First this Darling takes Manhattan

Julia Darling danced her way out of Taranaki with her eyes set on Australia. But she has landed firmly on her musical feet in New York, as RUSSELL BAILLIE reports.

When she left New Plymouth Girls' High School a few years go, Julia Darling had her sights on furthering her dance studies in Australia.

Now she's a singer-songwriter in New York with an internationally released debut album and what's shaping up to be a serious musical career.

That's just how it worked out, says the 23-year-old, on the line from somewhere in Manhattan, the sound of big city sirens in the background.

And no, had she stayed in New Zealand, turning music into a professional pursuit would not have occurred to her.

"It definitely wouldn't have. There are so many things that lined up in getting to New York, just the people that had helped me and things I have been exposed to that I can write about.

"I know that if I was still in New Plymouth or at university or at dance school there I never would have got the drive to do it."

The first evidence of Darling's "it" is her just-released debut album Figure 8. It's a collection of sometimes acoustic and wistful, sometimes rocking and direct tunes which thankfully pitch Darling as neither a post-Alanis angry young woman or a Lilith Fair folkie.

She cites Jeff Buckley and Heather Nova as early influences on her fledging songwriting and doesn't mind a Kate Bush comparison.

"Not vocally, just I don't use too many rules in the songs. I think that is what her theory is ..."

Darling's musical career effectively started when she was discovered, by the man who is now her manager, busking on the streets of Melbourne, having headed there for dance training.

"I sort of wasn't enjoying myself there too much and just started writing songs on my guitar and discovered that I liked that a lot more."

That lead to signing a publishing deal then a deal with Wind-Up Records, the small American label which has made its millions with rockers Creed.

Now the hard work has begun. And being a Kiwi in the American music biz has mixed blessings.

"It does help you stand out to a certain extent - they remember the accent and they remember the story ...

"But I have noticed just recently, I've never been exposed to racism being from New Zealand where everyone's totally cool. Over here it's just a little bit harder to be taken seriously when you are from a small country and it's really scary to learn that it [racism] is still happening when you are dealing with an international thing like music."

Darling heads back to New Zealand next week for a round of promotional duties which offers a time to catch up with her folks and a sister in New Plymouth.

However, she does have family support in New York - she lives in Brooklyn with her brother, who's the lead guitarist in her backing band and a songwriter in his own right.

If her success so far could be measured out of 10, she reckons she's well out of the (Taranaki) gate already.

"I'm on three, maybe four. Like one is getting signed, two is making a record, three is making a good record, four is having it released. I think we're on number four."