INTERVIEW: ALEX FASSO

Up and coming singer/songwriter Alex Fasso spoke to our writer Keely about his upcoming EP, recent TikTok popularity and an unexpected feature in Rolling Stones India.

So firstly tell me a bit about yourself. How are you going right now?

I’m kind of great at the moment, I’m recording a new EP which is hopefully coming out later this year. Trying to put some music out there which is kind of really difficult at the moment, 'cause you can't even rehearse with bands or anything. But yeah, I'm kind of loving life I actually love lockdown in terms of creativity. I'm actually doing more than I would if we're out and open so it's kind of a weird blessing in disguise.

That's really great that you're being like you feel like it's being really productive for you! Can you tell me a little bit more about the new music that you have coming up? I know you’ve already dropped two singles this year.

The singles that I’ve dropped this year are ‘Love You More’ and ‘Northside’ were just a bit experimental, to essentially just test the waters and see what people like and what they don't like and just using the feedback after that to further the EP. I think there's five songs on there I'm doing a couple with Will Scullin from Big Words and doing a couple on my own. I’m just trying to make as much (music) as possible and then refine it down and cut it. I'm just really excited to have some new projects out there, which are more fulfilled projects rather than just a single. 

That sounds so rad! What is your process look like in terms of putting all of that together? Because I know obviously would be quite different now because we can't see people. 

This is how it starts for me, I always tend I write all my songs in the shower, I bring my phone in the shower. I think of maybe a melody and I sing it into my voice app on my phone. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the soothing water who knows, but  I always I always write my songs in the shower. I usually start off with just writing lyrics or coming up with catchy song name or whatever. To me, personally, I know a lot of musicians might disagree with me; but I think that the lyrics are by far the most important part (of a song.) More so than how well you can play guitar, or how well you can sing, or how well produced you are. If you're telling a great story throughout your song, that's all that matters. So for me I always start off with the concept of a story, and then through writing it I come up with the instrumental ideas but really that's kind of second rate to me.

That’s really interesting, I like that you right things in the shower. It’s super unique.  

I've had a lot of close calls where I’ve dropped my phone in the shower had to get the bowl of rice out. 

I know that feeling all too well! Following on from the writing, what does your production process look like? How's your production process been? 

Slow, really slow recently 'cause II like I can sing and play guitar, most musicians can but where I really struggle is producing on my own. I know my way around production software, but I think the main thing that I miss which benefits my music the most is having people around me to bounce ideas off. I really don't like recording or producing or mixing alone, I think its kind of detrimental to the outcome of the song. Because if you don't have those people to bounce ideas off, you could be putting our song which you think is great but without those secondary ideas it might not come out great. You kind of need that trampoline effect. It takes so long trying to produce a song with someone else at the moment, instead of just having someone sitting next to you to bounce ideas off. You have to send an email with a Dropbox link… You know it's just so tedious. So I just cannot wait until we’re out of lock down because I am ready to roll, I'm so ready to make some music. 

So youre latest single is titled ‘Love Me More’ can you tell me a little bit more background about that? 

I wrote that song probably about four years ago, in the shower believe it or not. I just kind of sat on it for a long time and I started playing it live here in there. Whenever I would play it live people started to sing along,  and I was like oh shit I haven’t even put this song out and people already know the lyrics. I thought it was just about time just to kind of bite the bullet and you know actually produce it. But with that it was kind of a weird thing because I had this article that came out and said “Alex Fasso is dropping a new song this Friday,” and I was like oh shit, am I? I don’t think I am.  and then I was like Oh my God I've got it like write and produce a song really quickly.. So I thought, why don’t I do Love me More? I recorded it in this room in about two hours, then sent it off to get mastered. I kind of forgot about it until it came out and David my manager reminded me. Not to degrade the song at all, it’s a great song. I just think that through the rush I kind of lost track a bit. I’m really happy that it’s out there.

What was the publication? 

It was Rolling Stone India, as one of the best up and coming artists! When that happened, I was like this is fucking unreal. I was kind of blown away when that came out because it made me feel like a proper musician, and that the work that I put in is actually paying off. I will finish my career happily knowing now that I got an article in that wonderful, wonderful publication.  

