Christina Aguilera will perform at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse on Saturday, 25th November. It’s her first Australian performance in 15 years, and a one-off appearance in the country as part of the Victorian Government’s ALWAYS LIVE festival.

The US popstar is returning down under 18 months after the release of her latest album, Aguilera, the second Spanish-language album of her career. The multi-part album includes guest appearances from Puerto Rican artist Ozuna, Mexican-American artist Becky G and Argentine singer TINI, among others.

Christina Aguilera – ‘Genie in a Bottle’

Aguilera’s solo career dates back to the turn of the Millennium, when she released the chart-topping single ‘Genie in a Bottle’. The corresponding album, 1999’s Christina Aguilera, was a huge success in the US, Australia and the UK, likewise its English-language follow-up, Stripped (2002).

Plenty of songs from the aforementioned albums have been embraced by Melbourne/Naarm pop duo m8riarchy, who’re one of three acts supporting Aguilera at Flemington Racecourse. Ahead of the show – which will also feature Jessica Mauboy and Natalie Bassingthwaighte – m8riarchy’s Krissy and Tarsha tell us about their favourite Xtina hits.

You can listen to m8riarchy’s latest single ‘Guessing’ right here

Christina Aguilera’s Top 5, According to m8riarchy

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A post shared by Krissy & Tarsha (@m8riarchy)

1. Dirrty (feat. Redman)

M8riarchy: Could this be one of the most iconic moments in pop culture history? Christina brings the sexy vocals, big beats and an unforgettable music video that sent our hearts and wardrobes into a tailspin.

2. What a Girl Wants

M8riarchy: Such a vulnerable yet confident track from Christina’s debut album. We love the pairing of Xtina’s dynamic R&B vocal with that quintessential 90s production.

3. Can’t Hold Us Down (feat. Lil’ Kim)

M8riarchy: An anthem for the matriarchy. The fierce energy, powerful lyrics and playful feminist messaging has shaped our songwriting and production. Girl Power Energy!

4. Beautiful

M8riarchy: Now, who doesn’t love a heartfelt ballad? The result of two amazing women in music combining their talents. The song’s writer, Linda Perry, has worked with Alicia Keys, Pink, Ariana Grande and loads more. Another incredible song that showcases the range of genres that Christina’s voice lends itself to. Yas Queen!

5. Santo (feat. Ozuna)

M8riarchy: We’re all about connecting with our roots. ‘Santo’ is such a sexy Latina dance-floor banger. We’re vibing on the hypnotic Colombian beats paired with Christina’s sultry vocal delivery.

Christina Aguilera for ALWAYS LIVE

w/ Jess Mauboy, Natalie Bassingthwaighte & M8riarchy

• Saturday, 25th November – Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne VIC

Tickets

Further Reading

The Complete ALWAYS LIVE 2023 Program: Christina Aguilera, Jessie Ware, Amyl and the Sniffers + More

A Guide to Every International Tour Coming to Australia in 2023/24

Mona Foma 2024: QOTSA, Courtney Barnett, Mogwai, TISM, Kutcha Edwards + More

The post m8riarchy Name Their Favourite Christina Aguilera Songs Ahead of Xtina’s One-Off Melbourne Show appeared first on Music Feeds.

Jungle Breed is the garage rock and dolewave project of Lincoln Healy, Angela Kinna and Issy Orsini. The band’s debut album, WYNONA, PALOMA, PAPILLOMA, came out in September 2023 via Blossom Rot Records (Mega Fäuna, Sweetie). Jungle Breed worked on the album with Dan Oke (aka Jarrow), before handing it to over to Bonnie Knight for mixing and Mikey Young for mastering.

The band’s three members have played in various other Naarm bands, such as Property, Pinch Points, Rhysics and Ecosystem. They’ll be launching WYNONA, PALOMA, PAPILLOMA at Thornbury Bowls Club this Saturday, 18th November, with support from Silvia Thornton, Bug Hunt and Winksy.

In the lead-up, Healy, Kinna and Orsini tell us about the places and possessions that helped bring the album to life.

Jungle Breed: WYNONA, PALOMA, PAPILLOMA

The Elvis Presley memorial

Lincoln: The Elvis Presley memorial in Carlton is one of my favourite places. For me, the cemetery is lively, positioned centrally to so much action and often hosting mysterious spirits, a recipe for a whimsical evening (Halloween night is a must.)

The Jungle Breed track ‘Elvis’ was really rooted in a feeling of determination, fluidity, and death. Reflecting on death often makes us think about life, so we were going for that within the song. I also learned Mario Condello was buried there around the time I was binge watching Underbelly, so I threw a line about that in too.

Betty

Issy: Betty is my 2011 black Honda Jazz. Always the stallion, we do a lot of long drives together where I come up with ideas for songs and can experiment with my voice. You know, radio off and just singing our songs to find what sounds best for a chorus or a melody.

As for songs that are dedicated more to Betty herself, most of our track ‘Endless Drive’ was written in the context of driving home from gigs late at night decompressing and reflecting. It’s always been a free and safe space to sing and yell at the top of my lungs.

Darebin Parklands

Angie: Darebin Parklands is by far my favourite park in Melbourne. I was lucky to live so close to it during the time we wrote the album. It’s such a fun place to explore – I think I spent almost two hours a day wandering around there. It just became my safe place.

Between long strolls in and around the park and park beers until dusk, this place was incredible for me. It gave me so much time to think and relax during such an intense part of my life. This one time, I saw all these turtles charging away from the river. They were everywhere; I saw like six different ones. One of them, I swear, was chasing after the bus. I hope he made it.

Jungle Breed: WYNONA, PALOMA, PAPILLOMA Album Launch

w/ Silvia Thornton, Bug Hunt & Winksy

• Saturday, 18 November – Thornbury Bowls Club, Melbourne VIC

Tickets here

Further Reading

ENOLA on How Love, a Tumultuous Past and Bukowski Inspired Their Debut EP ‘All Is Forgiven’

screensaver on the Daily Tasks and Random Phenomena that Influenced Their New Album ‘Decent Shapes’

Popular Music’s Zac Pennington and Prudence Rees-Lee Provide a Reference List for Their Debut LP, ‘Minor Works’

The post Jungle Breed on the Places and Possessions that Inspired ‘WYNONA, PALOMA, PAPILLOMA’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

ENOLA has released their debut EP, All Is Forgiven. The Naarm-based post-punk musician has been making fans everywhere they’ve been over the past 12 months, whether it be performing at industry events like BIGSOUND and SXSW Sydney, festivals such as Dark Mofo and OK Motels, or supporting the likes of RVG, Sleaford Mods and Cash Savage and the Last Drinks.

