2020 was set to be a big year for Queensland muso Katie Noonan, with national and international tours lined up.
That was until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“As a musician and producer, I rely entirely on large gatherings of people,” Ms Noonan said.
“I was three dates in to a 25 date national tour [when the pandemic hit], which I promptly had to cancel.
“I’ve cancelled two international tours, I’ve released an album in the middle of a pandemic which was very strange.
“Everything about what I do has changed.”
But despite the complete upheaval, Ms Noonan has kept herself busy this year.
She released her album, The Sweetest Taboo, in May. The album was recently nominated for an Aria award.
“The idea behind it was to look at a particular group of songs that deeply influenced me as a young girl growing up in the eighties in Brisbane,” Ms Noonan said.
“I put together an amazing band of incredible musicians who are all of a similar age. So we all had a particular emotional connection to them.
“It was good to have that to keep me busy at the beginning of the pandemic – I had an album to mix and produce and artwork to finish.
“It was good to have things to keep me busy at a time when everything else was disappearing.”
She then hit our TV screens as the Sloth on the hit show, The Masked Singer.
“It’s such a genuinely strange and weird and wonderful show, which is basically total escapism,” Ms Noonan said.
“It doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s just total switch off, family friendly fun – which I think is something this year we needed more than ever.”
And now, she’s setting out on her Sunshine Sounds tour alongside internationally renowned cellist Louise King and Fijian-Australian soul songstress Andrea Kirwin.
The tour will see the trio play at the Ipswich Civic Centre on Sunday, 1 November.
“We’re in a pretty good place now where Queensland, at least, is getting back to a sense of normalcy, in that we are able to come and do shows like this at the Ipswich Civic Centre,” she said.
“We’re really glad to be getting back on the road and doing what we do and doing what we desperately miss.”
Ms Noonan said the tour would give regional music fans a welcome escape from the real world.
“It’s going to be really special,” she said.
“I’ll be doing a selection of songs from across my 20 years, so mainly my original material and then Louise will be doing a lot of Australian composers and we’ll be playing together.
“Andrea will be doing her tunes, and she’s really a lovely kind of soul, RnB singer, and then we’ll all play together as well.
“So it will be a real escape from everyday life.”
She said she was looking forward to getting off the beaten track.
“We start in Toowoomba and then we go to the Gold Coast, and Ipswich and then Caloundra, Eumundi – which is my home town – and then out at Dingo Creek at Traveston,” she said.
“I love playing big cities, but I really love playing smaller cities and towns a bit more.”
Ms Noonan also had a message for local performers and creatives.
“Stay strong, but be noisy,” she said.
“People need to hear your stories about the challenges you have faced.
“I don’t think people realise just how much the arts are such an integral part of our life, and without them how lost we are.
“And how it does bring us such a beautiful sense of communion and community and belonging that really only music and the arts can bring.”
You can see the Sunshine Sounds tour at the Ipswich Civic Centre at 4pm on Sunday 1 November.
It will be a COVID-safe event, with reduced venue capacity. Tickets are available from $40.
Book your tickets here: www.ipswichciviccentre.com.au/event/sunshine-sounds/