I know that you’ve gained heaps of traction of TikTok lately, have you been trialling songs on there to keep connected with your audience?

TikTok recently has been crazy for me, I don’t know what it is. I think TikTok’s so weird because if you put a video out there, it can have such an avalanche effect once people start liking it and it just rolls on and on and on. It’s kind of awesome to see for not just me, but other artists on TikTok are getting that recognition and gaining big audiences and big viewership’s from just uploading to TikTok. 

Recently because there has been no live gigs I have been experimenting with songs on TikTok. I might write the first minute of a song, and go “oh okay, I think this is pretty good. Let’s put it on TikTok and see if people like it.” Sometimes it gets good reception and sometimes it doesn’t, but I guess that’s music. Again, what I was saying with having someone to produce with, I guess this is just a more magnified version of that where you’re showing everyone a demo being like, “hey, what do you think of this? Let me know.” I know I should write the music that I want to make, and I do, but it’s kind of great to see where my audience is, what they like, and things that I can do to cater to them. I’m just really loving TikTok at the moment, I just think it’s so great. I honestly spend hours a day on it just scrolling through and looking at great musicians. 

That’s incredibly easy to do… I did notice that you popped some mashups up on TikTok recently.  

Yeah! I did one yesterday where a mate and myself were just playing guitar in the backyard. I always like to be filming on my phone in those situations. In my most recent mashup we were just playing and we’re like “oh these chords are kind of cool.” And then I started singing ‘thank u, next’ by Ariana Grande, and did a bit of Kanye West’s ‘American Boy’ over the top of that. I performed that live once and it went really, really well. I’ve got one that I’m working on at the moment with my band, which we will hopefully play at an upcoming live gig. It’s a mashup of ‘Gimme More’ by Britney Spears, which I think is one of the best songs ever written, period. 

I wanna touch back on your upcoming ep. Can you give us any hints of what sort of direction you’re going in? As your last two singles have sounded quite different. 

I think it's kind of perfect combination of the two. It’s definitely a love-themed EP and I feel like people can relate to it whether that be the depressing side of love or the extremely poetic side… They’re all love songs which I’m really excited for because I think it creates a love story throughout the EP. It starts of a bit low-fi and then gets a bit rock and roll towards the end. There’s a couple of collaborations on the album, there’s a song with Holly Hebe which she sings on and helped produced. It’s called ‘House by the Lake,’ it’s really cool and I’m really excited to release that one. Working with her on this project was just an absolute pleasure, I’ve actually never met her, I had DM’d her asking her to be on the song which is how it all came about. I can’t wait to meet her, because I think she’s so fantastic and I’ve kind of idolised her live as well because I’ve seen a couple of clips of her playing shows and she just brings the house down. Having that control over an audience is so rare, especially for softer music. It’s incredibly difficult to do and she does it so well.  

Speaking of live gigs, you have one coming up very soon right? 

Yes! That will be at Stay Gold in Fitzroy on the 18th of November which I’m headling with St. Emerald and Tilly VW.* There are more in the works so you’ll have to stay tuned for those to be announced.

I’m really hoping we come out of lockdown soon because I need to rehearse with my band ASAP. We haven’t played together on any of these new songs that are coming out at all, so hopefully we’ll be able to get together to get things nice and tight. It’s going to be one of the biggest gigs I’ve ever played, and the fact that I’m headlining it is very cool.

*Please note, that this event is now sold out but keep your eyes peeled for upcoming shows.

Lastly, who are your top three Aussie artists/acts right now?

Right now? Big Words number one, I think they’re fantastic. I work with Will and Kieren and I just think they’re phenomenal. I’ve heard a little bit of their new album and it’s a masterpiece, I genuinely just love them so much. 

Stella Donnelly is always going to be one of my biggest influences, she is top tier. I’m hoping she releases a new album this year, that would be amazing. I saw her live once at the Corner, it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Her stage presence and her voice, again like I was talking about with Holly, the way she can control a room of that size with just her playing guitar and have it be dead silent and everyone paying attention to you is so hard to do. She’s amazing, and she’s an amazing writer. She’ll always be my biggest influence. 

Tame Impala, specifically Kevin Parker’s production. I really like diving into the pieces of his songs and hearing specific production things, like filters on microphones and certain drum sounds. I really like the experimental aspect a lot. 

