Hey! Just before I get into this week's blog post I wanted to showcase this performance of Oh How You Bend, live from Sandro's Alley. Bend is one of the subtler songs and has an awesome arrangement live (HUGE thanks to Johnsen, Alex, Dylan, Sydney and Sunny for that) so I really recommend you watch the video before reading the rest of the post. I do think it is one of the stronger lyrics I have written. Also, huge props to both Dylan Jepsen and Johnsen Cummings for working so tirelessly on these videos, Dylan with editing and Johnsen with the audio. Remember to click that bell! Anyway, in this blog post I will be continuing to shed further light on the zine I spent way too many hours writing in 2018. I am a little bit (very) embarrassed at the length I go at talking about One Piece here, but what can I say I was very passionate about One Piece at the time. It has such a good narrative! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gigant: The project name for this track was “Arbes Samples” as it uses two samples from a talented three-piece band that went to my high school, called Arbes. The two tracks sampled are “Fortunes” and “Flutaar”. Flutaar’s sample is a subtle repitching, but I directly sampled the opening guitar melody from their song ‘Fortunes’ for the A-sections of Gigant. If you are not familiar with any of Arbes’s material do yourself a favour and wash some dishes whilst listening to either one of their EP’s. You will instantly feel better. My favourite track is ‘Beach Side’, from their first EP, Swimmer. Gigant is a German word meaning “giant”. Like “shame”, it was a word that got stuck in my head for many months. Of course, its relevance in my life was because the word is a part of attack names within the manga/anime One Piece. The lead protagonist’s (Luffy’s) special power is that his body is composed entirely of rubber, so he utilises this ability to inflate bones in specific parts of his body (usually his hands or feet) to incredible sizes before attacking the opponent. As Luffy attacks he yells out a standard attack name but slots in the word “Gigant” before the name of the attack. For instance, “Pistol” is when Luffy throws a punch and his arm hyper-extends forward and stretches out, vastly increasing its range. “Gigant Pistol” is this same style of attack but with an enlarged fist due to the bone in his hand having been inflated like a balloon, increasing its power but reducing Luffy’s mobility. For a fantasy pirate manga, One Piece uses a lot of real-life physics in its battle sequences. I’m not sure why but the word “Gigant” and the concept of “Gigant” always stuck with me, and because it’s stuck with me so long I take it as part of my personality and felt that I must express it through my art. I chose the word “Gigant” to be with this song because my obsession with the word was quite personal to me as One Piece isn't really trending or normalised as much as other pop culture in Melbourne. I’ve always really, really enjoy this song so naming it Gigant always felt right to me. The meaning of the word is also vaguely relevant to the lyrics of the song, fortunately. Hilariously enough, One Piece has had a surprising amount of influence on my songwriting all my life. One song that takes a lot of inspiration is a song from my other band Plaza-Trg, called ‘Harpy’. To avoid talking any more about One Piece for this zine (I hope): this was the second song I composed for the album but the fifth or sixth that I finished writing lyrics for. I wrote the composition for Gigant on a Friday morning in the Summer and it stuck itself in my head while I was making pizzas for the whole weekend. Writing lyrics for it was much trickier, however. This song is about being a part of something new and great that's entered your life. You're initially so glad that this new thing is here before you start doubting yourself because of your own fixation on this thing and feeling out of place with this new thing. It's a small-scale anxiety that I think subtly hints at what the rest of the album is going to be about. This song is also about a desire to belong somewhere. I personified this desire as a congenial partner that l yearned for. You want to be at this place so badly. You’re glad you’re away from where you were, but you’re always doubting yourself. You believe that you’re being judged at your new place, and that you’re not good enough for the place so you convince yourself that it’s not worth it. But in the end you see the absurdity of it all, and laugh it off. You're truly happy to be wherever you are, no matter where it is, while still longing for the place where you feel safe. I wrote the lyrics when my life felt to be in a period of transition. I was still adjusting to my first year of university, and being in intimate classes with very talented people who were recognised for their talents was really scary for me to adjust to. I was also at the age where people begin to think about life beyond their families and move out to live on their own, which is a lot to ponder for someone who takes their sheltered cosy life for granted. I wrote the lyrics for the sparser sounding section in one go, but the “drum and bass” section took many months before I was content with it. It was only really when I thought of the line “I can’t wait to walk through the final gate” that everything made sense to me. In the later sections of the song I talk about this “siren” that pops up in my life. A siren is a creature in Greek mythology who lure sailors with their beautiful singing voices and enchanting music to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. I was inspired to research sirens from a songwriting tutoring session with Harry James Angus from The Cat Empire, which I was very lucky to be a part of. A piece of advice he gave that really stuck with me was to take heavy influence from old mythology, because myths and stories hold their relevance because the core ideas and beliefs of such stories are taken from the core of human nature, which has not changed throughout history. I used the tale of the siren and compared it to entities in my own life that would woo me and lead me to my demise. In the song even though the siren is leading me away from my course I am completely aware that they will be the one to lead me to my demise in the end (“I know you’ll be the one to cast me onto the rocks”), and thus the line “I can’t wait to walk through the final gate” shows total acceptance and even eagerness towards my own death in this manner, as if it would free me from the burdens that I were carrying. I find that super interesting and, somewhat, empowering. I think I have the closest connection with this song. It’s written in Bb Ionian, which is a mode that a lot of my favourite music is written in, and was just a general joy to work on. I was refining this song and adding electric bass and guitar to it in my own time long before I had even conceptualised the album, so I feel as if this song is the one I care for most. I also recently realised that this song, while very much a song about wanting to belong somewhere, is also a love song, and probably one of the few optimistic love songs I’ve written (more on optimistic love songs with Dermo-Creme). This is especially apparent when viewed holistically, with the first few stanza setting the scene, then the complication comes in, then I dwell on everything that could go wrong, then I accept that what will happen will happen, concluding with the butteriest ending I’ve ever written. I’ll let you see why. Originally, I wanted Ruby-Sofia to sing this song, but after a recording rehearsal at my house I realised that her voice did not suit the style of lyric writing, as the way the melody leapt around for her voice reminded me of a country dance