ENOLA’s six-track debut EP includes the 2022 singles ‘Metal Body’ and ‘Strange Comfort’, as well as the recent ‘Looking Back’, a reverby post-punk song about forgiving yourself and letting go. ENOLA will take All Is Forgiven on tour in January and February 2024 – find all the tour dates below.

In conjunction with the release of All Is Forgiven, ENOLA tells Music Feeds about the musicians, writers, collaborators and psychic experiences that influenced the EP.

ENOLA: All Is Forgiven

The past

ENOLA: I’m influenced by the past and the way it shapes us and continues to live in our minds and bodies. In the end, I think life is one continued act of letting go. I’m someone who’s always been quite nostalgic and I look inwards a lot, just due to a tumultuous past and wanting to be free of that. I feel like a lot of my lyrics up to this point have been about the past, but then on my new EP, you have songs like ‘Miss You’ and ‘Looking Back’ that are more relevant to the present.

A podcast on this that shaped my life and that really covers all of this is the Michael Singer Podcast. I was introduced to it at the start of this year and it’s really been a rock for me.

Love

ENOLA: Love, longing, desire and matters of the heart – the pursuit of a high love, without conditions or expectation. Love for me is really the base of my hierarchy of needs. Love rules my world.

My band

ENOLA: My band and the incredible musicians that I worked with on the EP are constant sources of inspiration. They have helped me to grow and expand as an artist. Josh Prendergast, my guitarist, also plays in a band called Dayzed and James Tyrrell, who plays drums, is also in Program. And Maya, my bassist, as well. It’s cool to be able to create together in different ways. The music community can be really supportive like that

Music, art, books and poetry

ENOLA: Bands like Joy Division, Fontaines D.C., IDLES, Beach House – they’ve all got songs that have been a lighthouse for me at some point and expanded my idea of what the music I write could be.

Also texts like Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith’s Collected Lyrics, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, and a lot of Charles Bukowski.

The world around me

ENOLA: I am inspired by the world around me: the city, the moon, the sky, and the moment unfolding in front of me.

ENOLA’s debut EP, All Is Forgiven, is out now through Hell Beach/Onelove. Stream and purchase it here.

ENOLA ‘All Is Forgiven’ Tour 2024

• Saturday, 13th January – Major Tom’s, Taungurung/Kyneton VIC
• Thursday, 18 January – House of Music & Booze, Eora/Sydney NSW
• Friday, 19th January – TBH Fridays, Dharawal/Woolongong NSW
• Friday, 2nd February – The Gaso, Naarm/Melbourne VIC
• Saturday, 17th February – The Eastern, Wadawurrung/Ballarat VIC

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

ENOLA: “There Is a Sense of Togetherness in Your Aloneness”

IDLES Announce New Album, Go Disco in Video for Lead Single ‘Dancer’

Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten Performs Solo For First Time On ‘Later…With Jools Holland’

The post ENOLA on How Love, a Tumultuous Past and Bukowski Inspired Their Debut EP ‘All Is Forgiven’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

Lewis Coleman is a lifer. The Naarm/Melbourne art-rock musician released his solo debut, Method of Places, in 2020 via Ivy League Records. The album rollout hit a bump courtesy of Covid, but Coleman found solace working on new music in his bedroom studio.

The outcome is Offline, Coleman’s second LP, which is out on Friday, 27th October through Beloved Recordings. Ball Park Music’s Sam Cromack co-produced the record, which was recorded in part at Cromack’s Meanjin/Brisbane studio, Prawn Records.

Coleman will launch Offline with a run of headline shows in Meanjin, Eora and Naarm in December 2023 and January 2024. In the lead-up to the record’s release, Coleman tells Music Feeds about the people, places, sounds and emotions that influenced its creation. Pre-save/purchase the album here.

Lewis Coleman – ‘Courts’

Emotions and states of being

Lewis Coleman: This record was inspired by playful, driving, energetic and dry palettes of sound and delivery. During the period of writing this, it was a mix of anything that sounded like pouring your heart out or airing frustrations, while at the same time showing up for a good time. Anything that was cheeky, beautifully simple, or hot, saturated, woozy and full. Things that wove together complexity with catchiness.

Sounds and nostalgia

Lewis: On heavy rotation while working on Offline was the music of Katie Von Schleicher, Cate Le Bon, Dry Cleaning, Big Thief, Andy Shauf, Alex G, Weyes Blood, Porches, Perfume Genius, and local artists like New Gods, Snowy, Obscura Hail, Julia Jacklin, Possible Humans, and Focus Group.

I also looked back on my late teens and early twenties, morning train walks, which comprised of a lot of The Velvet Underground, The Beatles, The Dandy Warhols, Radiohead, Ball Park Music, Paul Kelly, The Kinks, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Wilco, and The Strokes.

Cabin fever in Melbourne/Naarm

Lewis: I wrote the majority of the record out of bedrooms in Thornbury and Preston, and recorded within those walls too, along with our humble, ramshackle and now departed Collingwood studio. I’m reluctant to mention the pandemic but it surely amplified everything – the wild repetition, intense yearning and feelings of love.

I wrote often in strong gusts of cabin fever-like energy from being cooped up for so long. I was lucky to be living with such lovely friends, special people who were hilarious and encouraging.

Prawn Records in Brisbane/Meanjin

Lewis: I had an extremely important stint at Prawn Records in Brisbane, five days I spent there with a backpack and a mattress. I worked through the days with my buddy Sam Cromack, who prior to this had been on the other side of the phone line for long chats, encouraging and discussing our philosophies of songwriting, recording and our musical lives in general.

During the nights at Prawn, I was left to my own devices, executing the ideas of the day then sleeping on the floor and waking up and doing it all over again. In that period, I cut the 17 demos down to 12 (always a liberating process), wrote and honed vast sections of lyrics and sharpened song forms.

It was honestly amazing. I think in the past, the tasks I was faced with would have taken me months, but I came back five days later with a track list and all songs essentially done, with just some extra bits to come home and finish.

Analog and digital tools

Lewis: I stuck to a fairly restricted selection of instruments whilst writing the majority of Offline. Often it was a couple of guitars of the woody variety, my trusty Kay Speed Demon Bass, an Ableton drum rack of samples I’d recorded during the previous record, and my voice with the saturation bumped.