I was never really a fan of Spacey Jane, but recently I’ve been listening to a lot of their back catalogue and realised that they’re actually really good. When they were popping off, I didn’t get it. So it’s been a bit of a late burn but I actually am really enjoying them.  

OH King Gizzard, they’re actually number one. They are just incredible… I know this is more than three but they’re just great. Like how can you make close to 20 albums and make every single album a different genre. It just shows how talented they are, and they do everything themselves. I really idolise that and I’d love to do that kind of thing one day.  

‘LOVE YOU MORE’ OUT NOW

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INTERVIEW: GRETTA RAY ON HER DEBUT ALBUM, ‘BEGIN TO LOOK AROUND'

The darling that is Gretta Ray spoke to our writer Keely about her upcoming debut album ‘Begin To Look Around,’ reflects on the past five years since winning Triple J’s Unearthed High, and talks about some of her favourite moments that helped inspire the album.

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat! I just wanna ask, how are you doing right now? 

What a nice question! Yeah I'm going okay, I mean it's a weird time. I'm in my 6th lockdown, but I’m going okay. It definitely feels like a strange time to be releasing an album but I'm keeping busy. There’s plenty that I can do from home which I'm really lucky that is the case. I think I'm just thinking a lot about the album all the time and I’m really excited to show people.

Your debut ep ‘Begin To Look Around’ is out August 27th, which is incredibly exciting. This has been in the works since 2019 right?  

Yes indeed! We wrote the majority of the record in 2019 and then started work on finishing off the production at the end of that year. I think by the end of January 2020 we had nine of the songs done, production wise. I then went to London for a bit and was hoping to stay there for a while and come back mid-year to record the rest of the record, but obviously that didn't happen… I came home pretty fast. I then had to wait until the end of the year until I could get back to Sydney to finish it. I think we finished in maybe January this year? Or march, I don't know it was mad it just kind of kept going, we worked on it so much so I'm really excited that it’s done. 

You’ve released a couple of Duologies ahead of the release, which is such an interesting way to release songs. I was reading about it and you were saying how you often write in pairs, and when you listen the songs, they’re from different perspectives. I was curious as to why you haven’t listed the duologies in those pairings on the album track listing? 

I think I was always going to do that. I never thought that I would release the album in the order of the Duologies because, initially as I was writing the album I was already getting an idea for the track list in my head before we even made the decision about how we would release the songs. But also there’s songs on the record that people haven't heard yet.

I love to listen to records from track one right to finish. I mean it’s a weird time with music at the moment in terms of how it's digested because there's just so much music and there's so much content with every project. So I think the general consensus is like “just release single, single, single.” I was like ‘I have to tell a full-length album story.’ 

I love full length records and I feel like so many people do. I just feel like it's not spoken about enough when it should be, people still really appreciate listening to an album in that traditional, chronological way. I wanted the album to tell the story of why I wrote those songs when I did, and when it was kind of up and down, and when I kind of turned a corner. I wanted people to hear that in context of a storyline rather than just like these are the two songs that talk about this one specific feeling. 

You can definitely get a sense of that when you listen to the album. You work with quite a few co-writers, don't you? How has that process been for you, especially with the current climate? 

It’s been amazing, I mean it's been the biggest step in my career in terms of my artist project when writing this album. It’s the biggest shift that I had made by getting other people involved in writing the songs because it wasn't really something that I was doing much of at all when I was younger. 

When you’re collaborating writing a song, you either get it finished or at least the bones of a body of work done by the end of the day. That was a completely foreign concept to me. I used to write songs in the sense that if I got an idea that I felt was worthy, I would then spend like months trying to tackle it and getting frustrated 'cause it wasn't doing what I wanted to do. I would then leave it be and I would come back to it and it was an agonising process. It may have resulted in songs that I still really, really love but it meant that I stopped practising song writing. Which was something that because I'm at the beginning of my song writing journey, even though it's something that I've done since I was much younger, I still consider myself to be in really early stages of. 

There's so much that I can learn and the way that I could do that was by working with other collaborators and being open to changing my approach to writing songs. So it's been super rewarding 'cause I think that I shut off that idea, because I thought that if I were to work with other people on songs that were going to be so personal it wouldn't reflect that same personal thing that I had in songs that I just wrote alone. 