song. My final resolve was to use my own voice for the song, as I strangely put a lot of effort into the demo vocal for Ruby and Isaac, and as with each day that passed I enjoyed my voice on it more and more. I think I made the right choice in the end. I asked Alex to make the artwork of a young boy with some stereotypical child traits, like a bowl cut and a big grin with missing baby teeth, because a lot of this song evokes younger childhood memories and purer feelings for me. I chose orange as the background colour for the artwork as this song always reminded me of the colour orange, a colour which I always associated with nostalgia, and this feeling is especially apparent in the verses that convey a sense of relief. I really enjoyed using the word ‘lion’ as an adjective, and I hope to do it more often. Influences: Courtship Dating - Crystal Castles: I listened to a lot of Crystal Castles when I was younger, and I really enjoy their first album. Their first album has some very intense, high octane songs that I enjoy very much, and some moderately-paced songs that I didn't enjoy as much when I was younger and more of a punk. ‘Courtship Dating’ is the only moderately-paced song on that album that I always enjoyed. I remember when I made the opening section of ‘Gigant’ and instantly felt the need for a drum and bass section to follow it, starting on the submediant. I’ve only realised this now, but this is because the beat in the opening section of ‘Gigant’ is very similar to the beat in the opening section of ‘Courtship Dating’, through the hi-hat timbre and the infrequent kick drum rhythm. Following this section the song brings in a sine bass (I’m pretty sure it’s a sine bass (it is not a sine bass)) and uses a more dance-y beat as vocals come in. I guess the similarity between ‘Courtship Dating’ and ‘Gigant’ is what inspired me to subconsciously make my song so similar. I’ve also never really noticed this but the way the dancey section of ‘Gigant’ plays out is similar to some EDM where the beat feels like it is at half speed (usually through placement of the snare). I listened to a fair amount of EDM growing up (mainly Daft Punk, with Deadmau5 and Knife Party phases as well) so I’m glad that some of the tropes in those genres are finally showing in the songs I write. Night of the Long Knives - Everything Everything: I’m not sure why but it seems my favourite music seems to in Bb major or any of its correlating modes. Night Of The Long Knives is one of my favourite songs, period. There are so many interesting musical details present in this song alone that I borrow in my music. The polyrhythmic guitar towards the latter half of the song strongly influenced the final crescendo of Outside from my first EP. You’re going to notice that Night Of The Long Knives is the leading inspirational drive of this album, partly because of the strength of the word “Shame” in that song. This song takes inspiration from the IV - I chord movement in the chorus for the A section, and the B section’s syncopated melody on the guitar and bass accompanying a consistent drum beat. A Different Feeling - The Avalanches: My favourite Avalanches song, the way this song can leap between upbeat and lulling but still maintain that dancing energy definitely influenced this song. The beat also was a large influence. Late Night - Foals: A haunting song. The drum beat that Jack Bevan plays from about 0:53 to 2:20 always sounded so crisp to me, even through its simplicity. I really enjoy how the hihat is so repetitive but sounds so great and carries the beat so effectively. I listened to Two Steps Twice, arguably their greatest song, for the first time in a while and the hi-hat has the same effect there. Maybe that’s the “Foals sound” my friends always say I convey. Lyrics: So you stirred up the quiet ocean. Turned the tides in a lion way. And it’s clear when it comes from nothing at all. All my life, where have you been? But with this autonomy, am I glad? You could be the one to guide me under the knife. I can’t wait to walk through the final gate. And I love that they’re coming closer. But do they come with a loaded question? For I’m stuck in the fissure of stigma. I’m a slave to the me before me. And I hope that it’s almost over. And my heart knows it feels bereft. But it’s so damn hard to keep you away. And there’s hardly room to breathe. Don't. Can’t deny the need to feel ahead of the pack. It’s not like I let the world hold me back. I’m out where the giants roam. Footsteps and all. I can’t wait to give up, alright? These burdens are doubling. But what’s that coming up? A siren for me to chase out to sea? And where you aimlessly wander, I’ll shamelessly follow. And I know you’ll be the one to cast me onto the rocks. I can’t wait to walk through the final gate. And I know that you’re coming closer. And I don’t care that there are bigger fish. So please, just pick me up and take me away. For I’m warm in your gooey heat. Artist Influence - Everything Everything: Everything Everything is definitely the largest influence on me and this album. While their newer material boasts tight songwriting and incredible lyrics, the arrangements of some of their earlier songs are so wild and should not be discredited. There are so many of their songs that inspired individual tracks of this album that it wouldn't be a stretch to say that every song off this album is heavily influenced by an Everything Everything song. As I have already discussed, their track ‘Night Of The Long Knives’ influenced the name and artistic direction of the album as well as the style of many songs on the album. I got turned onto listening to Everything Everything at the beginning of 2016 by close friend Harry, the drummer of my other band, Plaza-Trg, and they have been a large part of my life ever since. I strongly connect with the views and beliefs that Jonathan Higgs conveys through his lyric writing, and it is a chief influence on my own songwriting. I was listening to their latest album ‘A Fever Dream’ almost compulsively when I was creating Shame, and both the lyric writing and song arrangements rub off onto this record. You Threw Me Away: To put it simply, ‘You Threw Me Away’ is about a relationship that declined. It’s written in this kind of acquiesced anger that rationally accepts what has happened over time but is very annoyed that it happened. I think a large section of my shame is taken up with misguided blame and the moral consequences that would follow. There is power in validation of your perceived truth, and whether that truth is right or wrong is irrelevant if knowledge you gathered is valid, even if misguided. The lyrics of this song are very much influenced by this philosophy, with You Threw Me Away containing the most viscerally written lyrics on the album. I wanted this song to be as empowering as possible for myself and listeners. I tried writing as succinctly and simply by overusing personal pronouns to create an overt sense of self (“I was ____, You ____, I thought ____…”), to allow listeners an easier avenue to empathise. The result of this is that I’m accusing throughout a large portion of the song, which is something I don’t usually enjoy doing, but as its purpose is to set myself at ease I’m fine with it in the short term. I feel that this is a very irrational pleasure to have. In retrospect, there were a lot of things that I could have done to amend the situation so that I could at least feel better about myself, but I can also justify why I was wired to act in such a passive and meek manner. The chorus concisely summarises my initial emotive reaction to the whole situation. Part of the reason I felt so worried during this partnership was that I felt like I couldn’t offer anything to my partner. I was a young, poor, skilless