Amanda Gabrielle Brown (born 17 November 1965) is an Australian composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. She was the violinist of Australian indie rock band The Go-Betweens (1986–1989): recorded on their studio albums, Tallulah (1987) and 16 Lovers Lane (1988). Brown has also worked as a session musician and, since 2000, as a screen music composer. She won the AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score in 2020 for Babyteeth (2019) and also Best Original Music Score in a Documentary for Brazen Hussies (2020). At the APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards of 2009 she won Best Music for a Documentary for Sidney Nolan: Mask and Memory (2008) and Best Music for a Television Series or Serial for The Secrets She Keeps at the 2020 ceremony.
Early life and education
Amanda Gabrielle Brown was born on 17 November 1965. For secondary education she attended Sydney Girls High School where she took violin lessons. She received training in classical ballet. She started a course in archaeology and ancient history at University of Sydney but left before completion to pursue her music career. Brown is a graduate of Sydney Conservatorium of Music (1995), University of Western Sydney (BMus, 1997) and Australian Film Television and Radio School (Screen Composition, 2000).
Career
1980s
From 1983 Brown on violin, oboe and vocals was a member of jazz rock group Climbing Frame in Sydney, which issued a self-titled five-track extended play in 1984. Other members were Peter Brookes on drums, David Hawkes on clarinet and acoustic guitar, Neil Hawkes on saxophone, Michael Sherman on keyboards and trumpet, Barry Wolifson on oboe and Jon Wright on bass and electric guitar. Brown's other early bands during the 1980s were Tender Mercies (with John Willsteed and Michael O'Connell) and Blood Brothers (with O'Connell), in which she played violin, oboe, guitar and keyboards.
By March 1986 Brown had joined Australian indie rock group, the Go-Betweens for Australian tour dates after being discovered playing live in a café. The group had formed in Brisbane in 1977 and in 1986 they comprised Robert Forster on lead vocals and guitar, Grant McLennan on lead vocals, guitar and harmonica, Lindy Morrison on drums and backing vocals and Robert Vickers on bass guitar. The group had signed a new recording contract with Beggars Banquet. Later that year Brown officially joined the band, which was then-based in London, to provide backing vocals, violin, oboe, guitar, keyboards and arrangements. Forster recalled, "She was a girl we saw in Sydney, a multi-instrumentalist, and she sings; we thought we needed that."
Brown was recorded on two of the Go-Betweens' studio albums, Tallulah (1987) and 16 Lovers Lane (1988). The five-piece ensemble returned to Australia in November 1987, where Vickers was replaced by Brown's former bandmate Willsteed on bass guitar. The latter album provided the group's most popular single, "Streets of Your Town" (July 1988), which was written by McLennan while living with Brown in Sydney. Maura Johnston of NPR observed, "The shimmering 'Streets of Your Town', a saudade-infused saunter that's highlighted by Brown's sun-dappled backing vocal, is an especially summery offering." The band toured for 18 months promoting 16 Lovers Lane, which ended in Munich, Germany. Michael Armiger replaced Willsteed on bass guitar in March 1989. The Go-Betweens broke up in December 1989, after a farewell tour of England.
As a session musician, Brown was recorded on Love Gone Wrong's album From Go to Woe (1986) providing violin, including on their single, "Big Country" (July). Former Climbing Frame bandmates Brookes, David Hawkes and Sherman were members of Lucky Dinosaurs in 1987 with Lea Cameron on lead vocals, Adam Cox on guitar, Greg Flannery on saxophone, Lindsay Jones on trombone and David Richardson on bass guitar. Brown provided bass guitar, drums, guitar and keyboards for Lucky Dinosaurs' four-track EP That Was (1987). During the 1980s she also worked on Chad's Tree's album Buckle in the Rail (1987) and the Reels's album Neighbors (1988).