It just isn't really true, the universal feelings that we all love to write and sing about are further amplified in the songs when you have other validating voices in the room. You just find a new way to look at it and you can dig deeper, so in that sense it's been really awesome. I've learned so much I can't wait to continue to learn it just gets me excited to write music. I think that creative collaboration has always been one of the great joys of my life and I'm really glad that we were able to do more of that when making this record.

It’s incredible to see that growth, especially since this year marks five years since you won Triple J’s Unearthed High. Do you have a particular ‘pinch me’ moment that’s happened in the past five years?

It’s a wild time that feels like ages ago, but then also not really 'cause there's been this lull of not being able to play shows for two years. Yeah, it's been very interesting to reflect on the fact that that was five years ago. 

I've been very fortunate to have a few of those, but the one that comes to mind, that I still can't talk about without almost laughing just because I think it's so stupid. Was that I played this festival in the UK called All Points East, which on the Saturday of that weekend at the festival Mumford and Sons were headlining. I know them and I’ve played some shows with them before which was amazing, and then at the end of the night after wrapping up their set, (so for context there's thousands and thousands of people, crazy concept to think about now.) I got to sing a song of theirs with them in front of that crowd but THEN I got to sing with them, The Staves, Lianne La Havas, Dermot Kennedy, Jackal was playing guitar, JayBird. So many of those artists I grew up with, in high school I was a massive fan of the Staves, and I'd only briefly met some of them, and Leanne I love. I just remember we’re all singing this Beatles song in front of this sea of people, and Leanne and I just singing to each other. My little self was just like, sorry what is, what is going on? So if there's any footage from that night you'll notice I'm laughing the whole time on stage I just cannot get it together 'cause I thought it was so funny, I was like why am I included this line up? But it was really, really awesome so yeah that was probably one of the biggest pinch me moments. 

If you could go back to five years ago, when you had just won Unearthed High and tell yourself one thing, what would it be? 

I would just say listen to your parents, yeah… Listen to your parents. Listen to all of your mentors and lean on them, hang out with your friends. Which I do feel like were things that I did, I didn’t really stray too far because I had such a high priority to finish school. I was very studious, I loved all my subjects, and my teachers were really accepting of the fact that I went on tour in the middle of the 12, which is ridiculous. So because of their support and their belief in the fact that I could like do both I feel like I was able to honour that. 

 You'll notice that stepping into the industry, and especially with Unearthed High, that's pretty sudden exposure, and that is really weird when you're quite young. As much as I knew I loved music and I really wanted to have it as my job, you just can't anticipate how strange that is when a lot of people suddenly know who you are. I was on tour at the time with Japanese Wallpaper as a part of his band and suddenly it was like ‘oh everyone knows who the girl on the keyboard is.’ It was very strange, but I think that what kept me grounded in that period of time was the fact that I had a really wonderful group of people around me who told me the right things, no one was rushing me into anything. I had great mentors, I had great management, and I think that because they had that patience and the understanding I needed to honour that time in my life meant that I could make the record that I've made now.

I remember reading somewhere that you would you do your assignments in hotel rooms, play a show and then they fly back for school on Monday. 

I remember this one particular morning after we played a show, and it might have even been the morning that the finalists were announced? But we flew in really early from Interstate, my dad picked me up from the airport and then I just went to class. I just remember strolling into class on cloud nine, it was a really sick period of time for sure. 

How did you meet Gab aka Japanese Wallpaper?

That is one of my favourite stories 'cause Gab is such a dear friend and close collaborator now. I was just a massive Japanese Wallpaper fan his project totally opened my eyes to pop music again. I think I'd become a little bit narrow minded. I grew up with a lot of pop in my life for sure but when I was like 15/16 and I was like ‘it's strictly folk/singer songwriters, no pop music will come near me… Except Taylor Swift… But no one else.” Which was stupid because pop music is amazing and expansive and interesting and different, and it's really challenging to write. 