I made some vibey presets in the laptop so I could quickly realise the vibe of the tunes. It eventually got to the end stage and I added some flourishes, proper drums, keyboards, radio samples, extra vocals from friends and siblings, birthday party vocals, and some beautiful strings from Emma Kelly.

I had a great time through the mixing process too, heading up to the wonderful, converted church sanctuary of Josh Barber, who took my music and glued it together with incredible consideration. I value his approach to life and work.

Offline – a document of life

Lewis: I’ve ended up with something I’m incredibly proud of. It captured a potent period of my life, and I stitched in a bunch of dear people within it. That’s why I’m so grateful to the art form. It’s an abstraction and a condensation of your life and people can find value in it it without knowing what it all means.

Lewis Coleman Offline Launch Shows

• Saturday, 16th December – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane QLD
• Saturday, 20th January – Waywards, Sydney NSW
• Saturday, 27th January – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Lewis Coleman Releases ‘Courts’, the Third Single from Forthcoming Album ‘Offline’

Lewis Coleman Releases ‘Indigo’, New Album Out in October

Winten on the Sounds, Spaces and Objects that Inspired ‘Waving To My Girl’

The post Lewis Coleman on the Potent Period of Life that Inspired His New Album ‘Offline’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

screensaver make muscular and rhythmic synth-punk in the mould of Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure. The Naarm-based band’s second album, Decent Shapes, is rooted in the band members’ experiences living in an affluent country in a time of rampant, alienating neoliberalism.

screensaver will take Decent Shapes on tour throughout November, playing shows in Canberra, Port Kembla, Sydney, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Nambour, Brisbane, Eudlo, Warrnambool and Adelaide. To coincide with its release, guitarist and synth player Chris Stephenson tells us about the daily tasks and random objects that influenced the record.

screensaver: Decent Shapes

Day Jobs

Chris Stephenson: They sure eat up a fair chunk of life. The repetition of a life spent working underpins a lot of our lyrical themes. The act of making music is in big part a remedy to the monotony of full time jobs.

Tama Swingstar Drums

Chris: An absolute tank of a thing James scored just before tracking. The record’s sonic foundation with a sweet, sweet mirror finish on the kick drum resonator head.

The FUNK.COM Van

Chris: We had the opportunity to hit the road in the states for a couple weeks before completely finishing the record, which gave us a chance to really get to know the songs in a live setting and make some adjustments when we got back. The van was borrowed from a generous friend’s band. They’d got it second hand from some real estate company that had FUNK.COM emblazoned in very large lettering on the sides and across the roof. Very comical vehicle to show up to gigs in.

Buttonpusher

Chris: The spot in Preston we did the majority of tracking with the fine wooden walls. Julian Cue did a great job situating his mobile rig in the space and also providing his home studio for overdubs and mixdown glory.

Bag of Coins

Chris: Though it didn’t make it onto the record, our original bassist Giles contributed greatly to the sound of the band as well as the LP. There was a memorable moment at the end of a tracking day where we mic’d up a large bag of change Giles was holding and then shaking with delirious enthusiasm. In the age of software with infinite track capability, it’s good to be unafraid to try anything that comes to mind.

‘Assassin with Son’ from Shogun Assassin

Chris: The bassline here is the inspiration for what ended up on ‘Signals.’ It’s one of those pieces of music that’s stuck with me since I saw the film years ago. A rolling bass line in a minor key always delivers a great mood.

screensaver’s new album Decent Shapes is out now via Poison City Records & Upset the Rhythm

screensaver Decent Shapes Tour

• Thursday 2nd November – Sideway Bar, Canberra ACT
• Friday 3rd November – The Servo, Port Kembla NSW
• Saturday 4th November – The Enmore, Sydney NSW
• Sunday 5th November – A secret location, Sydney NSW
• Friday 10th November – The Eastern, Ballarat VIC
• Saturday 11th November – The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC
• Friday 17th November – Black Box Theatre, Nambour QLD
• Saturday 18th November – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane QLD
• Sunday 19th November – A secret location, Eudlo QLD
• Friday 24th November – The Dart and Marlin, Warrnambool VIC
• Saturday 25th November – The Metro, Adelaide SA

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

screensaver Seek Relief from Energy Vampires on New Single ‘Drainer’

Melbourne Post-Punks screensaver Release New Single ‘The Guilt’, Announce New Album

Efficient Space’s Michael Kucyk on the Independent Music Exchange – “We’re Doing Things for the Sake of Music”

The post screensaver on the Daily Tasks and Random Phenomena that Influenced Their New Album ‘Decent Shapes’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

Tex Crick‘s new album is the thoughtful, playful and sentimental Sweet Dreamin’. It’s Crick’s second full-length album and the second release to come out via Mac DeMarco’s homespun imprint, Mac’s Record Label, following Crick’s 2021 debut, Live In… New York City.

Crick, who grew up in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, wrote and recorded much of the LP in his modest home studio in Tokyo. The songs on Sweet Dreamin’ revolve around Crick’s earnest and inviting baritone and unflashy piano playing.

Tex Crick: Sweet Dreamin’

To coincide with the album’s release, Crick tells us about the experiences, places, objects and phenomena that influenced its creation.

Dreams

Tex Crick: The record references dreaming all throughout – night dreams, daydreams, lifelong dreams. I’m a dreamer. There isn’t much more to it. Keep on dreaming.

Singing

Tex: I really got comfortable with singing on this record. Before Live In… New York City, I had never tried singing over my own music. That record was sort of an experiment to see if I could do it.
It made me realise you don’t need an amazing singing voice, you just have to mean what you’re singing about and people will recognise that. So, me being more confident in the way I use my voice helped this record to be what it turned out to be.

Cinema Programs

Tex: For some reason there are heaps of these cinema program booklets for sale everywhere in Japan. Each maybe has about 10 pages of nice stills from all different old movies. I like to look at pictures while I write music, so I buy these and I stare at my favourite scene from whatever movie fits my mood. I can’t read sheet music, so it’s nice to look at something.

The Attic

Tex: I’ve got my little studio setup in the roof of our Tokyo house. This is where I pen my songs and record the most. The sun beams in around 4pm and lights up the room with gold. I love it.

Hindenburg Piano

Tex: I think about this piano a lot.

