Just over a year after supporting Kota the Friend on his Australian tour, local talent Chanel Loren has released a single featuring the American rapper. “Carelessly Doomed” is a cool alt-pop track that perfectly showcases Chanel’s signature soulful vocals.
“‘Carelessly Doomed’ is an intimate conversation to myself about owning my overthinking and perfectionist tendencies (which I do a lot!). It’s me consciously trying to let things go and accept the process – even if it scares me. I’m in my ‘Que Sera’ era,” Chanel explained. “The feature with Kota The Friend happened really organically. I opened for him on tour at the end of 2022 and we got along super well. Shortly after I started teasing ‘Carelessly Doomed’ and he heard a snippet and immediately DM’d me asking for the instrumental. The rest is history!”
2023 was a massive year for Chanel. She was named an Acclaim All Star, received an ARIA nomination for best soul/R&B release, played Souled Out festival, SXSW Sydney, and The Great Escape in the UK, and also supported IDK, Sudan Archives, and Masego. With this release though, 2024 is shaping up to be even bigger!
Doctor by day, alt-pop/indie artist by night, moonsea is full of surprises. Her latest is “Violins,” a dreamy, romantic ditty that is bound to captivate you.
“I’ve always been the sort of person that falls in love fast and completely. It’s quite the health hazard,” moonsea joked. “With this song, I wanted to take those feelings of infatuation and desperation and ramp them up to the extreme. My idea for the instrumentation was romantic symphony meets indie rock band, and I really love how seamlessly it evolves from one to the other. The last lyric ‘Please look at me!’, pretty much sums up what this song about at its heart; the deep and terrible need to be seen.”
This beautiful single comes with a gorgeous music video, which moonsea filmed on a Sony Handycam in San Diego and her hometown of Naarm/Melbourne, then edited flawlessly. Talk about a creative talent!
Eora/Sydney-based indie-rockers The Buoys have just dropped their emotional new single “Guard My Heart.” With its raw, relatable lyrics and infectious melody, I know you’re going to love this one.
“I think my favourite thing about ‘Guard My Heart’ is how it has shape shifted over time to have several meanings to me personally,” said lead vocalist Zoe Catterall. “Originally written to guide me through my first ever break-up in 2016, over time it became an anthem for the heart-wrenching best friend break-up for me, and the more I listen to it, the more I realise it’s a biiiig hug for when you have to let someone go for better or for worse, to protect your own heart and maybe even theirs too.”
“To me, it’s about reckoning with how to get on with your life in spite of everything feeling irrevocably different post-break-up,” added lead guitarist Hilary Geddes. “We hope it offers comfort and catharsis – there’s space in this song to feel both utterly liberated AND fit in a little cry in the chorus at the same time.”
The Buoys have got stacks of cool gigs on the horizons, including headlining shows and choice festival slots, so make sure you get out and see them when they’re visiting your city.
Boorloo/Perth-raised, Naarm/Melbourne-based artist Wesley Fuller has just released his trippy new single “The Velvet Affair.” This psychedelic inspired pop number is bound to make you nostalgic for the late 60s, whether you were there or not!
Wesley might not be a household name yet, but he’s making some serious waves around the planet. He was discovered by legendary English A&R man James Endeacott, the same guy who discovered The Strokes and The Libertines. He signed Wesley up to his 1965 Records label and released a critically acclaimed EP and album. On the strength of those he toured across Europe and the United Kingdom. Which brings us to the now!
“The Velvet Affair” is the latest track lifted from Wesley’s forthcoming album All Fuller No Filler, which drops on March 15.
It’s hard to believe I’ve been following the career of former Perch Creek singer-songwriter Eileen Hodgkins for roughly as long as this blog has been in existence. With her siblings they seemingly did it all, releasing a few albums, playing all the big festivals here and around the world, and even appearing on Spicks and Specks. But now she’s on to the next phase of her career with her latest band Eils & The Drip. Their latest single “Easy Rider” is a nostalgic alt-country tune that sounds like a classic from the first play.
Eils & The Drip are already on the right path to replicating Perch Creek’s success, releasing a few singles and playing key festivals like Boogie, Brunswick Music Festival, and Queenscliff. They’ll celebrate their latest single with a launch show at Shotkickers in Naarm/Melbourne on March 15.
Image used with permission from Dave Laing Publicity
As we watch another crop of Australian Idol hopefuls step up to impress the judges, it’s only natural to think back and wonder what became of some of the winners of the past? Are they still making music, or have they been forced to trade it in for a corporate career. Wes Carr is still living the dream, albeit under a brand-new moniker. Now recording as Wesley Dean, he relocated to Nashville a couple of years ago to hone a more country/Americana influenced sound. His latest single “Gunslinger” shows that he’s still got the goods.
“’Gunslinger’ is an exploration of what it means to be a man struggling with the masculine identity passed down from father to son,” Wesley explained. “The opening lyric, ‘Dead man walkin’ before his life begun, since his daddy taught him how to shoot a gun’, refers to the stoic mindset a man can be born into that’s perfectly portrayed by the outlaw archetype. On one hand, I identify with being an outsider and doing things my own way with all guns blazing, but on the other, the emotional isolation of an outlaw who isn’t allowed to acknowledge their vulnerability and ultimately ends up being ‘hung by the same rope that took his daddy’s life’ is something I wanted to highlight in this song.