So when I heard ‘Between Friends’ by Gab I was like ‘oh my gosh, I forgot pop music can be really emotional and vulnerable, it’s just with different sonic elements.” I messaged him on SoundCloud, it's so lame because it was the first interaction I ever had and it’s entirely not how we speak as people at all. It was something like “oh how did you do school and music at the same time? Ect...” Then I bumped into him at this show that I was playing as a support act at the workers club in Fitzroy, and we just kind of hit it off. We had a lot of friends in common and I realised that he just was such a nerd about music in the same way that I was. After a little while of being friends, he was like “I need a keyboard player and a backing vocalist, I know that you're studying for exams but do you want to come?”  I said “I will absolutely 100% be there, goodbye “ and then yeah I was on tour. It was very, very cool and a good first experience touring as a part of his band because I hadn't done that myself yet as an artist.

You got to be apart of Gab’s Like a Version a few weeks back, and he collaborated on yours as well. Which was incredible by the way. How did you find that Like a Version experience?

He was very involved in getting that arrangement together, because after all this time of knowing each other and admiring each other’s projects, he has a really good grasp on what it is I want to achieve as an artist and what direction I'm headed in sonically. 

It was pretty scary, but it's a really great opportunity. There were moments throughout the past five years where I thought maybe we're going to do it here or there, but I'm relieved I'm more of a seasoned artist now. When you get in that room it’s really daunting and you want to honour the song, and you know how many eyes are going to be on you as well which is quite full on. I’m really glad we had the chance to do it when we did. I love my band and I love that song so much. I think that I was unknowingly preparing for it years before hand just watching Gang of Youths sing it so much. 

You’ve got quite a good relationship with the Gang of Youths members right? 

I do! I'm very fortunate they’ve taken me on the road a couple of times as their opening act. Which was so surreal because the size of the shows and their audiences is so loyal and wonderful. To be exposed to that at the time was amazing. That was a time at the end of 2018/early 2019 when we were playing shows, that their record was having the most wonderful life in the world. It was my favourite record at the time. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of that journey with them for sure. 

Dave features on one of the songs on your album, Worldly Wise. How did that collaboration come about?

I basically knew once I had the melody of the song, the melody of the chorus in particular. I wanted layered backing vocals and I wanted that base-y, male tone. There are just some songs that I feel really need it and I knew that his voice would be perfect for it. 

In terms of what that song ended up meaning to me and where I've placed it on the track list, I think it is just so fitting that he's singing those lyrics, “lift your eyes… Are you ready to roll?” That I may have written, but when I was on tour with Gang of Youths I was in a place in my life where I was really trying to find my feet. I was going through a breakup and I was just trying to regain a sense of independence and sense of self. Often Dave was saying that kind of stuff to me in our private conversations, and being like “yeah but you know you're gonna go out there and sing. And you're going to do this record and it's going to be great.” He’s very much like big brother to me, all of those boys are. To have them involved on this record, considering the journey of it and when I was writing it, it just makes so much sense to me. I

On your track ‘It's almost Christmas in Philly’ you have an audio snippet in there at the end, what’s the story behind that to why you included it? 

Well, that song is inspired by my friend and day-to-day manager Sam. The first time that we went on tour together, which was to open for Gang of Youths. We were in a hire car driving around North America, driving through the middle of nowhere. Staying as he says “middle of fucking nowheresville Kentucky” overnight to get back on the road and get in the car for another eight hours. When that becomes your lifestyle for three weeks you end up opening up to each other a lot or having conversations that just crash land into this really deep and meaningful conversation. I think that the space of a car is quite a confessional space as well. Someone who was interviewing me the other day was saying you feel like you can open up more because you don't have to look at the person because they're driving. That’s why you find yourself in that moment. 

One of the days that we had on that tour that felt particularly magical because we were in Philadelphia for a day, and when you’re in America you always feel like things are really like the glory of America or something. It was the day that I was about to play my 4th or 5th show, and it was just a particularly picturesque moment. We were walking down this main road in Philly with all of these Christmas lights 'cause it was mid-December. And you know the idea of a wintery Christmas was just so foreign to me. There were carols coming out of speakers on the street, and all these decorations. We were just prancing through the street like idiots and so that's why I ended up calling this song ‘It's almost Christmas in Philly.’ 