Tex Crick’s new album Sweet Dreamin’ is out now through Mac’s Record Label

Tex Crick Sweet Dreamin’ Tour

• Wednesday 6th December – Mapleton Pub, Sunshine Coast QLD
• Thursday 7th December – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane QLD
• Friday 8th December – Harvest Newrybar, Northern Rivers NSW
• Saturday 9th December – Bangalow Bowlo [Natural bridge #004], Bangalow NSW
• Tuesday 12th December – The Curtin, Melbourne VIC
• Thursday 14th December – The House Of Music And Booze, Sydney NSW
• Friday 15th December – 16 Bellambi Lane, Wollongong NSW

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Tex Crick Tinkers with Japanese Hawaiian Music on ‘Barefoot Blues’

Tex Crick Announces New Album, Shares Video for ‘Easy Keepers’

Popular Music’s Zac Pennington and Prudence Rees-Lee Provide a Reference List for Their Debut LP, ‘Minor Works’

The post Tex Crick on the Experiences, Places and Objects that Influenced His New Album ‘Sweet Dreamin” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Melbourne composer Prudence Rees-Lee, aka Prudence, began working with Zac Pennington, of Parenthetical Girls and Xiu Xiu, a handful of years ago. The pair’s first release under the Popular Music guise was 2020’s Popular Music Plays in Darkness, which centred on songs of longing and desperation taken from twentieth-century Hollywood films.

The group’s new album, Minor Works of Popular Music, is their first collection of original material. It was recorded between Los Angeles, Melbourne/Naarm, Moscow and New York, and features contributions from Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier, composer and arranger Jherek Bischoff, and a 17-piece Russian chamber orchestra. Stream and purchase Minor Works here.

In the duo’s own words, the songs on Minor Works are “built in part on an architecture of in-text citations — borrowed, recontextualised, interpolated, stolen.” Ahead of their Naarm album launch on Thursday, 26th October, the members of Popular Music provide Music Feeds with a few essential footnotes.

Popular Music – Minor Works

Popular Music’s Minor Works Reference List

“There is no lost chord. No changes untried. No extra notes to the scale or hidden beats to the bar. There is no point in searching for originality.” — The Manual, The KLF

Zac Pennington and Prudence Rees-Lee: Popular Music is the name of the group, and also its palette. The songs on Minor Works are built in part on an architecture of in-text citations — borrowed, recontextualized, interpolated, stolen. Here‘s a few footnotes.

Aaron Copland’s ‘Fanfare For the Common Man’; as heard on ‘Lifetime Achievement’

Popular Music: Or more specifically, Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s nine-minute prog-rock albatross rendition of the maestro’s opus. ‘Fanfare’ gets a name check in the lyrics of ‘Lifetime Achievement,’ as well as a fairly heavy-handed sonic nod just before the first chorus.

Barry Manilow’s ‘I Write the Songs’; as heard on ‘Sad Songs’

PM: In spite of what he tells you, Barry Manilow did not write ‘I Write the Songs.’

Ennio Morricone’s ‘Ninna Nanna In Blu’ (Theme from The Cat O’ Nine Tails); as heard on ‘Bad Actors’

PM: Morricone’s discography has been ransacked more times than the Marvin Gaye estate. It’s more an inspiration here than outright larceny, in case his kin start getting litigious. 

Spacemen 3’s ‘Lord Can You Hear Me?’; as heard on ‘Desert Motel #2’

PM: Probably the most beautiful gospel song about contemplating suicide ever written. If you’ve got a better one, we’d sincerely love to hear it.

Parenthetical Girls’ ‘Young Eucharists’; as heard on ‘Disbelief’

PM: There are a lot of professional settings in which self-plagiarism is generally frowned upon; in music we call this “variations on a theme.”

Roy Orbison’s ‘It’s Over’; as heard on ‘Revelations’

PM: “You won’t be seeing rainbows anymore.” A most devastating apex from the undisputed king of the crescendo, here put to apocalyptic purposes. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Popular Music – Minor Works Launch

w/ Denim Owl, Maxi Dress, DJ Cassandra Kiely

• Thursday, 26th October – The Curtin, Naarm/Melbourne VIC

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Motez Explains the Concept Behind His Collaborative Audiovisual EP ‘Coalesce’

Elizabeth: The Songs, Words, Treasures and Images that Inspired ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’

NEW AUS MUSIC PLAYLIST: Our Favourite Tunes Of The Week

The post Popular Music’s Zac Pennington and Prudence Rees-Lee Provide a Reference List for Their Debut LP, ‘Minor Works’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

Teenage Joans have released their debut album, The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest. It’s the Adelaide duo’s first body of work since 2021’s Taste of Me EP, which itself followed the pair’s triple j Unearthed High win in 2020.

The duo of Tahlia Borg (vocals/drums) and Cahli Blakers (vocals/guitar) will take The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest on the road throughout November, playing headline shows in all mainland state capitals with support from bella amor, Aleksiah, and Dulcie.

In conjunction with the album’s release, Blakers tells Music Feeds about the journey of personal and creative growth that took them from Taste of Me to The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest.

Teenage Joans – ‘Candy Apple’

Cahli Blakers: For The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest, we really wanted to take a step up production-wise. I think on Taste of Me, we were kind of dipping our toes into what really polished production sounds like on a rock song. Because obviously pop is very polished – that’s the whole point of pop. But historically, rock and punk have always been a lot dirtier in that garage-y, live-sounding way, which is something we had to find a middle ground with, because people love watching us live.

So, we really wanted to play with the production more but still make it feel like a really full rock album, and we definitely learned a lot through that. Our producer, Jarred Nettle, he’s insane. He’s just open to every idea, and whether we put the idea in at the end or not, he just said yes to everything, which was cool.

We worked with him on Taste Of Me as well, and I think this has been a learning process for him too. At the end of the process, he was like, “I’ve never gotten so nitty gritty with a release before.” We were really just hand-in-hand, we both wanted to make every single bar of every song have its own personality to make the song have a real wow factor. I think that’s one of the main differences between our debut EP and debut album: the production is so much bigger.

The writing is a lot more personal on The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest too. We wrote Taste Of Me when we were both teenagers. I think we were 16 or 17 for that one. For the album, we wrote it when we were 18, 19, 20. So, it’s definitely navigating life as a young adult and understanding the world through some heavier and darker themes. It still has lots of our personality in it, just as Taste Of Me did, but it feels like we’re maturing, to be honest.

The whole album talks about this theme of things rotting, sweet things rotting. We were originally playing around with the idea of calling the album “Sweet Things Rot” because I liked the symbolism behind our first EP, which was very bright colours and beautiful, and talked about a lot of sweet food and stuff. I like the idea of us maturing and we’re almost rotting, but rot doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

The album talks about rotting in sort of a positive way. You have things in life that just have to rot, otherwise you’re never going to change, you’re never going to grow. I liked that idea, but we ended up going with The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest – it’s more unique and has that cool, pop-punk, long title thing going on.

