The Money War And FEELDS Pull Heartstrings On New Collaboration ‘Was It Ever Really Anything?’

Following their late 2022 release ‘Somebody Loves You’, Western Australia duo The Money War are starting the year their new single ‘Was It Ever Really Anything?’, out February 10. Collaborating with James Seymour, of Naarm/Melbourne project FEELDS, the track is laced with upbeat melodies, soothing tones and lavish production.

The Money War is the musical and romantic partnership of Carmen Pepper and Dylan Ollivierre. Making music together since 2016, the BMG/Mirror Publishing-signed pair have toured nationally with acts Meg Mac, Dope Lemon, Holy Holy and were handpicked by Neil Finn to open his shows.

With the familiar indie-folk stylings from The Money War, the dreamy elements of FEELDS seep through ‘Was It Ever Really Anything?’ to create a laid-back and inspiring track. As Dylan and James trade verses with Carmen, the drums sit back as the gritty blues guitar drives the single. Gorgeous harmonies are overlayed in the chorus as the slide guitar winds and cruises. The track then bursts out into a slide guitar solo paired with the oscillating synth, before closing with a vivid final chorus embellished by the layers of vocal lines from Pepper, Ollivierre and Seymour.

The single captures the bittersweet feeling of the closing of a chapter. With summery sounds, it is the perfect road trip song, with its warmth in instrumental. Lyrically, the track pulls at the heartstrings from the first line “You, You have got your mind made up. And there’s nothing I can say now. Nothing you can do now”. Ollivierre states:

“The song is about the end of something in your life – something that you once centred your world around, and questioning everything about it now that it’s gone.”

Pepper elaborates on the process and working with FEELDS.

“It was written in collaboration with FEELDS (James Seymour) while Dylan was in Melbourne at the end of 2022. I was back home in WA and Dylan called me after his day of writing with James and he was really excited about the song idea. They both loved the song, and so did I – I think there was a little bit of tension over who was going to claim it… They just needed another verse so that’s where I jumped in and it seemed natural to release it together.”

Over the years, The Money War have seen continued support from the likes of Tone Deaf, Rolling Stone AU, Blunt Mag, NME and The Music and in addition to playing local festival FOTSUN, their international popularity has put them on the stages of SXSW, BIGSOUND and Southbound Festival.

They’ve received a stack of nominations along the way, most notably having debut album ‘Home’ up for the Australian Music Prize. Finding themselves added to numerous playlists and on radio stations like Triple J, Double J, Triple J Unearthed,  BBC6, KCRW across the globe.

Amassing over 3 million streams on Spotify, FEELDS self-produced both his debut EP, ‘Hunch’ and debut album, ‘Cut Your Teeth’, the latter of which earned rotation on triple J and Double J. Seymour and his live band have shared the stage alongside the like of Gretta Ray, Didirri and Clea and is set to release more new music this year.

Between The Money War and FEELDS, they have probably already found their way into your head. If not, prepare for ‘Was It Ever Really Anything?’ to play in your mind daily.

Feel the last warmth of summer come to a close when ‘Was It Ever Really Anything?’ is released on February 10.