teenager who couldn’t drive or afford to go out, and didn't have much going on compared to friends my age. From a very superficial standpoint it was clear that I had very little to give at the time, so there was always a fear in me that I would be discarded for such reasons. Of course, I wouldn’t think anyone would be that shallow as to judge me for my things over my personality. However it is apparent to me now that this fear was really enveloping who I was to this partner, and that shifted my personality to not be at my full potential, and thus, ultimately lead to being discarded for these reasons. The chorus details how dumbfounded I was as I’d convinced myself that someone would actually dislike me for what I could not provide, and how I assure myself that people who act that way simply are not good enough for me (“Look at you / You mucked up / You threw me away”). One of my favourite lines is “Still I’ll go / I’ll grow up / I’ll drive a car / I’ll move out”. It describes my fixation to attain some kind of independence during the Summer after high school. The situation that I was in definitely drove a desire to be more independent but even after the situation ended those feelings were still there, if dormant. I also love the line “Look at me look at you!” because it’s demanding acknowledgement for my emotive response, and that conveys so much insecurity. I had so much trouble naming this track. The impulsive project name for this track was “June July & August”, quite possibly because the timbre of the arpeggiated chords remind me of something frigid and cold, like winter. The day I decided on the final title was when my friend was telling me about the importance of a chorus, many months after I had started writing this song, and how it should summarise what the contention of the song is in a few words or sentences. The example he gave was the song ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley. I told him that while the chorus of the song should summarise the contention of the song, the title should convey the meaning in just a word or a few words, and we all agreed. From that moment (whenever that moment was) that idea lingered in my mind, and when I realised I needed a title for this song I stressed out because I didn't really have an idea. I looked into the lyrics and tried to find something that summarised the song in just a word, or a phrase, and “You Threw Me Away” did just that. The only scrapped title worth noting was “Bending”, but with the existence of ‘Crashing’ I decided against another “-ing” suffix in a title. I'll probably use that title for another Orange Orange track. This was the third song I composed for the album, but the second last that I finished lyrics for. I wrote the lyrics for the chorus around the same time I initially created the song, but because I was trying to relate to feelings that I had long dispatched, I had much trouble writing the verses. I asked Alex to draw a bird's nest for me because you could liken the subject that I am singing about to a bird that has left their nest, while I sit in the nest and wait. Influences: Kemosabe - Everything Everything: ‘You Threw Me Away’ borrows heavily from ‘Kemosabe’, which is one of my favourite Everything Everything songs for its potent lyricism and progressions. While they both the second full song on their respective albums and both have four choruses, the arpeggiated chords used in the verses of ‘Kemosabe’ influenced this song the most. The line “My neurons, they slow me” was directly influenced by “Do you feel like your brain’s stopped delivering?” in the first verse of Kemo. Olympic Airways - Foals: The section beginning around 2:17 in Olympic Airways directly influenced the verses of this song. The chord arpeggiation on the piano directly imitates two guitars tremolo picking harmonies, and the dance beat influences the similar, wonkier dance beat used for this song. Night of the Long Knives - Everything Everything: The beat of this song is super similar to the beat of Night of The Long Knives. I was mainly inspired by the dancey hi-hats and the kick drum rhythm, and how the beat is present throughout the whole song. My Number - Foals: One of Foals’s bigger tracks, this song just sounds good. The way the vocal is constructed in this song (with a lower octave harmony) always pleased me so I tried emulating that for my verses. Also, I mimicked the iconic hi-hat fill present throughout ‘My Number’ with a similar but cheesier crash cymbal. I love it. Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread - Everything Everything: This is an instant Everything Everything classic. The ending section is the lyrics “You are a thief and a murderer too / Stole the face that you wear from a craven baboon / ‘Cos you did it to her and you did it to him / And you did it before and you’ll do it again” sung at a rapid pace over an outro crescendo likened to the main chorus. When I saw Everything Everything live this ending section was the one part of the set that really had people dancing and crashing into each other, and it made me think that the mindless blaming in the lyrics were instilling belief and strength into the audience. This really inspired me to write lyrics that avoid rationality and just try to express everything I had built up within me, especially for a dance-y song like this one. Lyrics: I was floating and restless. Swiping down the stream. You charmed me out when I sensed no vitriol bursting at the seams. In the succession of moments we lived through, I thought it was a dream. But, my neurons, they slow me, I’m running out of steam. Now, you tell me to wait for the moment. Throw my sword into the sea. So I succumb to play with my thumbs. It’s what I wanna be. In the past, I told me, “It’s all in my head, don’t worry.” But now I’m so… so dumbfounded. Not worth my time. Still I go, “I’ll grow up. I’ll drive a car, I’ll move out.” But look at you. You mucked up. You threw me away. And there you go, shaped by the world. Life is but a race. And here I am, fanging for you, clinging to my faith. “Why won’t you stay home and soothe my bare bones?” Is what I’d rather say. But you work so hard, and straight-forward. Push me out the way. In the past, I told me, “It’s all in my head, don’t worry.” But now I’m so… so dumbfounded. Not worth my time. Still I go, “I’ll grow up. I’ll drive a car, I’ll move out.” But look at you. You mucked up. You threw me away. I always thought that you went so much deeper, you petty little skunk. And I thought our ribs could coexist. I’m grieving like a monk. But, I get it, you human. So young and hungry. You want to reap from the world for your being. It’s what you wanna be. In the past, I told me, “It’s all in my head, don’t worry.” But now I’m so… so dumbfounded. Not worth my time. Still I go, “I’ll grow up. I’ll drive a car, I’ll move out.” But look at me look at you! You mucked up. You threw me away. In the past, I told me, “It’s all in my head, don’t worry.” But now I’m so… so dumbfounded. Not worth my time. Still I go, “I’ll grow up. I’ll drive a car, I’ll move out.” But look at you. You mucked up. You threw me away. Artist - April Whitmore: The first stanza of lyrics I wrote for You Threw Me Away was the chorus, as melody for the chorus came to me very quickly. The only issue was that I could not comfortably sing this melody. This is where the lovely April Whitmore comes into the mix. I first saw April as she was performing in the now-defunct Eat Pant, and I instantly loved her voice and how she projected herself, so she seemed like a perfect fit. She was very professional about everything and I am very happy with the way the chorus came out in the end. Her current band 'Janada' is superb, I thoroughly suggest you check them out. CYA next week.