“You have things in life that just have to rot, otherwise you’re never going to change, you’re never going to grow”

When it came to outside expectations, we just had tunnel vision. I’m not afraid of what people are going to think, because this is Teenage Jones. People love ‘Three Leaf Clover’ and I get it. I’m also the type of person who will love a band’s first ever big song and be like, “Why don’t you like it?” But it’s not that we don’t like ‘Three Leaf Clover’ – it has a very special place in our hearts – but it just doesn’t reflect us as a band. It had its purpose and it played its part, and we probably wouldn’t be doing a lot of things without it. But at the same time, we’ve grown up, we’ve matured.

This album is so much better than anything we’ve ever done before. People are going to have their own opinions and that’s fine. The people who this album’s meant to find – it’s for them. And if it doesn’t resonate with some people, then that’s okay too. But we’re so happy with this album and so proud of it.

As a person who listens to music all of the time and is constantly studying music just by listening to it, I know that this is a better release than anything we’ve done before. Also, I think our fanbase is pretty supportive with a lot of this kind of stuff too, so they’re growing with us. I think it’s like: everything’s got its own progression for everyone and we’re all just learning and growing together, which is fun.

Teenage Joans 2023 Australian Tour

w/ bella amor, Aleksiah + Dulcie (Perth only)

• Thursday, 2nd November – The Triffid, Brisbane (Lic/Aa)
• Saturday, 4th November – Factory Theatre, Sydney (Lic/Aa)
• Tuesday, 7th November – Corner Hotel, Melbourne (18+)
• Thursday, 9th November – The Gov, Adelaide (Lic/Aa)
• Friday, 10th November – Jack Rabbit Slims, Perth (18+)*

Tickets on sale via Teenage Joans

Further Reading

Teenage Joans Announce 2023 National Album Tour

Track By Track: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers on their Debut LP ‘I Love You’

Track By Track: Holy Holy Give Us the Inside Scoop on ‘Cellophane’

The post Teenage Joans on Their Polished and Personal Debut Album ‘The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

Motez’s new EP, Coalesce, features guest appearances from Elsy Wameyo, DOOLIE, REBEL YELL and Dave Court. Motez, an Iraqi-Australian techno artist based in Adelaide, wanted the songs on the EP to evoke an impression of a “surreal, ailing city where buildings are falling apart and are sitting askew.”

To this end, Motez worked with Court, a multi-disciplinary visual artist, to build a visual companion to the seven-track EP. All of the action occurs in an imaginary world known as the “hypercube” – “a multidimensional space where the essence of Coalesce and its intricate details converge,” Motez said. The EP is out now, and Motez tells Music Feeds about its gestation.

Motez – ‘Tell Me’ (feat. DOOLIE)

Motez: Coalesce is a multi-sensory undertaking that straddles the intersection of the virtual and physical realms. It’s a fusion of digital art and tangible elements, effectively dissolving the boundaries that separate reality from the boundless realms of imagination.

This project attempts to meld immersive audio and visual components, conceptually bringing an organic touch to sounds that are traditionally considered cold and industrial. To manifest this vision, our endeavour took the form of a “hypercube,” a multidimensional space where the essence of Coalesce and its intricate details converge.

Each facet of this remarkable construct serves as a dynamic, living representation of every song within the EP. Our goal was to push the boundaries of artistic expression and storytelling by harmonising physical structures crafted by Dave with virtual sketches inspired by the music I composed.

“The process of creating art and music can be just as, if not more, significant than the message the art conveys”

The inspiration for our venture stemmed from Marshall McLuhan’s thought-provoking work, The Medium is the Massage. This seminal text prompted us to contemplate the idea that the process of creating art and music can be just as, if not more, significant than the message the art conveys. We recognised that this notion has profound societal and philosophical implications, reflecting the current state of the arts and communication, especially in the context of artificial intelligence and the burgeoning realm of virtual artistry.

In essence, Coalesce is a testament to our commitment to aligning the creative process with contemporary artistic and technological landscapes. By embarking on this journey, we sought not only to deliver a transformative sensory experience, but also to underscore the profound relationship between the medium and the message in the context of our rapidly evolving world.

Through Coalesce, we aim to navigate some relatively new territories of art, communication, and the integration of A.I. and virtual artistry, reflecting the zeitgeist of our collective artistic journey.

Motez’s new EP, Coalesce, is available now – stream it here

Further Reading

Motez Teams Up with Elsy Wameyo for New Single ‘Make Way’

Motez Releases New Single, ‘Get It Done’, Featuring London MC Scrufizzer

Luna May Experiments with Broken Beat and D&B on New Single ‘Heartbeat’

The post Motez Explains the Concept Behind His Collaborative Audiovisual EP ‘Coalesce’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

DIVEBAR YOUTH is the project of songwriter and producer Vinnie Barbaro. The project’s latest single, ‘PANIC’, features a guest appearance from Cahli Blakers of Teenage Joans. Barbaro and Blakers co-wrote the song with Dave Jenkins Jr. (NOT A BOYS NAME, Bec Sandridge). Jenkins Jr. and Barbaro share production credits.

To coincide with the release of ‘PANIC’, Barbaro tells us about the emotions that inspired the song, and how the track corresponds to the rest of DIVEBAR YOUTH’s debut EP, SONDER, which is out now.

DIVEBAR YOUTH – ‘PANIC’ feat. Cahli Blakers

Vinnie Barbaro: In the ever-evolving landscape of music, creative sparks can ignite from the most unexpected encounters. The collision of talent and inspiration often produces remarkable results, as witnessed in the birth of ‘PANIC,’ the latest single from my debut EP, SONDER.

Conceived during an intensive day at TikTok x APRA AMCOS SongHubs, the collaboration with Cahli Blakers (of Teenage Joans) and Dave Jenkins Jr. (known for his work with Daniel Johns and Bec Sandridge) delivered a musical rollercoaster that explores the fine line between panic’s power as a catalyst for change and its potential for unleashing mayhem.

‘PANIC’ is a snapshot of a creative journey fuelled by spontaneity and synergy. Nestled within the vibrant setting of TikTok x APRA AMCOS SongHubs, Cahli Blakers, Dave Jenkins Jr. and myself set out to seize the essence of life’s unpredictability.

This frenetic track, with its pulsating rhythms and thought-provoking lyrics, explores how the feeling of panic can serve as a potent device for change. Amidst the chaos and turmoil there lies an opportunity for transformation, a theme that resonates throughout all of my music as DIVEBAR YOUTH.

