“when country allows other kind of influences like folk, indie and rock to bleed into it, I think that’s when country’s at its best”
It’s Country Music Month, and Imogen Clark and Kezia Gill are taking the reins with a special artist-on-artist chat.
Between Imogen dropping her fiery new album Choking on Fuel and the pair about to hit the road together for an Aussie co-headline tour, the timing couldn’t be better.
From their first country loves to heartbreak anthems, wild fan stories and the future of the genre, this is country music in 2025 straight from the source.
KEZIA: Imogen, what is the first country song you remember falling in love with and does it still hold up for you today?
IMOGEN: It is so funny. I feel like this is such a stereotypical answer and I hope it doesn’t come off sounding weird, but I didn’t grow up with country music and when I first heard the song ‘The Gambler,’ when I was 13 years old, I was like, hang on, this is so cool.
This is a full on narrative story and the way it was told and the way the narrative moved forward and then the way everything tied in, in the choruses. I don’t know, ‘The Gambler’ is the song everyone feels like they play at all their gigs these days.
And everyone’s done versions of it, but I’m still obsessed with it because to me it’s exactly what a country song should be. You know?
KEZIA: Perfect answer and great choice, by the way.
IMOGEN: Thank you very much.
KEZIA: Okay. We both love the classics, but also push the genre forward. Where do you think country music still needs to break some rules?
IMOGEN: I feel like country is moving forward in a really great way. I just feel the only thing I would say, and I think we’re already kind of doing this in general, as a country music community, but I feel like it just needs to be as open as possible to the blurring of the genre lines.
I think when country allows other kind of influences like folk, indie and rock to bleed into it, I think that’s when country’s at its best.
But I do think that’s already kind of happening. So I think it’s great when that is allowed, you know.
KEZIA: A hundred percent. That another great answer. Thank you. If you could teleport us both to any iconic country stage, the Ryman, the Opry at Dusty Texas Dance Hall, where are we playing and what is the first song on the set list?
IMOGEN: That’s a very cool question, and I think, honestly, I think it’s right there in the question. I think the Ryman. I don’t know that you could play a more iconic venue, you know, than the Ryman Auditorium.
It’s the mother Church of country music and I feel like, if you and I were doing that, we would simply have to start off the set list with our cover of ‘If it Makes You Happy’ by Sheyrl Crow, what other other song are we doing really in that scenario?
KEZIA: Well, I feel like that would make us very happy.
IMOGEN: Yeah, a hundred percent. Exactly.
KEZIA: Country is known for big feelings. Which song from Choking on Fuel, would you put in the Heartbreak Hall of Fame?
IMOGEN: I have a song on Choking on Fuel called ‘All Hard Feelings’. It’s a bit of a tongue in cheek song, but I think it is really a song about getting your heart broken but never being able to get over it, and sort of laughing at the fact.
I’m bad at forgiving people and I hold grudges and stuff and I think it’s the song that most people come up to me and go like, I totally relate to that.
So I feel like that’s going in the Heartbreak Hall of Fame if I could choose.
KEZIA: Yeah, I remember you sang that one on my tour and I was like, that is genius.
IMOGEN: Thank you.
KEZIA: Does living between Nashville and Sydney Shape the way you write songs?
IMOGEN: Yeah, I feel like it really does. I feel like if I only stayed in one place, I don’t feel like I would write very good songs, because to me, the inspiration comes from seeing lots of different places and meeting lots of different people and being in a different atmosphere and a different community.
A lot of my music is informed by my roots and where I grew up in Western Sydney, but just as equally, a lot of my music is informed by the feeling of lke running away and finding a new life for yourself and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone. So I think it very much informs it for me.
KEZIA: Amazing. Would you write differently if you stayed put in one place?
IMOGEN: I think a hundred percent. I don’t think I would be as, what’s the word? I guess maybe as worldly wise or as understanding of the human condition.
If I stayed put in one place, if I’d never left my hometown, I don’t think I would be as informed about the different ways that you can live as a human, I guess.
I think you just learn more the more you travel and the more people you meet.
KEZIA: A hundred percent. And might I say it’s really brave.
IMOGEN: Yeah. All the good stuff is in the scary part, I guess, is what people always say. Like when you’re outside your comfort zone, that’s where you grow.
KEZIA: Amen, sister. Finally, if we were hosting Country Music month, 10 years from now, what do you hope country music will sound like and who do you hope is headlining?