- R
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I just wanted to go over where I'm at with my music and how it's all going, because it's been over 6 months since my last release and I'm itching to put something more out soon. I have some tracks that are pretty close to being released into the world, but I also have some that are waiting in the hangars to be deployed. I'm not sure what format it will all come out as eventually, but these ones I will talk about will eventually come out soon. 2020 was strangely one of my most productive years as an artist, and I’ve created a whole bunch of songs across a whole array of styles (and artists!). I think being able to block out the business of the society I am in helps a LOT. I could just focus on recording and being productive in that manner. My most productive period was from the middle of March 2020 to the end of May 2020, I wrote about 5 projects for uni (most of which I’m repurposing for Orange Orange), two or three Orange songs and a whole EP of Plaza-Trg songs with Harry. It was so wonderful! I need a productive time like that again soon. Anway, here are the tracks, in order of when I made them! Singapore a Distance I wrote this at the end of 2019. This track is quite a departure from the style I’ve developed, as it’s quite bubblegum-pop-esque. It’s quite a standard song structure but I think it works well. I’ve recreated a sound that sounds a lot like a sound from the Warioware DIY sound palette, which is cool! I don’t have lyrics for it yet. I do have quite a soft spot for this song and I hope I end up using it in the future. The World Gets Quiet I had this idea for a song about enjoying the quiet moments in life at the start of 2020 but I couldn't really progress any further than that. Once lockdown hit... I got quite a lot of inspiration as the whole world actually went quiet. I spoke about this song in one of my past blog posts but I’ll say it again. It started life as this upbeat indie song – planned to have this weirdly intricate beat that would be played on a drum kit. The energy that the drum beat brough was so strange and did not match what I was envisioning, so I thoroughly tweaked it to be more unique, more electronic and more open texturally. I felt that a lot of music I had been working on had been texturally thick and could be too much to handle, so I thought to arrange something simpler. I really like this song a lot. I recently re-tracked the vocals with my good friend so hopefully it can come out sooner than later. Friends in 2D I focused my university folio in the first lockdown about living in lockdown and the different interpretations and emotions people had. For Friends in 2D, I was responding to my friend’s artwork that she’d made about a series of pubs by writing about longing to be in a social setting like a pub. I was going through a little guitar phase, and this song was something I made on a guitar tuned down a half-step. I’m writing about interacting with all my friends on ZOOM and Discord and not being able to see them physically directly, only being able to see them in 2D, hence the title. It’s pretty calm but I haven’t really worked on production too much. This song needs a bit of work. You Only Do So Much I wrote this during “the great era of Orange Orange songwriting” during that first lockdown. It was totally unattached to any uni work I was doing though and was just this fun jingle I created. I was really getting back into my indie guitar roots with Born Ruffians and wanted to do this very upbeat, guitar focused song in 6/8. I used to write so much guitar music in 6/8. I miss those days. So far the production is quite lo-fi but I’m secretly quite attached to how unique it sounds. I probably won’t “upgrade” it too much. I’m still trying to figure out lyrics for this song but I think I might talk about lust and how it affects people, both greed and the sexual kind. I really enjoy this song. Waiting For Medium This was originally a doodle I did when I was waiting preparing for the livestream with Medium in April. Charles from Medium was intermittently in contact with me regarding if the streaming software was working so whilst I was waiting, I recorded this Foals-style guitar interplay along with some vocal chanting and stuff. I left it for quite a long time but I’ve come back to it recently, added a funky beat and I’m trying to make it work for a release. The arrangement is pretty different to everything I’ve done before so I’d be curious to see if it works! Saviour of the World I wrote this at the start of May 2020 taking the perspective of someone who couldn’t stand being in lockdown (you and I both knew quite a few people), talking about how bad things were not and the things to be grateful to still be there. It is very much an arrangement based on Foals-style guitar interplay but I think it is pretty cool on its own. I still think the production needs to be tweaked thoroughly, and possibly the beat production as well. I do think this is the best vocals I’ve ever written for myself which is good because on the whole I think I’ve been improving. I’ve played this song with my band at the last EP launch. CYA on MARZ This was the first song I wrote in the second lockdown and it’s quite Kid A of me. I had this really sparse drum machine phrase that was 5-bars long, and I based the whole song around that. I actually wrote the majority of the song on a piano, which is weird for me because everything either starts with production or guitar. Lyrically it’s about human bigotry and how it will probably be something that never goes away and it’s a little fantasy about the world ending because of this bigotry. I’ve had this music video in my head that’s this made-up fanfic of WALL-E, where one of the humans goes through the archive to see how they ended up on the ship, and becomes so disgusted that they get on an escape pod and leave the rest of humanity. After they leave, a comet hits the ship or aliens destroy the ship, whatever, what matters is that the last person alive is this person who has escaped. Maybe I should make a video for this song. This is currently my favourite song I’ve made and I can't wait to put it out. I also wonder how I will do this song live. Future Role I wrote this song with my inspiration being Sydney Miller’s ‘Out From the Inside’ so I tried doing something in 6/8. I made this cool synth patch in Ableton and played around with this simple chord change and eventually I made this song. It’s HUGE. I wrote it wondering what my future would turn out to be, especially what impact I’d want to make as a person, and what other people’s impacts would be. I realised this song would be great with Stella Farnan singing on it, so I asked her to sing on it and she did. I’m going to release this song pretty soon so I’ll go into more detail about it then. Granny Lands I wrote the beat of this song after listening to Everything Everything’s ‘Lord of the Trapdoor’ a lot, because Mike (the drummer) uses the 5/4 time signature to make his drum beat so interesting but simple. I put it in 6/4 and tried playing with space a bit more, and I also played around with this synth patch I made based on the bendy monophonic sound that’s used in Donkey Kong Country and the arrangement is my fave because of it. I got Sydney Miller to sing on it because my low voice just didn’t work for the whole song and it’s sometimes my favourite song too. Again, I’ll put this out soon too so I’ll go into more detail about it when it does. Diamante 2 This song has conceptually been in my head for quite some time – but it just doesn’t exist yet. I have a demo of sections that exists on my computer but I haven’t recorded anything substantial just yet. The lyrics are still coming together too but I think I will be writing about friendships. I do have high hopes for this song though! Breath This song is more akin to my past guitar-focused songs like Bigger Picture and Sickness Illness, which I haven’t done in a while. I made some pretty cool sounds through granularising a guitar part I made, and I elaborated on that. I then wanted to make the song slowly transition to this Huntly-esque doof music with demonic vocals. I’m excited to go a bit further with this one. I originally want to write a song about news anchors but over time I’ve decided not to do that, so who knows what I’ll write about. Longdeath Milk I was playing around with some synth-pad sounds and I combined that with this incredibly energetic drum beat and I made this song. I recently got fascinated with FM-synthesis patches and I successfully implemented this FM patch for the chorus and it sounds pretty darn good. The lyrics are about honesty but I’m retrying writing vocals because the first draft was a bit uninspired but I think it might become good. I really hope it does. The ending section of this song SLAPS so hard. Until next week,
- R
My dear friend Stella Farnan released her third single on last Thursday - Boxes. I'm so glad this joyous tune is out in the world finally.