I’m gearing up to take ‘PANIC’ and the entire debut EP on the road. These performances will be immersive experiences, providing fans with the opportunity to connect with the music on a deeper level. Tour dates will be announced soon.

DIVEBAR YOUTH: SONDER

Further Reading

Divebar Youth Takes Us Behind the Scenes of the ‘In The Hive’ Music Video Shoot

Teenage Joans Announce 2023 National Album Tour

Set Times Announced for Yours & Owls 2023

The post DIVEBAR YOUTH on Turning Chaos into Catharsis on New Single ‘PANIC’ feat. Cahli Blakers appeared first on Music Feeds.

Juice Webster has released her debut solo album, JULIA. The Naarm/Melbourne-based indie pop and folk musician explores themes of loss, change and uncertainty across the ten-track album. Webster worked on JULIA at Alex O’Gorman’s bushy studio retreat in Packenham Upper. Simon Lam produced the album and played keys, with Ollie Cox on drums, Theo Carbo on guitar, and Noah Hutchinson on bass.

Webster will launch JULIA at Naarm’s Evelyn Hotel on Friday, 22nd September. Get your tickets here. Webster spoke to Music Feeds about the emotions, life changes and physical spaces that helped usher the album into the world.

Juice Webster: JULIA

Yearning for the past

Juice Webster: Grief and yearning for the passing of time and the moments I desperately want to return to. The deep missing of past selves and past experiences that tend to mean more in retrospect. I think this theme runs pretty deep throughout the whole album, but is particularly present on ‘Returning’, ‘Among the Wires’ and ‘Headaches’.

Generally, I find it hard to stay in the present and often find myself thinking of specific moments or feelings from my past that I yearn for. I think most of my songwriting tends to lead back to this overall feeling because it’s so ingrained in who I am.

Devotion to my loved ones

JW: The purity of that kind of love that removes second-guessing and hesitation and instead gives you the selflessness that is needed in order to love someone wholly. This is the primary emotion of tracks such as ‘Black Coat, Black Skirt’, ‘All For You’ and ‘Waking Dream’, and again, just feels so ingrained in my sense of self and purpose. I think most of what I do is driven by devotion.

New family members

JW: Beautiful baby nephews that so blatantly announce the passing of time, but that teach you so much, and bring such a unique brand of joy. These new additions to my family made me feel like this new phase had begun, and so I had to farewell the old one. That kind of ties into that grief feeling and the letting go.

Lockdowns

JW: I hate to bring it up, but the stark change in pace between the before-lockdown times and the after-lockdown times. The solitude, the downtime, the unknown.

Alex O’Gorman’s studio in Pakenham Upper

JW: The most beautiful studio space where we recorded most of the album. I have really fond memories of this part of the album process. Gormie’s space really allowed for a lot of creativity and exploration and just felt really warm and comfortable to be in. I think it had a huge influence on how this album sounds.

Simon Lam’s studio at the Meat Market in North Melbourne

JW: This is where we tracked all the bits we didn’t have time to track at Gormie’s studio – all the vocals and some of the quieter songs.

Juice Webster’s debut album JULIA is out now. Stream here and purchase here

Further Reading

Winten on the Sounds, Spaces and Objects that Inspired ‘Waving To My Girl’

Phony Ppl Guide Us Through Their Latest Album ‘Euphonyus’

Elizabeth: The Songs, Words, Treasures and Images that Inspired ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’

The post Juice Webster: The Emotions, Changes and Spaces that Made ‘JULIA’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’ is the first single of 2023 from Brisbane/Meanjin-based songwriter and performer Elizabeth. The epic and wholly moving pop song is the first taste of the artist’s to-be-announced second album, due sometime in 2024. Elizabeth’s debut LP, the quietly capacious the wonderful world of nature, came out in 2019.

Elizabeth is part of this year’s BIGSOUND program, playing an official showcase at The Loft on Wednesday, 6th September and appearing at a couple of parties on the days either side. In the lead up to the event, Elizabeth spoke to Music Feeds about the songs, words, objects and images that inspired the creative world of ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’.

Elizabeth – ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’

Eros The Bittersweet by Anne Carson

Elizabeth: I was reading this when I wrote ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’. The idea that romantic love is a source of both pleasure and pain, fulfilment and destruction. A tribute to the original lesbian Sappho; how could I not love?

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Elizabeth: This film, directed by Peter Greenaway, depicts the terrible things that terrible people do when they are “in love”. And it’s a spectacle the whole way through.

Bones, stones and snake skins

Elizabeth: My spooky collection of bones, stones and snake skins features on the cover art of ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’. I keep these treasures on my treasure shelves, and I find them to be very special. They were collected on walks, farms and at the beach. A friend recently said, “Oh there is a big dead bug on your shelf,” and I said, “Yes I put it there”.

@elizabethmusic_elizabeth please enjoy my spooky collection #spooky #bones #collection #snake #body #horror #horrortok #scary #collector ♬ original sound – elizabethmusic

The Phantom of the Opera

Elizabeth: OK, never was there a more toxic love worship than The Phantom’s obsession for Christine Daaé. Also the fact that Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote Phantom for his wife Sarah Brightman, what a parallel – a genius creating for his muse.

Church recording at St Peter’s Basilica

Elizabeth: During the pandemic, I was making demos that included bootleg recordings of church sounds. One from St Peter’s Basilica made it into the final version of ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’, and I think it added to the allusion to religious iconography in the song. What is a more pleasurable and painful love than being committed to something so much bigger than ourselves?

Skeeter Davis – ‘The End of the World’

Elizabeth: Everything means nothing if you’re gone.

Elizabeth at BIGSOUND 2023

• Tuesday, 5th September – ‘Up Late and Unsigned’ @ The Brightside, Brisbane QLD
• Wednesday, 6th September – Official Showcase @ The Loft, Brisbane QLD
• Thursday, 7th September – Oztix Party @ The Brightside, Brisbane QLD

More details here

Further Reading

Elizabeth: “I Used to Blow Things Up Just to Have Something to Write About”

Winten on the Sounds, Spaces and Objects that Inspired ‘Waving To My Girl’

Parissa and David of Vallis Alps on Their Favourite Albums by Sudan Archives and Floating Points

The post Elizabeth: The Songs, Words, Treasures and Images that Inspired ‘Love Is The Easiest Salvation’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

Powloh released his latest EP, Cold Summer Paradise, on Friday, 18th August. The six-song collection features the singles ‘Paris Green’, ‘Coupla Miles High’ and ‘In Our Own Time’, which build on the Melbourne/Naarm artist’s affection for French touch and disco funk.