IMOGEN: That’s such a cool question. And I think, relating back to what I said before, I hope that 10 years from now, country music still has the core of what country means, the storytelling and the deeply personal lyrics and the real vulnerability.
But just from a production perspective or from, you know, the vibe is just gonna be a bit of a blurred line between genres. I think country has the potential to have so many different influences within it, bleeding into it.
And I think that’s really my hope, that country becomes something that is not just traditional country, but also, you know, it’s got influences of pop and rock and folk music and everything.
Because at the end of the day, it’s important that everyone’s making their own sound and sometimes people don’t fit into a box like that, that’s so obvious. So I feel like who would I hope is headlining? That’s a really good question.
I am massively in love right now with Ashley McBride, I’m just such a huge fan of hers. And I feel like she is like a bit of a guiding light to me on just being yourself and fighting for what you believe in. And I think, if she’s headlining, that’s something I wanna be a part of.
KEZIA: That’s amazing. And I agree. She would be a great headliner. Yeah, for sure. Very good answers Ms. Clark.
IMOGEN: Yes. Thank you very much. Well, it is time to turn the tables for you, KES. And I’m gonna ask you some questions now. Are you ready?
KEZIA: I am ready.
IMOGEN: Okay. If we made a tour van playlist together, what’s the one song you’d insist we play before every gig?
KEZIA: The song that I would have to choose is ‘Something Bad’ by Miranda Lambert And Carry Underwood. Because it’s got that whole Thelma and Louise sassy energy.
When we were touring in the UK, you and I spent so much time in the car and I feel like we did become slightly Thelma and Louise-esque, and I just feel like we’d hold our shoulders back a bit more, we’d have a bit more sassy energy, and we’d walk out on every stage like we were about to do some damage.
IMOGEN: I love that so much. Perfect song for the occasion. Okay. What’s the most inspiring thing you’ve seen another woman in country music do recently, and how does it light a fire under you?
KEZIA: Ooh. I dunno if this classes as recently, but I’m such a huge Taylor Swift fan and say what you will about Taylor Swift. Her roots and her beginnings are in country music and I just love the way that she has evolved and grown and paved her own path to becoming. Arguably one of the world’s biggest superstars across any genre.
There’s a specific song on her recent album, the Torture Poets Department, ‘Who’s afraid of little old me’. And I think it’s a bit of a nod to the whole Kanye West situation where she was humiliated at that award ceremony. And I feel like that was the little old me that she was referring to.
And no one took her seriously. Everyone thought she was a bit of a joke. And then in her own time on her own path, in her own words, she just proved the world wrong and all her doubters, but she did it with such class and such elegance, and she just did it by being amazing and that inspires me.
IMOGEN: That is so cool and I know from our time in the car together, you know, I’m a massive Swift fan, so I completely agree with that and I think she was like, what’s that old saying?
The best revenge is living. Well, I just think that’s such a great way of looking at it. She didn’t have to like do anything specific. She just kept working and writing incredible music and like she’d come out on top. So kind of like. It’s a bit of a, it’s a bit of a fuck you really, isn’t it?
KEZIA: Totally. Everyone has doubted her. She did it over six years. I mean, just classy, you know? Classy revenge.
IMOGEN: Absolutely. The grace. The grace. I love it. Okay. Next question. What’s the most ridiculous, wild or touching fan moment you’ve had at a country gig?
KEZIA: Oh gosh, I’m gonna have to go wild with this one, because I was at a meet and greet and somebody asked me to sign their thigh, and I thought, that’s a really strange place to ask for a signature, but let’s go with it.
She then sent me a. message on Instagram the next day. She’d got it tattooed. Oh my gosh. That’s amazing. So of all the, the Kezi Gill lyrics and, and tattoos that I know are out there. The signature on the thigh is probably the wildest.
IMOGEN: That’s amazing. That’s how you know you’re connecting with people when they’re like, “I want a tattoo of you on my body forever.”
KEZIA: It was really nice. ’cause all jokes aside, she said that I’d helped her through some really tough things. So from both sides it was a crazy, wild moment, but underneath it was a sentiment that will stick with me.
IMOGEN: Oh, bless her. I love that. That’s so beautiful. Okay, so country music loves a duet. What’s your favourite classic duet and how did it influence the way we approached ‘If it makes you happy?’
