Photos and words by Cortney Armitage
Brooke Fraser is an absolute charmer and can spin a yarn as engaging and authentic as her songs. Returning to Los Angeles for the first time in a year with a brand new album Brutal Romantic, the New Zealand singer-songwriter took time out between songs to tell us about one of the tracks.
“Basically, how the song came about, was one day we were sitting around talking about … what my (family) crest was, and I was [saying] I was really disappointed because a few years earlier I’d went to a shop and was given a big book of family crests. Everyone had really awesome crests. Like the Camden’s and the Macintosh’s and the Douglas’s – they had bears and Mayans and stags, and like really cool – like dangerous things and I got to “F” and the Fraser crest is a strawberry. So that didn’t really work for me – that whole crest thing. I mean you run into battle with a strawberry and they will be like, “Thank you that’s delicious.” Really makes them tremble. I wanted something really hardcore and I got a strawberry. But you know, ok, I moved on with my life and then he said to me, ‘What’s your family motto?’ I said ‘I don’t know.’ So we did a little Google and it turns out the Fraser family motto is ‘Je Suis Pret’ which means ‘I am with you’. ”
With that Fraser launched into her song “Je Suis Pret” and all the attendees singing along at the Fonda were exactly that.

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Appropriately dressed in all black, the LA’s indie pop band Dark Waves opened and wrestled with their emotions on stage. Playing tracks off their self titled EP, front man Nick Long sang about tortured love and longing. The brooding front man melted hearts and won fans by keeping it humble, stopping to thank Fraser for bringing them on tour.

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