If you've never heard of Stella Farnan before, quickly rectify that. She is one of the leading talents in my life, having written many beautiful songs that probably will live in my head forever. I really mean that too, because her songs are so memorable, so iconic, so tightly packed, so nuanced. It's so respectable, I really aspire to songwrite like her more. Her strong talents have not gone unnoticed, being shortlist as an artist to watch in 2020 by the AU review, and winning the Darebin Songwriters Award for my personal favourite song of hers 'Act Like a Party'. Stella and I are at a cafe eating a brownie and some chips - talking about Stella's (then) upcoming release "Boxes". Here's how it went.
Have some Chips!
I will have some chips, but then again, I'm having a little chocolate in between having some chips. Is this wrong? No no no... not at all. So this is the all-encompassing Stella Farnan experience... review... hang out... chat. Great! *Stella takes a sip of her large latte* Oh this tastes like... Carrot? ...more than just a coffee. Old shoe? Ooh. That's a good one. Alright, interview starts now. What do you think would be a better flavour - Old Shoe, or New Shoe? I mean... Old Shoe has the branding. New Shoe has no recognition. If you're eating something you wanna eat something that you could like boast to your friends about. What?! No no no, I'd wanna eat something that tastes really delicious! ...Sorry, I'm asking you the questions. I understand where you're coming from but that perception influences your taste as well, right? If you eating a $50 pasta and a $10 pasta and they taste the same, you're obliged to like the $50 pasta more because you made a bigger endeavour for it. ...Wait, that doesn't make sense. It doesn't prove my point at all! That's actually right because... I would enjoy the $10 pasta more because I'm only coughing $10 for a pasta that's as good as a $50 pasta. Bye bye $50 pasta... is there pasta that even costs that much?! I don't know, probably. Next question - did you stock up on lots of pasta when we went into lockdown? No... but I think accidentally there was one time where two people in the house both bought the same pasta. I think that's it. We had a toilet paper subscription though. Ohhh good! Although I think it was running out in the peak of the first lockdown. We were getting a lot of emails about stocks of toilet paper running out. It didn't affect our subscription though. Was that Who Gives a Crap? Yes. Oh I've heard they're great. Do you want some of my brownie? Oh man. I feel like you should eat it if you're enjoying it. Are you not enjoying it? But like, what if I was? Would you not eat it? Well, I have like a vague interest, but not a burning desire. But I feel that if you're enjoying it, I'm enjoying these chips. I feel that you'd enjoy it TOO. I could get myself one later! Eat it! Maybe I will then. It's just that the chocolate's a little dark, and the walnuts... I assume they're walnuts they might be macadamias, they taste like they've been in a plastic bag for a long time. Ah. Anyway, I just wanted to (finally) start this by complimenting you a lot. I wanted to talk about this performance you did in our first year of uni. You did a performance of Act Like a Party with Gab and Soren, and it had this free-form intro where Gab was vocoding your voice, and Soren was playing this drone-y synth noise. Yeah! Soren was playing bass. Was he? Yeah, like some kind of synth bass. I don't know, I didn't know what it was. Yeah, well that performance changed my life. That was the first performance where my jaw dropped. It might've been because I'd never seen you perform before but I knew you'd had written songs. I just remember at the end of that I was just like "guh!". Someone in our class filmed the whole thing and I just watch it a lot. That's so nice!!! I haven't seen it in a while though. I remember the mic kept falling down. Do you remember that? Very vaguely. That was so much fun. Yeah that's when I realised "Stella's good. Stella's gonna be big." When would that have been? Like mid-year 2018? I think end of year, like October I think. 2018 though! That was almost 3 years ago. Yeah wow, I played my first ever gig in September that year. No way! Was it a solo show? Yeah, I was opening for Rya Park at the Gasometer Upstairs. How was that? It was so fun, I had no idea what I was doing. I actually wrote half of my set for that gig. Oh man, I feel that. Do you play a lot of those songs now, still? Yeah I've had the same set for the past 3 years. Half of them were like songs I wrote as a teenager. I guess I was a teenager then too so all of them are teenager songs, and Act Like a Party was one of the ones I wrote. I had the verses for that song for such a long time though. Like when you were young? Yeah, the guitar part was something I made when I was "fyuckin ayround on a lyopp pyedal" - said with a weird voice to make fun of myself. Is that gonna be written out on the blog? Don't worry I'll find a way to put that in. I like, looped the guitar part, did a little vocal thing and then wrote the verses. Then I came back years later and just did it all, in one go. The lyrics all happened in one go too. Anyway, I digress. Thank you so much for remembering that performance. It was just so powerful! It was just like, Gab and Soren are the best and we went to Gab's studio that afternoon and he got it set up and got Soren on the synth bass. It's great, I really had to do was sing and play guitar. We got the performance good and then went and performed it. Well you did perform it good. I just wanted to get that out of the way because I really really enjoyed it. And frankly, it did make me think about want I wanted to do with live performance, and the different ways you could approach performing songs, even if it is the same song. That was the task. The ideas was that we were doing two imaginings of the same song, with the vocoder free-time thing and then we played with the band arrangement for the second half of the song... I think? I'm pretty sure that's what we did? Do it again! It's so good! Maybe we should! When we first started recording it we made this weird version that sounds pretty bad with vocoder-y stuff... We were just trying to do two things at once. I would love to release that version one day. Really! I would love to hear it.
Stella performing at the launch of her first single 'Love Spill'
Here's where I awkwardly segway to the next question. How long have you been writing music for? Like I know you've been writing songs for a long time, and I know Boxes has been around for a bit (we'll get to that later) and I assume you had a lot of other songs you've played and knocked around in high school. You've also showed me footage of you playing music in a band when you were in high school and younger. Does it go even further than that?