“I believe isolating patterns of behavior can be broken when we become conscious of them, but sometimes we have to go through a dark night of the soul to wake up to our personal power. And I don’t mean macho, egoic power, I mean the empowerment that comes from having the ability to make a new choice when faced with old ways of being. Some men repeatedly surrender to what they know, which is where the line, ‘And there ain’t no turning back he was born in these bones’ comes from, but I hope the discussion around ‘Gunslinger’ will inspire men to take a deeper look at the intergenerational trauma impacting their lives, and initiate a self-awareness that gives them freedom to have more connected relationships with themselves and others.”
Wesley has just capped off his Crazy Hearts Across America tour, which saw his driving more than 5,000 miles from Nashville to Los Angeles in an RV. Footage captured on this epic journey will form his upcoming feature film, Crazy Hearts: The Documentary. Along the way he also took time to shoot the epic video for “Gunslinger” in Joshua Tree National Park and Pioneer Town. You might not have heard his music for a while, but releases like this let you know that this former Australian Idol still has plenty of musical tales to tell, no matter what name he’s recording under.
Order of Owls are back with a rocking new track “What Becomes.” The follow-up to “Speak Up,” the band’s latest single builds upon their commitment to putting mental health front and centre.
“Where ‘Freedom(ination)’ presents the hopelessness and fragile state of mind one can find themselves in and ‘Speak Up’ is the first action one must take to overcome this adversity, ‘What Becomes’ is the next step on the mental health journey,” lead vocalist Tim Leopold explained. “It asks the question: We have overcome many issues and are on the path to our better selves. But what is next? What becomes of the healed? What choices do we make now, and how do we not fall again? But more importantly, now we have seen both sides. How can we stop that cycle from happening on a large scale?”
It spreads a powerful message, but beyond that it’s got an incredible sound. It’s been far too long since I heard a song with a great guitar solo, but special guest artist Jake Webber reminds us how incredible they can be. The band filmed the music video for “What Becomes” at Aradale Lunatic Asylum, rumoured to be the most haunted place in Australia.
“The first thing I was told when I turned up to the shoot was that the site didn’t have power, I couldn’t help but laugh,” recalled Order of Owls’ guitarist Nathan Mesiti. “Luckily, we were somewhat prepared for this situation and managed to squeeze enough out of a little petrol generator and Ramon’s van with an inverter. I really do mean squeeze. The generator kept cutting out and struggled to run the haze machine at half power with the lights. That made for a lot of fun when we lost the daylight and struggled through the dining hall shoots, plunging us into complete darkness every 20 minutes. When you’re in rural Australia and the light pollution is non-existent, that particular darkness was unsettling.”
Eora/Sydney-based bedroom creator Lee Sugar has just dropped the video for his dreamy single “One Too Many.” Take a moment to relax and settle into the groove of this one. It’s very cool.
Lee says the song is “a reminder to trust your gut and grow through the acceptance of both your strengths and weaknesses.” As for the film clip, which sees Lee living his best life enjoying the best choreographed karaoke ever, he said “Honesty is the directive for this music video. Sydney cops a lot of flack for being stale and I’m guilty of perpetuating the sentiment, but let’s flip the narrative. ‘One Too Many’ is an honest song that hits close to home so it only seemed right that the video romanticised my city in some way. Sydney, sorry for all the times I said I hated you, I actually love you, you just suck sometimes.”
If you’re admiring the cover art, take note: it’s Lee’s work too. Is there anything this guy can’t do?
Claire Anne Taylor has one of those female voices that you just don’t hear in 2024. It’s raw, earthy, weathered. Richly textured, hinting at a life that’s been lived. Above all, it’s utterly unforgettable. The press release describes it as “the voice of Tasmania.” If that’s the case, I’ve got to listen to more of the women making music in Tassie. Take a listen to her latest song “Lay You Down in the Cold Hard Ground” and you’ll hear exactly what I mean.
This song comes from Claire’s album Giving It Away, set for release on February 16. “This album is a deeply personal one for me, and comes from a huge time in my life; following my son’s diagnosis with Angelman Syndrome. I guess you could say I took all my grief and anger and put it into my music and this has been my therapy and an escape of sorts.”
Claire will give music lovers plenty of opportunities to see her play in the coming months. Make sure you catch her when she’s in your hometown.
When I heard “Chapters,” the latest single from Eora/Sydney band 51st Avenue, a few days ago I was blown away by the way the band played with different sounds. Determined to learn more, I caught up with the band to learn more about the songs that helped inspire their latest single.
don’t sleep, repeat – 44phantom (feat. Machine Gun Kelly)
We really loved the upbeat nature of this track. Most of our tracks to date have had a slower sense of beat so when first creating this song we knew we wanted something more driving.
hurricane – 44phantom
Yeah so we were definitely going through a 44phantom phase but the tracks are too good! We loved the energy from the chorus. From this we drew inspiration and tried to create a chorus that was both driving and groovy.
love or chemistry – nothing, nowhere
We really liked the electronic verses for this song and this created the inspiration for our first verse. We thought it would be cool to have the song start like most of these tracks with a guitar part followed by an electronic drum beat.
acting like that – YUNGBLUD (feat. Machine Gun Kelly)
Once again this song has a similar vibe to the others, upbeat and driving. We really liked the double handed hi-hat groove for the chorus in this song. We ended up using the double handed-hit hat for the 2nd verse to help create more drive through the song and to give a contrast to the first verse.
“Chapters” by 51st Avenue is available now on all your favourite streaming services. Here it is again in case you missed it, or just want to hear it again!
Eora/Sydney-based bedroom creator 