Powloh’s pool of influences spans artists as varied as Daft Punk, Steve Monite, White Town and Fleetwood Mac, as well as Kaytranada, Jamiroquai and CHIC. Here, he pays tribute to six songs that inspired him during the creation of Cold Summer Paradise.

Powloh: Cold Summer Paradise

Daft Punk – ‘Get Lucky’ / CHIC – ‘Good Times’

Powloh: The rhythm guitar played by Nile Rodgers on both these records inspired a few of the tracks on my EP, like ‘Paris Green’, ‘In Our Own Time’ and ‘Hex On My Head’. Nile Rodgers is one of my biggest inspirations when it comes to funk guitar. I studied how he got that beautiful clean tone, from mic’d amp setups to plugging the jack straight into the DI. I even studied how his guitar was set up.

The main thing I learnt is that the sound comes from the way he plays and moves his hands more than anything else. I ultimately opted to take my own path and do things differently, but studying Nile Rodgers gave me a starting point for discovering myself as a guitarist.

Fleetwood Mac – ‘Dreams’

Powloh: The main inspiration that this song gave to my EP is the drums. They’re up front, punchy, warm and hypnotic. I programmed the drums for my EP and was often aiming for them to sound in the middle of digital and human.

When Fleetwood Mac were making ‘Dreams’, they had Mick Fleetwood record as close to perfect as he could and then spliced the best section of the tape and looped it. It’s almost as if they were trying to get a programmed drum sound through the tightness of the groove and repetition.

After studying that record, I paid close attention to the hi-hat articulations when programming drums for my EP to help bring that human feel.

White Town – ‘Your Woman’

Powloh: When I was a kid, I remember liking this song and I read somewhere that White Town, aka Jyoti Prakash Mishra, made the song in the spare room at his house. That was the first time I’d ever heard that DIY was a thing, and upon reflection, that really planted a seed for me. I moved house during the making of Cold Summer Paradise, and while I was setting up my home studio, I reconnected with that song again.

I really love the vocal effect and how his delivery sounds as though he’s having a conversation, like he’s almost talking to you on the phone. Singing isn’t something that I was ever naturally good at and Jyoti’s approach inspired me as it felt like an extension of how I imagine he speaks.

Steve Monite – ‘Only You’

Powloh: The groove and bass line on this track pull me in every time I hear it. The song was released in 1984 and only found commercial success 30 years later. The use of drum machines, Moog synths and space-like sounds on an electronic disco track released in Nigeria when Afrobeat and highlife were most popular leads me to believe this song was so far ahead of its time.

Cannons – ‘Bad Dream’

Powloh: Whenever I listen to songs by Cannons, I get the sense of some overlapping influences. I draw a lot of inspiration from 70s and 80s funk, disco, new wave and synth pop, and while making my EP, I found myself turning to Cannons to hear a modern take on those sounds.

‘Bad Dream’ is a great example of so many things happening at once and working together for a beautiful result. From the glistening guitar tones to the dreamy synths and ethereal vocals, it captures and evokes so much emotion. Its nostalgic tone and weaving melodies draw attention to the different elements throughout, and the song evolves in such a nice and subtle way.

Powloh’s Cold Summer Paradise is out now – find it here

Further Reading

Harvest Rock 2023 Lineup: Jamiroquai, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Beck + More

Daft Punk Release ‘Random Access Memories’ Outtake ‘Infinity Repeating’ w/ Julian Casablancas

Cannons Announce 2023 Australian Headline Shows

The post “I Draw A Lot of Inspiration from 70s and 80s Funk” – Powloh on the Songs That Inspired His ‘Cold Summer Paradise’ EP appeared first on Music Feeds.

Winten’s debut album, Waving to My Girl, is one of the year’s most moving and heartfelt surprises. The Melbourne/Naarm singer-songwriter released her debut single ‘Anything You Like’ in November 2022, introducing listeners to her composed navigation of complex emotional territory. It’s one of several singles to appear on the album, alongside ‘Bad Ones’, ‘Violet Town’, ‘Holidays’ and the title track.

Winten will head to Meanjin/Brisbane in early September for Jet Black Cat’s Sonic Boom festival before Waving to My Girl gets its official launch at Collingwood’s Gasometer Hotel on Thursday, 21st September. Here, Winten discusses the experiences and phenomena that inspired and shaped her debut album.

Winten: Waving to My Girl

Sounds

Bridgette Winten: I listened to Adrianne Lenker’s Songs and Instrumentals a lot while working on the album. Her music feels very meditative and raw and I love her freeform, sprawling approach to lyrics and instrumentation.

A song I also had on high rotation throughout the writing and recording process was Angel Olsen’s ‘Sister’. I’m so inspired by this piece of music – I could listen to that chord progression and melody until I die. I also can’t get enough of the unravelling instrumentation towards the end of the song.

Voice memos are a big one for me. I have about 50 cursed and non-cursed song ideas going at all times so it’s safe to say these were referenced a lot and haunted my dreams constantly.

Spaces

Winten: It seems to be a consistent habit of mine to find a comfy nook out front of each house I live in to make my thinking spot. I lived in an old Brunswick sharehouse when I wrote most of these songs and would come home from late night cinema shifts and sit at the wrought iron bench just outside my bedroom window. Lots of song ideas started there.

Not long after, I moved into a new house with a ground level balcony attached to my bedroom. There’s a mandarin and magnolia tree as well as bunches of wildflowers in the front garden. They were really beautiful to look at while thinking about my recording – and life – intentions.

I worked at a beautiful, old cinema in the city at the time most of these songs were written. All the rooms had different coloured walls and red velvet seats. I loved the romantic and calming feeling of walking around the building late at night after everyone had gone home.

The Thornbury backstreets/suburbia will always have my heart. I love looking at the silver princess trees with their slinky branches and firework flowers and generally how life moves around me when my mind needs a bit of grounding.

Objects

Winten: My beautiful 1966 Guild Starfire that I bought a month after we started tracking for the album. I immediately fell in love when I played it for the first time – it sounds like honey and has a huge amount of character. I think it really helped me to connect with myself.

Consolations by David Whyte – a friend recommended this book to me and it’s been a primary navigation device in terms of processing heavy/intricate emotions and trusting the universe throughout the writing, recording and releasing stages.

One of my favourite excerpts is, “Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given; gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us.”