Yeah it does. I've always been writing song because I grew up in this house where there were instruments everywhere, and my parents were working in arts. I remember that I would always bash on the piano and always be making stuff up. You know when you were a kid and you can't really hold a guitar so it's just laying in your lap and you're just knocking it around? Yeah, I do. There was a lot of that. But it was like, I was writing stuff, I have a few old tapes and cassettes of songs we were writing together in the car. I had like a "band" with my dad and my sister when I was a child, like four to seven. We would just... apparently, I don't really remember the logistics of how it started but we would be eating some dinner and I would just be like "I NEED TO RECORD" so we'd go to my dad's little studio space out the back of the house, and we would just improvise on some old drums and guitars with my sister with the help of my dad, making everything stick together, setting up microphones and telling us not to scream too close into the microphone. We would just improvise, and it was just hilarious. Then he'd print them onto CD's and we'd get to decorate them. It was the best. That's amazing. Do you listen to those songs now at all? They're not really songs. It wasn't really me writing lyrics when I was five, like there's one song where I'm giggling amd doing fake burps. There's another one called 'Ants in my Pants' where I'm just saying "I've got ants in my pants." It's some infant shit. I feel like after a couple of years I had been listening to my sister's Kasey Chambers and Missy Higgins CD's and there's this one printed CD that I have that has two tracks. One of them is called 'Help' and one of them is called 'Need Some Help', and it's just me singing with this weird, twangey... thing that I must've taken from Kasey Chambers, and yeah, they're not real songs... what was the question you asked me again. I don't even remember. But I did have a similar thing when I was younger. There's a recording of me when I was four singing Poison Ivy with my dad. But because I'm four I'm not singing it, I'm tonedeaf and yelling and laughing along. I feel like that'd be the same experience as you had. Oh, 100%. There's nothing better than a four year-old kid just like, singing, and making sound, and learning about how their bodies make noises and exploring that. Yeah!!! So from there, where was the transition from baby wailing to where you were when I met you, the music literate, loveable- I decided when I was five or six that I was like "It's time I start learning an instrument" because that was what my big sister had done. But I feel very lucky because my parents never made me learn an instrument, like I felt it was time to begin. That's when I started doing piano, I considered saxophone. I guess around the same time I was slowly starting to muck around on the guitar. My dad plays the guitar and taught me a couple of chords. I don't really remember learning or practising guitar though, I never really had lessons. It was like a chord a year, really. And then... I was writing songs through high school... kind of all doing the singer/songwriter thing. I learnt percussion in high school too. But to be honest, I was a little unsure if I should study music after school, but I realised that I couldn't imagine myself not doing music. Once I started studying music I was relieved, because all my friends were doing Science and Arts... They were just really exhausted all the time. Yeah! And I was just having heaps of fun, learning so much. And like, I'd messed around in Garageband but I'd only downloaded Logic when I started uni, and it was really my first time properly thinking about production. I did the songwriting thing for ages and my brain kind of exploded when I found it. I think I went down the same path as you. But you were doing recordings in high school, right? Yeah, yeah I did. I talked to Soren about this actually. When we made those recordings I had a basic understanding of how it worked but I couldn't make it sound the way I wanted it to. When I entered that same course I was in the mindset of a singer/songwriter, like you. I feel like that stage of music making, like what you were doing in high school is the most exciting thing, where you have no idea what you're doing, you're just making some sounds. You not weighed down with what's right or what's wrong. Yeah you're not thinking about the EQ and what would sound good, you're just thinking about energy and what feels good. How sweet. And that's what it's like when you're four! And you're screaming into the microphone! That's like before you know what it sounds like, it just feeeeeeels good. Damn, that is fundamentally how we make songs. It's like "this feels good". Yeah, like I'm saying that as if something has changed. But nothing has. It's all just screaming notes. Yeah. Yeah... what was the point of this question? I don't know. I don't know either, let's take stock. Wailing baby... making sounds... making curated sound... songwriting. What was the first ever song you wrote? Oh damn... I don't really know. My house would a place where you'd be wondering around singing or humming something and people would join in with harmonies without you asking. The first shot at a kind of serious song was when I was eight, and I was playing a black Fender Stratt, which wasn't mine obviously. I had been listening to Avril Lavigne and I thought she was the coolest person ever, and I knew E minor and then I was just making up chords. What I was playing was like a minor 7 shape but just with my four fingers and I let the other open strings ring out. It's funny because I'm just playing the same chords now as I was back then. But I wrote this song name Blue Lorikeets, and I was talking about a bunch of cliches I heard from pop music but writing about opposites instead. But still to this day that song has one of the best hooks that I've ever written, and it's kind of sad. Did I already hit my peak? ...When you were eight? I still don't know how to spell Lorikeet now. I don't know how to spell that either... What does the hook go like? Uhhhhh! Something like *Ooohohohoo OOOOhoh. Ooohohoahaoho, oooOOOooh* Are you gonna use that in the future? I should! I like it. I wish I'd improved past then, when I was eight. I think you've improved with the stuff you've put out at least! Thank you Ryan! Thank you! I feel like I'm giving you long answers. Yeah, but that's okay! I'm really enjoying this. I was gonna ask you next about how do you go about making songs. I feel like for the two songs that I have out and the one that's going to come out... they were strokes of luck. They kind of just happened. I don't know if it was the perfect recipe in my brain and the weather, and if the light was right, and if I was wearing comfy clothes, but it all came out pretty quickly. Usually I would start writing on guitar, or... no most of the time I would start on guitar. Which is interesting to me because you started learning music on the piano first. Yeah! I dunno. Sometimes I'm playing on piano but my default is guitar, and messing around. Usually when I start writing, melody and harmony comes at once when I strum a chord and sing something. It just kind of happens. Every now then I have a melodic idea when I'm out and about and I try and voice memo melody and chords at once. I'm sure you've got many memos of like terrible, really windy recordings where you're trying to sing 5 notes at a time. I do that with drum beats sometimes. I'd go back to them and it'd just be like "DUHDUDUDUHDUDU" and I think "this is awful, but this must've sounded good at the time, why else would I have recorded it?" Absolutely. But yeah, I would usually write two sections of a song and then leave it for a couple of weeks, not out of trying to create space for the song but mostly out of necessity, like "I've run out time right now, gotta run". But then I'd come back to the song with a fresh mind and continue on. But in the last few years I've had much more fun producing stuff and finding a new song to mess around with and editing audio, finding whatever textures I can. Sectionally! That's interesting! I usually would come up with a section and ask like "Is this a verse? Is this a chorus?", just like a section with lyric with a vague idea or a theme as a part of that section. I don't think I've ever written a song where all the lyrics came last, but I definitely have a vague idea and then sit down with some pen and paper and work it out. Yeah that definitely makes sense. I like to come up with the lyrics or a partucular theme, or maybe a word or a particular sound, and I'd let that dictate where I should go, like what chord should be next? What vowel sound should come next? Damn... that's so thoughtful. ...So much for short and non-specific answers. I was actually gonna ask you next about playing with George Alice, and playing at the Yours and Owls Festival because I don't really know anyone who's been able to do that recently. It was so much fun! There was a rotating stage because of the restrictions, they had to spend an extra million dollars to implement it and they'd split the audience into four different zones. But yeah, the spage stun... the stage spun, the sound went in two ways. That's crazy. It was so much fun though! George is amazing, she's one of those freaks who sounds the exact same live as she when she sings on the record, it's so wild. And Dan, who plays drums, they're amazing, they're the best. Yeah that's...0 I was gonna ask if you thought that Wollongong was cool? Um... yeah, we were in a place called Thirroul, I think that's how you say it. We didn't really see Wollongong but we were in this wild BnB, and we were right by the beach but I didn't have time to go and check it out. But there was this hectic mountain-like rock face that was just right there and it was just totally beautiful. Yeah, it was... it was beautiful. We went to one cafe and it was great. Oh good! Regarding the festival... I know there's this one performance of the Beatles where they're playing inside like a boxing ring or something, in this collosseum-like setup, and after a song or two these roadies would rotate all the gear they were playing with to face another direction. I kinda imagine it was like that? It was like that but with a motor. It would do one rotation in one direction for a song and then it went the other way for the next song. Right, right. It was wobbly though, and it's already on this riser on wheels so it's already pretty wobbly as it was. There was this one song where I had start with my foot on a volume pedal, so I was balancing on one leg and then it STARTED. It jolted and that was scary, I definitely nearly lost my balance but I did not, which is good. That's crazy Stella. I'm glad you did not fall. Thanks. I've never met George and I don't really know anything about George... She's the best. She's so good, such a good writer, such a nice person. Very FUNNY. I like Stuck in a Bubble a lot. Yeah me too.