The voice memo at the end just kind of captured a comedic element of what those three weeks on the road looked like. Which was just us getting stuck in stupid, car related scenarios. I took that audio from a video on my phone and we were driving through a snowstorm. Sam is from the UK so he was driving on a different side of the road, and I couldn't help with any of the driving that trip because was too young.  He was just like “oh my god, why, it's so late, we're in the middle of nowhere!”  And I captured his stress and put it at the end of the song so that's the story. 

You’ve got the ‘Becoming’ tour coming up in October, and the Fingers Crossed Mini-Tour coming up in the next few weeks hopefully. How are you preparing for that? 

I feel like I've forgotten what it’s like almost because it's been so long. I've played one show of my own during this time and have jumped up to sing with a few friends at their shows but that's kind of the extent of it since March 2020 when I played a show in London.  

I just rehearse as much as I can, I think that especially now playing a new show which we've only gone to do once for Splendour XR. But I don't have an instrument, I am relying solely on my stagecraft to be captivating. Which means I can focus mainly on my vocals, but it also means that I have to make sure I really know what I'm doing performance wise. 

I have one last question for you, who are your top three favourite Aussie artists right now? 

Oh man there's so many. At the moment I'm listening to Sycco a lot, her ep is good. What in the actual fuck of talent, like it's so mad it's insanely good. My friend May-a, her ep just came out. It’s so good as well. And Mia Wray, she’s got a couple of songs out. She’s got this killer, boss like, Meg Mac-esque vocals and her songs are really upbeat and fun. She released a song called ‘Needs’ a little while ago and it’s awesome and I love the visual content she’s doing. 

GRETTA RAY – DEBUT ALBUM ‘BEGIN TO LOOK AROUND’ 
OUT TODAY

LISTEN HERE

‘BEGIN TO LOOK AROUND’ TRACKLISTING

1. Becoming

2. Bigger Than Me

3. Passion

4. Happenstance

5. Human

6. The Brink

7. Paris

8. Cherish

9. The Cure

10. Readymade

11. It’s Almost Christmas In Philly

12. Worldly-wise

13. Learning You

14. Love Me Right

15. Care Less

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INTERVIEW: HOLLY HEBE SAY NOTHING HURTS, SHE PROMISES

Hi Holly! Would you be able to tell me a little bit about yourself? How’re things going now that life is sort of somewhat back to normal?
Things are going well! I live in a little town in Mornington Peninsula, it’s super cute and small and cosy and I love it. I’ve just got my little studio set up in my room, I spend a lot of time they’re just kind of writing and producing and I’ve got a little outdoor piano that I sit at and play a lot at as well. I think it's so nice to be able to sit outside and play music, it’s a lot more inspiring sometimes, than sitting inside. I started uni last year doing interactive composition at VCA, so that's been really fun. It’s like a really different side of music that I haven’t really experienced before. A lot of art music and kind of more abstract, I guess. That sort of side to music has been really cool. So it’s been fun to have kind of producing at home and doing the songwriting thing and then having that side as well going at the same time. I think they’ve been able to sort of complement each other really well which has been fun. I had a great summer break just gigging and jamming out with heaps of friends and things like that, meeting lots of musos and that was just like the best thing ever. I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve gotten out of being more of a solo artist and gigging a lot more so far this year, is just the people I’ve been able to meet. It’s just been awesome.

Your new single is called ‘nothing hurts I promise’ and it’s incredibly beautiful,
I must say I’m very much a fan. Can you give me some more background on that? What was the inspiration behind writing it, how did that go?
I feel like one day I was just sitting at my piano and I was just improvising as I mostly do when I sit at my piano, just kind of playing whatever comes out. And kind of stumbled across this piano riff I guess that I really liked, I kind of fiddled around with that a lot. After meeting so many amazing people over the past couple of months, and I don’t know, certain people I guess just like come/go in your life and they impact you. I just had this feeling that people were impacting me a lot more than what I was impacting them. I was just meeting all these amazing people and I was so inspired by them, and I was like “oh my goodness, I’d just love to be able to give that back to someone.” I guess I wrote this song about things that you don’t say and just really wanting to tell people how you feel and how that’s kind of impacted you or made your life better, but just being too scared. I think in the long run it’s kind of those unsaid words that end up hurting you a bit more. So that’s sort of what the song is about, the song is pretty special to my heart I guess like it means a lot to me. I’ve really enjoyed the process of kind of building this song up from the roots and just having it as sort of a piano riff at the start, and then experiencing all these new connections over the past couple months and then just being so inspired by all of that, then kind of building the song from there.

