One of my earliest introductions to Australia was delivered via National Geographic magazine, wherein one issue was a photograph of a man affixing a prosthetic nose to his face; skin cancer attributed to Australia's intense sunlight cost this man his beak. This made an impression on me. I thought, "Damn, that place is hot."

Australian native Tania Bowers doesn't have such peculiar early-adolescent memories of the United States, but unlike her country, whose greatest exports prior to the ubiquitous Outback Steakhouse restaurants were Crocodile Dundee, INXS and Yahoo Serious, the United States in attempts to strengthen Americo-Australianian relations, transmitted a steady stream of culture to our southerly neighbors.

"In Australia, you grow up with an equal proportion of American and English culture through mostly TV and radio," Bowers said. "I would say an equal third, including Australian TV shows and music on the radio, etc. So, American shows constantly on the telly, I would hear things like "Glee Club" and wouldn't find out what that was for years, but that was when I was very young... Adolescent memories would probably be more in terms of music I started listening to like Sonic Youth and the Ramones, whatever made it this far through to a teenager's bedroom... But I remember people always saying, 'Only in America would that happen,' a lot, like every time something crazy or ridiculous came on the news or something."

Australia, far from merely being a land of Yakov Smirnoff impersonators, has many virtues to extol, and one of them is a more relaxed lifestyle. It may, in part, have something to do with how desolate and rural much of the landscape is (read more excerpts from Everything I Know About Australia I Learned from The Simpsons Episode 2Fl3), and in part, I have no idea; it's just too much fun feigning ethnocentrism. Whatever it is, Bowers' approach to the music business would be considered almost enigmatic if she weren't so laid-back and true.

"Maybe because I think in terms of projects rather than a definite ongoing idea that will always be relevant to my life," Bowers said, alluding to why she chose to record under the pseudonym, Via Tania. "I like to change things up and using my name seems like a big full stop to that."

Via Tania has been taken under the wing of Chocolate Industries, the prominent, Chicago-based, indie hip-hop and beats -oriented label renown for its aesthetic and packaging splendor. For Via Tania, Chocolate Industries has released an EP (Dream of...), a 12" called “Lightning & Thunder,” and recently, the full-length, “Under a Different Sky.” With her hus-band Casey Rice behind the board, Bowers has collaborated with Prefuse 73 and members of Brokeback, Tortoise, Giant Sand, Chicago Underground Duo, The Eternals, and Come.

"I met Casey in Sydney when Tortoise came to Australia," Bowers said. "We had friends in common and we kept in touch. I was planning to travel and had heard about Chicago and about the good music there, so I went there first. It was great, so I just stayed.

"Casey and I recorded some things together, different ideas. I was more inter-ested in collaborations and having a band than solo stuff at that point, so the Via Tania thing took me by surprise; all of a sudden I had agreed to make a solo record. Now it's made, and it was pretty cool doing it the way we did it."

Her dreamy, breathy voice lilts sublime over a variety of sparse soundscapes, be they glitchy, semi-improvised a la The Dirty Three, loud and fuzzy, or bare-bones. While Sade springs to mind when hearing her sing, Bowers' vocals sometimes have the appearance of times of loose ends, as her voice tends to lose itself slightly in her open-ended singing patterns, but the overall effect is one of closeness; hushed and tender drippings of rain falling from a leafy plant onto hungry soil. The humming warmth and spontaneity of her songs bespeak of intimacy and little premeditation - a very inviting, sultry concoction.

"I think moods happen within the music in a way you can't predict or can't force too much. I think it probably does affect the outcome," she said, "but you cannot remember what mood you were in when you originally wrote the song so easily, I hardly ever think about the mood I'm trying to create; just let it happen."

Bowers mellifluous nature enhances her ability to collaborate. She works with loose sketches and allows herself and her fellow collaborators to usher in the detail as determined by the mood at the time.

"The better the musician, the more freedom you can give them," she believes. "So in the same way I say, 'Do whatever you want,' all the musicians that played on the record said, 'Use whatever you want. Cut, paste, whatever...' It's then when I get busy! I try not to finish songs until I have to finish them, the last minute. Yeah, so you can incorporate or, rather, represent the other musical ideas freely."

Despite the flourish of releases, her association with musicians of such caliber, and college radio's warm reception to her latest record, Tania hasn't hit the United States running, preferring instead to take things at a slower pace. She eschews the spotlight, prefers things other than her photograph be used in advertisements, and in conjunction with Chocolate Industries low-key approach to marketing her music, she is taking things at a comfortable pace. As evidenced by her music, Via Tania is not one to rush things.

"I try not to spend too long analyzing things like that, and I really like things to happen naturally. So I will start the ball rolling when I'm ready. (I'm not ready yet)."

Bowers has split large chunks of time between Australia and Chicago, sharing her time with Rice in each of their home countries. Presently back in Australia, it won't be long before they return to the US, and while Bowers has graciously turned down more offers to tour (from the like of PJ Harvey, etc.) then she has taken, she will be doing dates with Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc) and others in the summer and through the fall.

"As for settling somewhere, physically you can only be in one place at a time (I am just learning this now)," she admitted. "So, right now I have been in Melbourne for seven months. Next, I will be in the States for five months; so I obviously have settling issues."

Growing up in Australia, Bowers sought musical inspiration through different and creative forms of music. "For Australia, that meant this early '90s group of fuzzed-out pop music like The Hummingbirds, and having women on stage in these bands was very different at that time - very inspiring. I used to hide out all day in the venues cause I was under eighteen; would meet the bands and they would say, 'Come and hide out in the dressing room and we'll sneak you in the back way.' It always worked.

"Then, I heard this woman - Stina Nordenstam's - records and things changed a lot. I got a lot quieter and left the distortion behind. Then during the Chicago phase, I listened to a lot more beat-based stuff, people making tunes on their Macs all around me, and now I seem to be listening to the rock once again."

"I just thought that lots of people use it as a stylistic thing," Bowers said of distortion as it was used at that time, "and then there's this noise to help other people categorize your sound, instead of the actual song. So I wanted to be more stripped down and not hide behind anything. Of course, now I love it - when it's needed, but I had to go through that anti phase for a while. Stina just came at the right point in time."

As for her visibility in Australia's musical culture, it's been nearly seven years since Bowers toured there or done anything in the way of promotion.

"I haven't really had a record out here since my old band... '96, I think. "Whoa, I better get on it. I have definitely neglected Australia, not on purpose, but, well, no excuses."

Given the saturation rate of Australian television and radio by US musical cul-ture, it shan't be long before the native-born Bowers makes a formal introduc-tion to the Australian audience as Via Tania. Only in America...