Stella and me :)
Okay, it's time to talk about BOXES.
Yes it is! I feel like I'm one of the few people in the world who've heard the original ukulele version of Boxes that was up on JJJ unearthed. From like, 2017, I was in high school. I had a version of Love Spill on there too. Yeah, I think your dad was playing on it. Uhh, I don't think he played on it. He did help record it, and he programmed the MIDI drums. Oh that's MIDI drums on the record? No way! Yeah, there are. This is not the actual version by the way, the actual version has REAL DRUMS. That was just a demo. It does show that those songs have been around for quite some time. I was listening to Boxes today for the first time in a while, I've told you this a thousand times already but it's really good and it sounds really good. Yes, thanks. I think this released version is a little different to the version you may have heard. I think the first verse is a bit different. Yes, yes. Well I'm excited to hear this final version when it comes out! Is this one of your more whimsical songs? Would you agree with that? Yeah! Yeah! I get a lot of optimism and positive vibes from this song, do you feel that? Yeah, yeah totally! I wrote this when I was 16, and I wasn't really a very moody 16 year old. I was really quite an optimistic kid, and I wanted everyone to have a good time. I was writing with the energy of being a little kid but wanting to take that outlook into the future. I was thinking of the song as like... your old teddy bear, it's like a comfort thing having that perspective. So it's working out as you're growing up, what level of optimism is useful and what level of optimism is diluded. I guess it was a reflection of where I was at during that time, or at least of me wanting to that holding onto that wide-eyed youthful excitement, even though it always was like that. That makes sense. The lyrics do reflect that. I would think that one of my favourite lyrics: "you showed me imagination / now i can't keep safe at night" reflects that. It's a great lyric, it's really thoughtful. Thanks! Yeah, it is just being a child, I guess, but in a warm-hearted way. And I was thinking of imagination in a positive way, I guess. Yeah I think of it as giddiness keeping you up at night. You keep getting ideas and you wanna build on those ideas and keep making things and it keeps you up. Optimism! It's good to be optimistic! Sometimes! Realistically optimistic! Yeah, some optimism is inappropriate but at that time it was the vibe. I get that. So then you wrote it. I guess you dwelled on it for a bit. Well, the story is that I woke up, and I hadn't got out of bed yet but there was an instrument within reach so I decided to play laying down, and I wrote the verse and the chorus and the anti-chorus and the lyrics all at once. I sat on that for a week and then I wrote the second half of the song which was the same structure, but I guess the first section of the song was about the past, and I was just feeling a bit nostalgic and wanting everything to be okay. I was kind of singing to my child self. Yeah, and the second verse does sing about those coming of age scenarios, like "what do we do with these boxes"? I dunno, I think it does! It's a little cringe... I felt like I was writing to my parents and my friends in the first part of the song, I had this friend who was going through this really shit time, and I was just sending out this plea to the people I care about, "promise me you won't forget to call". And in the second verse I was thinking about the people I hadn't met yet and I wanted them to know that I would care for them as well. Aw that's amazing! You were thinking about me before you mET ME! Yes! Please call me anytime! Anyway, yes. There we go. That's really funny, because you didn't really answer my question at all. Oh wow. Damn. So what did you ask? So you wrote the song. It's only coming out now, were you waiting for the right time to put it all together? Well, I was 16 and I didn't really know how to release music. Then when I was at uni I met our wonderful friend Soren, and he was like "Hey, let's record some songs!" Quick aside, do you want some brownie? Heck yeah. *Has brownie* See what I mean about the dryness? Mmmm... not the textures I was expecting, not bad though. Anyway, you met Soren? Yeah so, he was doing some work with the Teskey Brothers, and we went to their studio in Warrandyte. We recorded some drums over a couple of days, Boxes was one of the songs we recorded. And then we were just generally producing a bunch of songs, recorded them over what ended up being a couple of years, like on and off. It was just like, in little bursts, like a few days in a row of working all day until really late, and then we wouldn't touch them for ages. We just had heaps of fun, and I was learning what I was doing, and Soren was doing the same but he's just like a pro and totally incredible and really great at knowing what's next and motivating us to create. We just had the best time, and we've had so many cups of tea. There wasn't really a specific reason that we were waiting to put it out, it just happened that way. And then obviously last year we couldn't put the songs out because everything went on hold for us. But now it just happens to be when I'm putting it out. I'm finally putting out this song that's so old to me, but I guess because it was about a nostalgic feeling, that's kind of appropriate isn't it? That's a character arc I wasn't expecting. Amazing. Do you have anything else coming in the future? In that time I describe when I was recording with Soren that started in the middle of 2018, and that went on to each of our home studios and a bunch of other places... well we recorded an EP. It's produced by Soren, I have a few friends visiting to feature on some instruments, like Elena and Gab. It's mixed by Callum Barter who has worked on some of my favourite records ever, and mastered by Joe Carra who's just such a pro, so that's good! And then after that EP there's more music! Which I have heard some, just from the virtue of being at uni with you. It's so great and I really look forward to it! I'd say ditto! You showed a lot of amazing stuff too! *stella proceeds to continue to compliment me but i am too embarassed to type it out so i will pretend it never happened* Anyway... do you have any... other... side... things... coming? ...Can I say it? ...pshhhaw... I was lucky enough to sing on one of my favourite songs made by a lovely friend of mine recently, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say anything about it. It's this guy. Ehehehehe yes. I am excited for that. You sent through like the first or second take of what you sang and it was perfect! Did I? I just remember you saying "I'm more than happy to redo this later!" and then we never redid it. It was really good. And mix by Mike made you straight up POP. It's amazing. I'll send you the master when I can. I think I have it! Soren must've give it to me. It's coming out soon! I'm so excited! ME TOO! ~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay, now it's time for Quick Fire Song Time. You'll have to tell me what song you'd listen to for various kinds of scenarios. Oh fuck, this sucks, can I get my phone ready? Of course, of course. So first up, if you're in a car with your best friend and you're best friend's driving, what would be the first song you put on? First song? Yeah, and now you have to choose your best friend. I have many incredible friends. I am thinking immediately of Soren because we were just talking about him, and he drives me a lot of places and we always listen to music really loudly in the car. That's fair enough. Ohh... how many of these will I answer Charli XCX too... Maybe... I have so many songs, I'm queuing a heap of music in my head. I want the first one. I guess it does depend on mood... I think it's probably gonna be a Charli song... and it's probably gonna be off the new album, although Soren and I used to drive around to 'White Mercedes' a lot. I think it will be... nah, maybe it's 'Vroom Vroom', an older one. Maybe it's 'claws'... Nah. It's visions. Can I give you 5 songs as an answer? No. Then it's detonate. 'detonate' by Charli XCX. Alright great.