You had a single launch recently! How did you find the song was received with the audience and how did you feel playing that live for the first time? How was that experience for you?
It was so fun, I think it was kind of what I’ve been working towards for so long and what me and my band have been putting a lot of hard work into. I think to be able to just finally play it at an event that was made for that song, I think that was really special. I told a little bit of the story about the song beforehand and things like that and it was just so nice to see people kind of moving a little bit to it and just seeing people’s faces in the crowd, which is really cool. I think just singing it live made it a lot more real. I guess it’s sort of all the times that I’ve been singing it to myself at home or my first voice memo recordings of the song when I was first writing it and then finally playing live, it’s just the best feeling. It's kind of like “oh, this is what I’ve been working towards .” So yeah it was really cool.

That’s incredible! So you’ve received you’ve released a couple of singles lately… Is this a hint at an EP release, or what are your future plans (If you can tell us!)?
I really think that I’d love to put together an EP, I think at this stage I’m sort of just writing and producing and then being like, “oh yeah I probably should release things!” I guess when I first started releasing I didn't really know where it would go and if would continue releasing, because I feel like I do a lot of different things in my music world in terms of producing and then all my uni work. So it’s a lot of different projects that I’ve got going on. But I’m loving this solo act, and I think with the collection of songs that I’ve got going on I’d love to put together an EP and kind of tell a bit more of a story. So definitely stay tuned!

I’m super curious, what does your writing process look like when you are putting together a song? You mentioned that you use a piano.
It’s so awesome, I’ve got this super old piano, it’s over 100 years old and it's so beautiful. It’s sitting in my lounge room and I’ve basically written probably all of my songs at that piano. I feel like a lot of the times where the songs are little more personal or they’re a bit more poetic or lyrical or closer to me; they always start at that piano. Because I’m sitting down and I’m just in my feels or feeling super inspired. Then other times I’ll be sitting at my laptop just with my computer program open to producing and a riff will just pop into my head and I quickly record it down and then usually goes from there. I feel like if I think too much about the producing side, I overthink it and then I never get the song done. But sometimes I just like chuck in whatever happens and in a couple of hours I’ll be done and it’s so exciting, ‘cause those songs usually turn out to be the ones I like the most. I feel like the ones that I start at my piano are often the more personal ones and then I’ll record them. Then other times I’m just sitting on my laptop and I’ll be like “oh let’s just do something and see what happens” and that’s so much fun. I feel like there’s two different ways of writing and creating a really good ‘cause it kind of suits then different songs that end up coming out at the end which is really cool.

How did you know and when did you know that this was something you wanted to pursue in the music industry?
I don’t think I’ve ever thought of being anything else but a musician in my whole life. I remember when I was really young and I started playing the piano, I think I was four when I first sort of played and then started getting lessons when I was five. I have never ever thought of another career path. Which I think is probably a little bit naïve.

When I was younger I just always thought like “I just have to be a musician, like this the only option.” I think that’s actually been a bit of a blessing and a curse because I’ve sort of had tunnel vision. I just cannot see myself doing anything else and I think that’s actually really motivated me because it’s just what I absolutely love doing. I think that maybe took a bit of pressure off during school because like I felt like I really knew where I was wanting to go and so that was helpful in terms of picking my subjects and things like that I feel like. I enjoyed year 12 a lot more because I was doing subjects that I really loved that I knew that would help me to get to where I wanted to be later on in life.

Obviously still working towards it, I don’t know. It'’s just so cool that I get to have a passion, and I’m really grateful for that. I feel like the past year when I started releasing music, I was like “yeah this solo artist thing is really, really fun, and just being able to play in a band is awesome so I’d love to ride this wave a bit more.” I think originally always knew that I want to do something in music but didn’t know 100% what that would be. I feel like it’s always going to change, but this solo artist thing is really fun and I’m loving doing it at the moment.

