Where are you from and where are you currently based? I grew up in Woodford, Queensland and am currently based in Nashville, TN, USA.
What’s it like living in Nashville and how’s the music scene at the moment? It’s great here – It’s a thriving creative scene with lots going on beyond what people think of as ‘Nashville Music’ People move here from all around the world to be a part of it so there’s a lot of transplants like myself. There’s a lot of different genres and such especially in the East Nashville scene.
How did you first start playing music? I played music from a very young age. Dad was a musician and singer and Mum was an avid music lover so I grew up surrounded by it.
Your latest single ‘Morning Stars’ is out now, what or who influenced the sound and songwriting? When I wrote Morning Stars I was watching a lot of space movies at the time. I was trying to imagine how it would feel leaving the earth and saying goodbye to your family and friends. It’s a love song at its heart, it’s about all these things we build and create as humans yet sometimes we just need to take a breath and slow down.
How did you go about writing Morning Stars? I wrote it with my producer and friend, Kyle Henderson here in Nashville. I’ve worked with him on my last three albums and we’ve got a great working relationship. This song came together pretty quickly and effortlessly.
What does this single mean to you? It’s a personal song to me in ways yet I like the abstraction in it. Writing it I wanted to capture a sense of peace and calm. It was a song I was writing to my significant other yet abstracting out to larger, more universal themes. I hope people listening to it feel a sense of awe, calm and wonder when they listen to it.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who did you work with? I recorded it in Nashville with Kyle Henderson, too. Me and Kyle spent a solid six months or so working side by side on this album together. Writing, recording and producing it. Then I had it mastered by Ryan Schwabe. He’s a wizard who’s won a Grammy or two for his work.
How did you approach the recording process? We basically spent about four months writing 3/4 days every week for this album. Then once we felt we had a solid batch of songs to work with we began recording and producing them all which was about another two months process or so. The whole album is electronic so there was minimal other players needed. We’d have a base for a song and just work from that. It was a really cool experience as coming from a more folk/singer-songwriter background I’d never made an album this way. It was refreshing and had an aspect of play to the whole thing which was really fun.
Do you have any plans for shows in Australia? I’m hoping to get back to Australia later this year! It’s been over five years since I’ve returned. I’ve been putting in a lot of leg work here but would love to come home and play some shows hopefully on this new album release.
What’s your next project coming up? I’m going to put this record out mid year! It’s called ‘LIGHT/SHADE’ and I’m super fucking excited to release it.
What’s planned for the rest of 2023? Shows and more shows! The last few years I’ve been really focused on making Albums as the world was all a bit mad but now I’m ready to rip in and play a lot of shows this year. I’m itching for it.
Favourite food and place to hangout? Ooooo my go to’s here in Nashville would be Hearts and Cafe Roze for Breakfast/Brunch. Greko for fresh Greek food. For a classic style Burger I like Hugh Baby’s. For a hang out I love Jane’s Hideaway and the Five spot is like the church of East Nashville for music.