KEZIA: Well, for me, there is only one iconic country duet, and it’s gotta be Kenny and Dolly.
IMOGEN: Of course.
KEZIA: And I think the key to a good duet, is respect and space. Even though we recorded that song from two completely different parts of the world, when I listened to it, it’s like we both stood in the same room listening and speaking with each other.
And I think that’s something I learned from the greats like Kenny and Dolly, and you know, Johnny and June because it’s a mutual respect. I didn’t need to do anything flamboyant and sing all over you, and you didn’t need to be louder than me and better than me.
It’s just a mutual respect between artists that are telling the same story, sometimes from different sides, sometimes from the same side, but I think that’s what I took into ‘If it makes you happy.’
I wanted to respect you as an artist, and when I got the final produced version back, I felt the space and the respect for my parts of the song, and I think that’s what makes it a great record.
IMOGEN: That’s awesome. I love that answer. And that’s such a good point. Respect is such a big part of doing a great duet.
And you’re right, it doesn’t have to just be like who can sing louder, who can sing better, who’s singing all over the other, it’s teamwork. It’s a collaboration, not a competition for sure.
KEZIA: Hundred percent.
IMOGEN: Does being based in Derby give you a different take on country music compared to, say, Nashville or Sydney or anywhere else in the world?
KEZIA: I think, inevitably it has to give me a different take because I’m not from America or from Nashville specifically. Probably similar to you growing up in Australia.
I have that kind of outside looking in, that admiration of Nashville and country music. So the different take would probably be an admiration and a respect for the genre.
And I certainly know that the first few times I went to Nashville, I really felt that child going to Disneyland sort of feeling. And every time I get to to visit Nashville, I feel so grateful that I’m making great friends and great connections and getting to perform over there.
But I think it also makes me have to work a little harder. And I’m sure again, that’s something you can empathize with because you’re not from Nashville or even from the States, I feel there’s that slight level of having to prove yourself in this genre.
And still to this day, there is a little stigma of being British and wanting to sing Americana music.
But for me, country is a feeling. It’s not, it’s not a passport stamp, it’s not what it says on your birth certificate. It’s a feeling, it’s a story. It’s that whole three chords. In the truth analogy, it’s an honesty in songwriting, which is, it’s why I fell in love with it, and it’s why I continue to love it.
So I would say a respect for Nashville and a tenacity to work hard and prove myself worthy of it.
IMOGEN: I love that answer too. You are just killing this. I love this. Okay, last question for you. What makes you happy?
KEZIA: You know, this is such a boring answer, but just being at home.
IMOGEN: No, I love that. I love that.
KEZIA: Me and Lloyd have this – Lloyd my husband – we have this saying when he’ll come home from a hard day at work, or I’ll come home from a few days on the road and when we lock the front door, we say lock the world out. And it’s just our little way. You know, we have no children, we just live just the two of us.
And it’s just our way of being, it’s just us now. And it’s safe to take off the mask, whatever that may be, whether it’s professional or whether you’ve been hardworking. You get to take off the mask and you get to just be, and that is what makes me truly happy.
We could just be watching a movie. We could just be cooking our favourite meal. And that’s true happiness for me because I always say, you work to live, you don’t live to work.
Even though music for me doesn’t feel like work ’cause I love it so much, it’s those quiet moments just at home with the person that I love. That is really when I’m living my best life.
IMOGEN: Oh, I love that so much. And having stayed at your guys’ place in Derby when we were touring in the UK together, when I was opening for you, I felt that energy, I could tell you guys absolutely love your home. You’ve put a lot of beautiful effort into making it such a gorgeous, homey space.
And I felt that way, you know, just visiting you guys, I felt like it was like, okay, it’s the end of the day, we’ve worked hard. Now it’s time to sit down, maybe we’ll have a glass of wine, make some dinner, and watch some TV and just totally shut the rest of the world out. Yeah. And this is just time for us.
And I think that is so healthy, especially when you spend your life doing things that you know you, like you said, we love music. We do it because we love it, but there is a certain amount of performance involved in it where you are performing outwardly for other people. Whereas when you’re at your home, you’re not performing.
You’re just letting the guard down, aren’t you?
KEZIA: A hundred percent. And that’s when I’m truly at my happiest.
IMOGEN: I love that. That’s so beautiful.
KEZIA: Thanks Happy for having us. We appreciate you.