And lastly, I just wanted to know who your top three Aussie artists/acts are right now?
I really like Aodhan, he’s from Sydney, he was in the Triple J Unearthed High in 2019. His music’s awesome, I really, really love his sound and his band’s vibe I guess. I really love Velvet Bloom, another Melbourne muso. She’s awesome and her music’s just so inspiring and the way she writes things I think is really, really cool.

And then, I mean you can’t go past Spacey Jane and stuff like that. I feel like they’ve
really revolutionised that Aussie band sound the past couple of years and that’s been
really awesome. Oh, there’s just too many I just love them all.

Listen to ‘Nothing Hurts I promise’ HERE

FOLLOW HOLLY HEBE
Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Music | iTunes | Triple J Unearthed | Facebook | Instagram

INTERVIEW: THE SMITH STREET BAND ARE UNPLUGGED IN WOMBAT STATE FOREST

Photo credit Ian Laidlaw

The Smith Street Band have announced their return to live music in 2021, with a series of full band, stripped back, semi acoustic, seated shows in Victoria and New South Wales. Guest writer from Ambedo Magazine, Keely Millikin, had an e-chat with guitarist Lee Hartney to discuss all things tour, coffee beans, and what’s coming next!

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I wanted to start off with talking about your upcoming album, ‘Unplugged in the Wombat State Forest’ which is out on March 5th. What was the inspiration behind doing an ‘unplugged’ album per se?
During Melbourne's long lockdown we discussed the likelihood that if we were going to be allowed to play shows again they would most likely be seated... and none of us are keen on seated rock shows.

So we reimagined a set in a more acoustic stripped-back style that we think fits better for those shows and is something different and fun for us. Because this is so different and new for us we thought we should record and film it in the meantime and release it for this tour, especially for the people who can't make it to the shows or who we can't get to this time around.

I saw that you released coffee beans as a part of promotion for the new album, could you explain the motivation behind doing so? (I love the idea by the way, and had to pick up some up for myself.)
Thank you! I hope you liked it! Well, everyone's a coffee fiend in the band (except me! Ha ha), so just made sense! A few of the others knew Karon coffee as they are locals to the region where our studio is in Wombat State Forest and we wanted to support our local businesses.

You kick off the Unplugged tour in Bendigo, and all of the shows are seated, which is going to be a very different experience as a band. In what ways do you think that will change the dynamic of your shows, and how the audience reacts?
It will be a completely different experience to our normal loud, sweaty, rock shows.

We really hope people enjoy hearing the songs interpreted in a different way. It won't be for everyone, but we have enjoyed creating the set and hopefully that comes across.

What can we expect to see from your upcoming album release?
For the first time we're releasing a cassette tape & DVD. The CD comes with a DVD with a video of the whole album. Plus it's on black and coloured vinyl.

You recently announced some shows in Brisbane in May with the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra. Have you had the chance to rehearse with them yet and how has that changed your music?
We have just started discussions with them so far and organising a suitable setlist for the show. Once all the charts are written we shall be doing a few rehearsals I believe. It's all very unknown territory for us but super exciting! We are going to go in with open minds ready to do whatever we need to make it sound great!

How has the lockdown been for you all as a band? I saw you all spent a lot of time at your headquarters in the Wombat State Forest.
It's the most time we have spent apart from each other in 10 years! I think we have all enjoyed having a bit of self-imposed time off. It gave everyone a bit of time to work on other things and projects in their lives that usually get put on the backburner. And now it's just made everyone more excited to come back together and to get back to playing shows!

Unplugged in Wombat State Forest Out March 5th
on Pool House Records / Remote Control
Pre Order the album here

How has having your home base in the state forest affected your music and you all as a band?
It's great to have a place that we can all go to and just work on music with no other distractions. It allows us the freedom to record with no time constraints (which may not always be a good thing!) which hopefully means we can release better, more creative albums than we have in the past.

And lastly, what can we expect for the future of the Smith Street Band?
Hopefully lots of shows! We are gonna do as much as we are physically allowed to do. Hopefully we can record some new music as well real soon!

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Follow The Smith Street Band on the rest of their tour and for our fellow local Bendigonians, be sure to check out the interview as part of the upcoming Ambedo Magazine issue! This interview was done as part of the upcoming magazine release, written by Keely Millikin.

FOLLOW THE SMITH STREET BAND
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