Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: I’m originally from Bradford, England – then moved to Australia when I was 8 and grew up in a place called the Gold Coast. I moved to Melbourne when I was 17 and then moved over to Boston for a couple of years when I was 20. Now I’m back in Melbourne after a brief stint in LA. So I guess I’m from a lot of places geographically.
Musically I come from playing jazz saxophone and keyboard. That was kind of my main thing for a long time, and I’d produce music on my laptop in my spare time. I went to university to study jazz performance and whilst I really enjoyed doing that and got a lot from it, I’d still find myself much more interested in making beats on my laptop. Choosing to have a career in music just kind of happened for me – it seemed like the obvious choice for me since I was a kid (I’ve always been the ‘music kid’) and I’ve been lucky enough to have been given enough musical opportunities so far to not have to consider doing anything else as a career.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A: I’ve had A LOT of formal training. 5 years of university to be exact – and I have a very interesting relationship with this aspect of my musical life. I’ve found as I progress more into the industry I’m seeing the ways in which formal musical training can really alienate you from the actual music. I think involving the logical brain so much in a creative process can lead to a lot of creative blockages. Essentially, whenever you believe there are ‘rules’ (which is the basis of most formal music training courses) it might close you off to exciting possibilities that may challenge those ‘rules’. I’ve spent a long time evaluating how to use my musical training effectively.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
A: The first music I really dived deep into was Metallica, Megadeth and Slipknot – I think cause my sister was really into them and I just wanted to be like her. It’s interesting to reflect on cause it probably influenced how I thought music should be constructed as it was pretty early in my life, so arguably they’re pretty strong influences too (even though aesthetically my music doesn’t sound/feel anything like those bands).
The strongest musical influences throughout my life that I can think of are Jai Paul, D’Angelo, Jon Hopkins, Beach Boys and BJ Burton. Those are some artists/producers that really affected the way I thought about songwriting, music and sound.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘Live In Pretend’. Is there a story behind it?
A: There is! I was sitting in my makeshift studio in the kitchen of my partner’s parents’ house at the dawn of covid, making beats on my computer. I feel like I asked myself the question – ‘why do I always make chords with an instrument?’ – so I decided to chop up some audio I sampled off of an instagram live and let my ears guide me to what the song was supposed to sound like. The lyrics and melodies came in a very ‘flow state’ kind of way – I was really into an idea the my partner Lauren had written into a short story: the idea that at the end of our lives we all turn into a ‘cosmic dust’. I thought the chords felt pretty ‘univers-y’ and cosmic/milky way type vibes so with that idea in mind I thought it would be cool to write a song loosely about the expansiveness of our experience here on earth. I think I sung the melody in 3 part harmony cause I wasn’t a super confident singer at the time and it felt less exposing to have constant harmony going, but that ended up being a really crucial part of the identity of the song. Writing from a place of instinct and coming out with this song showed me that following my instinct with no predetermined idea of a destination can be incredibly productive and satisfying and I feel like this song was my entry point into accessing that place
The Lido feature on this song came a few months later. He was doing livestreams on Instagram where he reviewed people’s songs so I sent him this one and another instrumental I’d made a few months before. He replied to my email with this: “yoooo I really love Live In Pretend. you should let me mess with the stems if you’re open to it.”. From there he did some ad prod and added his verse and we ended up where we are today.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: Yes, many in my lifetime, but more imminently, I have an EP coming out in February next year called ‘Feelings Worth Living For’ which I’m so excited about releasing.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: I think my music feels honest and human, but also interestingly at the same time otherworldly. The songs come from a very honest/human place but the production feels like its own living, breathing thing. I think Live in Pretend is a good example of this. Human life through an alien lens.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: At the momentI think the music gives me more fulfillment than the amount of work I put into it to be honest. Music is like magic – as is creativity in general – and I’ve definitely worked hard to cultivate a love for the process that is detached of commercial success/results. I think that depending on external inputs for fulfilment is a slippery slope so I’ve tried my best to stay away from it and I think that regardless of whether my music is ‘successful’ or not, I’ll still be making it in 20 years.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: My creative process fluctuates, which I think is what keeps it so exciting. Recently, I’ve been gravitating towards writing an entire song before touching a computer – which usually leads me to a stronger song than starting writing at the computer with production tools available. But I think starting at the computer opens you up to finding sounds that inspire writing choices that you wouldn’t ordinarily make. I think shaping ideas into a completed song also takes many forms for me – there are some songs that I’ve completed in one day and never changed and there are some songs that have taken me years to find the final form of. I think the only thing that I try to keep as a constant in my creative process is approaching everything with curiosity rather than judgement. Now that we have computers with lots of space for data, as long as you’re good at saving multiple versions of songs, theres no harm in trying out lots of different possibilities for one song.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: I think the most difficult thing I’ve had to process in my life so far was a time a few years ago when I broke the trust of someone I really love. It forced me to confront a lot of painful things including the possible break down of a few important relationships in my life, but on the plus side it also lead me to process and understand a lot of my own behavioural traits that had become destructive in that particular scenario and over time. So whilst it was a really painful experience for everyone involved, and I have a lot of regrets tied up in it, it lead me to doing a lot of important work on myself.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: I think right now is a pretty significant point in my life to be honest. I think it’s the first time I’ve truly loved and respected myself and have what feels like a clear perspective on my own life. I’ve learnt to prioritise the things that make me happy over the things that society has told us that we want/need, and that’s lead to way more peace in my life than I’ve previously had. It feels significant because I feel equipped to process what ever is coming up in the future with an open mind, so for the first time in my life the future doesn’t feel so daunting.
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