I brought a lucky rhyolite stone with me to every recording session – though, I never told anybody about it for fear of killing the magic. It’s said to assist with self-confidence and inner strength, but if nothing else, it was a calming ritual to turn it in my palm whenever I felt overwhelmed.

Listen to Winten‘s debut album Waving to My Girl here and purchase it here

Further Reading

Love Letter to a Record: Winten on Beach House’s ‘Bloom’

Hannah McKittrick: The Sounds, Words, Objects and Places That Inspired ‘The day has again bruised me’

Angel Olsen Review – Laughter, Pain and Anger in Equal Doses

The post Winten on the Sounds, Spaces and Objects that Inspired ‘Waving To My Girl’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

Dandelion Head is the solo project of Jason Blynn, a Melbourne/Naarm-based musician with roots in Los Angeles. Following the dissolution of his former project, Harper Blynn, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist got to work on his debut solo album, Yay Blynn, which surfaced in 2017.

Blynn has subsequently relocated to Melbourne and adopted the name Dandelion Head. He’s also finished work on his second album, Blue Dream. Three singles have been released to date, including ‘Sad Eyes’, which is paired with a charming, lo-fi video from directors Lewis and Callum Mitchell (aka the Hotel Naomi) and Adrienne Couper Smith.

Dandelion Head – ‘Sad Eyes’

In the lead up to Blue Dream, Dandelion Head tells us about the songs that make him sad, including classics from Lee Hazlewood and Gal Costa and songs Blynn co-wrote with Rose Elinor Dougall and Say Lou Lou. You can find all of Blynn’s selections in the playlist below.

Songs to Make You Sad, by Dandelion Head

Coco – ‘Empty Beach’ (2021)

J. Blynn: One of the best breakup songs ever for my money. The lyrics capture so perfectly that silence, the vast space and endless time in which you suddenly find yourself swimming when you split with someone. It’s so lonely. When this song came out, Coco was a bit of a secret, but I knew one of the band members –Danny from Lucius – and I think that added to the feeling of intimacy and nostalgia the song gave me. It’s effortlessly beautiful, and an absolute gut punch.

F.J. McMahon – ‘Early Blue’ (1969)

Blynn: F.J. McMahon fought in Vietnam, and then made this record when he came home from the war. The whole album is a haunting kind of magic, but this gentle tune about not wanting to get out of bed just destroys me. It’s so beautiful and sad, and then you realise that he is probably wrestling with some kind of PTSD, and it’s just devastating.

Lee Hazlewood – ‘Wait and See’ (1968)

Blynn: The brilliance of this song is that the line, “Everything’s gonna be alright”, is not what you think it is. This guy fucked up big time and he’s apologising, so when he sings that refrain, I hear it as a mantra of hope sung to himself. There’s so much desperation in it, maybe even delusion, because it’s pretty clear things are very much not all right. But the music and beautiful arrangement tell me it’s the good kind of hope, the kind that keeps us alive and moving.

Rose Elinor Dougall – ‘That’s Where The Trouble Started’ (2019)

Blynn: I wrote this song with Rose, and it documents a friendship gone wrong over time based on one little lie, captured in the line, “a lie lives a long life”. The tragedy of that is massive, and the regret wrapped up in there is just so heartbreaking. A lie can be so damaging. It changes your behaviour, and maybe even yourself, because you have to act in accordance with it, lest you get caught. This song is a good argument for being honest.

Gal Costa – ‘Como 2 E 2’ (1972)

Blynn: To me this is the legend Gal at her most vulnerable, most raw. The lines that get me are, “When I sing, don’t believe it / Just come, I’m not in danger”. And then later, “Everything is the same when I’m singing and when I’m silent.” She feels this pain, and the resignation in knowing there’s nothing she can do about it is where the darkness and beauty is for me. She’s laid bare. But she loves singing, and that’s enough, she says later. The music and the sound of her voice tell the whole story.

Say Lou Lou – ‘Waiting For A Boy’ (2023)

Blynn: When I wrote this song with Elektra and Miranda, we explored their experiences of being with people who had a lot of growing up to do. While I see the song as ultimately empowering, the picture we painted is heartbreaking. It’s someone waiting for their partner to change, tolerating mediocrity, stuck with the burden of the mundane, taking on an outsized chunk of keeping the relationship stable and moving forward, then finally realising you’ve been languishing and this person won’t change. These women are deep souls and they were able to articulate these things so powerfully.

Mouth Tooth – ‘Please Don’t’ (2020)

Blynn: A sad banger from emo-folk kings Mouth Tooth. I absolutely love this band. The music is so lush and atmospheric and invites you into a unique kind of melancholic beauty. “Please don’t tell me I’m bad / I’m already so sad” has to be one of the most raw, unabashedly sad lines I’ve ever heard. It’s a plea for giving you a goddamn break, born from utter desperation. “My life is about you” conveys such earnestness that is deep and soulful, never trite, but just raw and fully committed, even if it’s wrong and never gonna work out.

Sylvie – ‘Sylvie’ (2022)

Blynn: This is one of the best examples of music and vibe carrying the feeling of a song. The music tells you everything emotionally here. It’s languid and melancholic, becoming almost a mantra when they sing, “Sylvie don’t you cry”. It takes me to a moment when painful memories begin to fade, and you’re left in the still and quiet space of reflection, with all its loneliness and isolation. Sylvie is so simple and effective in creating that feeling. I love this band.

Sibylle Baier – ‘The End’ (2006)

Blynn: Sibylle Baier’s Colour Green is one of the most haunting and atmospheric records I’ve ever heard. There’s such a lonely, melancholic mood to all the songs, but this one is the gut punch for me. The lyric, “Time is over where we could simply say I love you,” is just devastating. Time passes. Love changes. Things that were once simple get complicated, and that’s where the real work in a relationship happens. And a lot of times things just don’t work out.

It reminds me of the feeling when you break up with someone and all of the sudden, someone you adored, who made your heart skip and was the centre of your world, is just another person again. It’s such a strange and lonely feeling.

Dandelion Head – ‘Two Hands’

Stay up to date with Dandelion Head via the artist’s website and Instagram.

Further Reading

Amanda Brown, Formerly of The Go-Betweens, on Eight Songs That Inspire Her

Phoebe Go’s Favourite Solo Artists (Who Started Out in Bands)

Nancy Sinatra And Lee Hazlewood’s ‘Nancy & Lee’ Is Finally Being Reissued On Vinyl

The post Dandelion Head on the Songs That Make Him Sad appeared first on Music Feeds.