians, a guitar on our laps – just to see what we could wring out of the old ways.

“It was not done as a challenge, there’s plenty of acoustic music being made, more just a feeling of connection.

“Connection with each other, connection with the spark of musical impulse, connection with breath, with wood, with skin, with air.”

Conway and Zygier have crafted a suite of songs that includes tracks like We’d Rather Have Nothing, The Living & The Dead Song, and the title track Right Wing Propaganda that take listeners through a thematic labyrinth of songs that mirror the current swirl of issues.