If you're getting an Uber home, and you're at the leisure to put your earphones in while the driver is driving. What do you listen to?
Tooootally depends. Am I coming home from a party? If you're coming home from a party I assume you're coming home with friends, and you're not coming home alone. Maybe you're coming home from Fitzroy or something, I dunno. Oh my god, I was on Brunswick Street last Saturday and I saw G Flip and Troye Sivan. Oh were they together? Yeah we walked past them. Oh that's so funny because we saw Troye Sivan riding an electric scooter the other day. It was one of those awkward moments where Gab was like "turn around!" and I repeated "turn around" and I turned around and he said "it's Troye Sivan on an electric scooter!" And just, someone was filming something and then Gab said that and the camera went up to Troye Sivan on the scooter and... yeah... anyway. I would just put on what I've been listening to recently, which would be the new Genesis Owusu album. I can't stop listening to the song 'The Other Black Dog'. I just love that album so much, the production is so cool. I will listen to that immediately.
Just quickly before we move on I just wanted to mention how much G Flip didn't want public attention from us so I just did a quick little salute and moved on, I thought that was something of note.
Yeah I had something similar once before too, I was in a kebab shop at 3am on Smith Street, and Nai Palm from Hiatus Kaiyote was there, and y'know, the situation was that it was 3am at a kebab shop. It was kinda pumping though, and I felt the need to express my love for her music but I didn't want to start a conversation and be annoying, so I just saluted her across the room. And at first she was like "Are you looking at me?" and then she got what was happening and she saluted me back! I was ecstactic. Oh that's so good!! That must've been so good. Anyway, what's next... When you're angry! When you're feeling mad. What do you listen to to let it out. I want to listen to something really loud in my headphones, or dance around to 'Hurry on Home' by Sleater-Kinney. Maybe something with some big drums though.
Okay! I like this one a lot. You're babysitting, and the three-year-old wants to listen to a song. What do you put on?
Okay so this is funny and I was recently thinking about this. I think Boxes sounds like a children's song, it's like made for kids isn't it? No swearing, it has a bouncy tempo. One time when I was babysitting I did put on some Japanese Wallpaper and the kid was totally jumping around and into it. I think we were listening to Fooling Around? I was gonna say, Fooling Around would've been so good. So would you say Fooling Around or Boxes? Hmm, something else a bit more heartwarming. Ooh! Maybe some Merk. He makes Casio Pop and it's just fun. Okay. Okay.
What about your pre-date meditation song?
*scoffs* pRe-dAtE mEdItAtIoN?* Well y'know, some people need music to get them in the zone for their date or whatever. Are we thinking something meditative? Well, something to get you in the right mindset. Maybe I'd listen to some Angel Olsen. But like, something off All Mirrors. What's the one that's like "doomdoomdoomdoom". Oh wait, that's something else, not that. I'll just play from the start of All Mirrors. I'll put the whole album in.
Soren said the Aldous Harding album.
Oh that's so good! I'd put on Aldous Harding too. I'll put that up too.
But maybe... okay... pre-date meditation... meditation.
See, I would've said something like The Strokes. ...But that's not meditative! Yeah well it's like, it's not like meditation like "ohm" it's more like being in the right mindset for the date and trying to feel good about myself. It's not strictly meditation! Oh okay, trying to feel good about myself... Maybe 'A Palé' by ROSALÍA.
Yeah I meant it more like how sports people listen to music that pumps them up.
Oh then I'd definitely listen to something loud. Maybe I'd listen to 'XS' by Rina Sawayama. Or Jessie Ware. I always put on 'Pretty Please' by Dua Lipa. Off her recent album? Yeah.
Oh yeah, that's a lot of listening homework I gotta do now. What would you play at the start of an exercise routine?
Um, I don't know. Depends what I'm doing. I've got like a dancing playlist that I'd probably put on. Maybe a lot of pop music, there's a lot of Charli on there. Well I'll link your playlist. That's so stressful, I don't want everyone stalking me on Spotify! I thought you wanted followers! AH. I'd put on 'claws' by Charli XCX. Sorry for doing so much Charli XCX.
Alright alright it's fine. This one is actually my favourite one, it's the song that you'd play at the end of the party so that everyone leaves and goes home.
I would put on Aldous Harding but I would hope that people would get into. I would put on 'The Weight of the Planets' or something like that? Oh... actually I'd put on 'What If Birds Aren't Singing They're Screaming', isn't that such a good title? It's so good!
And now we come to the final question. What was the last song you were listening to?
Yeah, it'd be Sarah Come Home by Allie X.
Well, that completes the interview! Thank you Stella!
I'm so sorry it was so long!
You can listen to Stella Farnan's 'Boxes' on Spotify, Apple Music, JJJ Unearthed, Bandcamp, and probably more places too.
Stella is supporting Tulliah at the Workers Club in Melbourne this Friday - you can grab your tickets HERE. |
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