Michelle Tumes

and ‘the progressive realisation of her dreams'

Despite having learnt piano since age four and completed two years of music school, Michelle Tumes had never seriously considered a career in music. She was studying dentistry at university in her hometown of Adelaide, South Australia, when her younger sister saved up and gave her the money to make a demo recording of a couple of her songs. As these stories go, Michelle’s demo caught the attention of a record label at Christian music HQ in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, and she was soon on her way to the other side of the world and a promising music career.

Her first album, Listen, was produced by Christian music legend Charlie Peacock and released in 1998. She recalls that creating this album was intense learning experience.
"Being an Australian, I am quite stubborn,” she says. “Bill Hearn from Sparrow Records said, ‘Charlie Peacock’s going to produce your album.’

"My response was something like, ‘Who is Charlie Peacock? And what is he going to do to my music?’ It was a bit of a tussle at times, but it was good because he really translated exactly what that album should be. He got me with the string arranger, he got me together with the programmer and the drummer, I was able to be there the whole time and it turned out exactly how I wanted it to turn out.”
Ten years and four albums later, Michelle is an experienced and established artist. She has moved away from the Nashville scene, now living in Los Angeles, and produced her most recent, self-titled album independently. “I chose to go independently, and I feel that a lot of artists—quite significant artists—may be going that way,” Michelle reflects. “The whole music industry is changing a lot. There are a lot more independents that have either aligned with huge companies or they’ve just done it by themselves.”

She admits this involves hard work but she also see the leading and blessing of God in her career. “God gives me the strength obviously, but the drive that it’s taken to write songs for other people, and being a shy person from Adelaide to be able to keep going has been incredible because I’ve had a lot of setbacks. But I just feel like I’ve had the opportunity to persevere, and God has been faithful in every step of the way.

"At one stage, my parents sent me to this Christian guy who was kind of—not a life-coach—an encourager, and he said, ‘Success is the progressive realisation of your dreams.’ So it’s not all of a sudden, it’s about the steps that are taken to get there. I think that’s helped me persevere through it all.”

Michelle says her shyness is something she has battled to overcome. “When I first started recording, that was my big thing, because I didn’t perform a lot during that time,” she says. “It’s took about five years to be really comfortable performing and now I love both [recording and performing] equally. But I was very scared at first—people had to push me onto the stage.”

As Michelle continues to talk about her music, it becomes clear she has matured and grown significantly as a performer and a person. “To be honest, there’s nothing like the blessing I feel when I’m performing now and the stories I hear after I’ve shared songs,” she says. “Everything else will take care of itself when it’s just that focus, I think. I used to get worried about the business side, now it’s just about the music, about presenting it, trying to be as excellent as I can possibly be and using the gift God has given me.”

A prolific songwriter, Michelle has also worked hard and used the opportunities and gifts God has given her in this aspect of music. She has written songs for a variety of Christian and mainstream artists, and has a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell music. “It’s always nice to get a pat on the back, that someone likes your song,” she says. “But I love writing songs for other people and then hearing how the producer has made it come to life.”

And perhaps it is in this aspect of her career that Michelle has the greatest unachieved aspirations. “I’ve been trying to get a song on a Josh Groban album,” she reports. “I’ve been really close and he’s got a magnificent voice in my opinion. And Andre Bocelli—I think that’s about it, just those huge male voices.

bviously I can’t emulate that, so you get someone else to do it. So I’m kind of working towards that and that may or may not happen. And one day I’d like to get to score a film, so I want to start looking into that.”

The past year has been busy for Michelle, with touring—including a brief Australian tour, including performing at the Australian Gospel Music Festival (now Easterfest)—capped by the release of her Christmas is Here EP late in the year. Things continue to grow for the shy Adelaide girl but her motivation remains constant.

"The time when I was most inspired I think when I was about four and my family moved to Malaysia, because Dad was the headmaster of a missionary school there,” she explains. “I remember becoming a Christian then, and little songs came out and music.

"I kind of go back to that place—my relationship with God and how much it gives me joy. Then the creative stuff happens from there. I just can’t stop writing and singing. So that’s probably the key motivator. I think it’s an urge to express my relationship with God.”

www.michelletumes.com