From Stockholm to Stockerz

My new EP is out in the world and there are gigs in Melbs to celebrate :)

Oct 31, 2024

Hi lovely people,

I’ve had an excellent time playing a few shows around Europe the last month. Thanks to all the beautifully attentive listeners from Copenhagen, Berlin and Cologne – some who have joined us here :) It was fun!!

Stockerz is out of the bag!

Today is the day my EP ‘Stockerz’ is released into the world – a collection of melodic, experimental pop-songs that house my explorations from the year I spent living on an island in Stockholm in 2022-23.

Shortly after arriving in Stockholm, a fellow Aussie referred to our new home city as ‘Stockerz’ and I quickly adopted it as a personal shorthand – not just to name the city, but to somehow claim and personalise this new bizarre new life I was now living. Stockerz became the island, the snow, the everyday walks around the island sending voice messages to friends back home, the 2pm sunsets, the sensation your ears get when you wear headphones for too long, and the feeling of being far away from home and not really knowing where things are headed (see image above).

I would walk past this swimming spot on the island everyday - if you dare go swimming when it looks like this….

In amongst this space I was attempting to try some things musically that I hadn’t done before: sampling, using the computer as a compositional tool, (which involved coming to terms with watching too many ‘hey guys’ tech bro youtube videos), and accepting my love of singing (which I had always enjoyed, but perhaps never fully accepted as ‘my instrument’).

I wanted to frame these musical explorations in a time and place – a document of the time I spent living in Stockerz, working on music in the bedroom overlooking the water…

Seasonal variations on the view out the bedroom window

In a way, the idea of the container of the Stockerz EP was created before the music was made to fill it. I told my housemate Toby (the mushroom guy) I was making an EP that I hadn’t written yet but had decided to call ‘Stockerz’. Most people I mentioned this to thought it was a stupid name (coz it is) but Toby totally got around it… When I would come downstairs to the kitchen, he would ask me how the EP was coming along and continuously come up with variations on the ‘Stockerz’ title… I recall ones like ‘Taking Stock…(holm)” but my favourite was “Bringing It All Back ‘Holm” Lol! Not sure Bob would approve…

The Stockerz EP is a snapshot of some things I’d never really tried before: Improvising with autotune and deciding it was worth being a track as is (A Vague Gestural Brushstroke of a Possibility), beginning composing by tapping on a mushroom (Mushroom Pinecone), sampling voice messages from friends back home (Voice Memo), quoting a line I heard Caroline Polachek say in an interview about the process of making and releasing music (Evidence of Bravery), making a track with only samples of my own voice and samples of my friend Max playing saxophone (Wake Up), and allowing myself to write an unashamedly vibey optimistic song telling myself everything is gonna be ok (Slow Grow). And ofc there was much more crap that didn’t make the cut.

I couldn’t have done it without a huge amount of (moral, technical and musical) support from Stikki aka Nick Roder. He played guitar and bass on the EP and also mixed it and did some additional production. Legendary guy.

And a big thank you to all my beautiful friends and collaborators who contributed: Max Dowling (saxophone on Track 3, saxophone samples, mastering the EP), Josh Barber (drum kit on tracks 3, 4, 6), Lewis Coleman (bass on track 3), Amalie Dahl (saxophone on track 4), Oliver Nehammer (recording my piano on track 6, production advice), Nis Bysted (some fruitful production/composition exercises), George Bendall (design queen) and mum aka Elizabeth Newman (artwork).

Voices on Track 1 thanks to dear family and friends - Despina Sahinidis, Siobhan McKenna, Georgia Gamper, Jon DiNapoli, Tess Nettlefold and Claire Cross. (Those messages kept me sane).

You can listen to the EP on the platform of your choice here.

And/or buy on Bandcamp here.

Now it’s in your hands. I hope you enjoy :)

And now! For all you Melbournians out there, I have 2 exciting gigs coming up.

The big gig: Stockerz EP Launch

Sun 15^th December @ Northcote Social Club

I’ve really gone for the big beautiful band energy and absolutely cannot wait to play this new music in my hometown with this quite frankly beasting line-up (from all over the bloody globe)!!

Claire Cross – bass
Josh Barber - drum kit
Flora Carbo – saxophone
Max Dowling - saxophone
Nick Roder - guitar, vocals
Merinda Dias-Jayasinha - vocals
Yours truly on vocals and keys

Plus an opening set from Imogen Cygler who will perform her delightfully witty, beautiful songs in trio form with Flora Carbo and Rob Downie. I have listened to Imogen’s album ‘Sometimes Strangers’ a lot, and feel super inspired by the way Imo does things her way. It’s music that makes me smile. Check it out!

If you are keen to come, please grab some tix! That would be so dope and make me happy.

Buy tix for Stockerz EP Launch

If you are facebooker, here is the facebook event.

The small gig: Solo Sets @ High Note

Sunday 17th November 3pm

Stikki and I are joining forces to put on an intimate little afternoon gig at High Note in Northcote. Stikki aka Nick Roder has been working on a really great solo set with acoustic guitar, contact mics and electronics…and maybe a little angelic voice in there too. I will be performing my solo set – full of samples of my voice, saxophone samples and Stockerz songs in alternate forms.

There are only about 50 tix for this one, so it’s essential to book.

Book tix for Solo Sets @High Note

Enjoy this freaky poster we made on Keynote of all places. (I love eggs)