“Garden-Variety Grief” feels both deeply personal and universally relatable. What moment or realisation first sparked the idea for this song?I wrote the song after my dad passed away. I was pretty messed up, and I was looking around me and noticing, for the first time, really how everyone in my life seemed to be going through something heavy. Loss is this universal thing; we’ve all been through it. But we’re still here, we’re still getting up in the morning and living our lives and even finding moments of beauty in the world, while also carrying the hard stuff with us. I think that’s a pretty wonderful thing.
You’ve described the track as “a sad/happy cry on the dancefloor.” How did you balance that emotional tension, between grief and joy, in the songwriting and production process?
I’m not sure I balanced it as much as careened wildly from one to the other! I think grief and joy exist in equal parts in the album; that’s what I was trying to capture because I think that reflects life after loss. There were lots of tears in the studio, but also lots of laughs.
The song is your first release from a full album produced by Anna Laverty. What was it like collaborating with her, and how did her approach shape the sound and emotional depth of the track?
Anna was amazing. A lot of the songs are super vulnerable, so I knew I wanted to work with a producer who I felt really comfortable around. Anna is such a sensitive producer and empathetic person; she really made space for the emotions of it all. She also had tons of great ideas right from pre-production through to mixing. The process was really collaborative.
The title “Garden-Variety Grief” is both poetic and grounded. What does that phrase mean to you now, having lived with the song for a while?
It’s a phrase that gets to how grief is so ordinary, so common. My grief is nothing special; we’ve all been through loss. But of course, your own grief feels unique, even isolating, because no one is feeling exactly what you’re feeling. No one is grieving the relationship you had with that person in precisely the same way you are. So to me, grief is kind of extraordinarily ordinary.
The video, directed by Nayomi Pattuwage, captures striking imagery, lamps glowing in the dark paddock. What did that visual concept represent to you?
We wanted to capture that idea of holding joy and pain together at the same time, of feeling like, even in dark places, there are moments of light.
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You’re taking this song on a Garden Tour across Victoria, performing in community gardens. What inspired the idea of bringing your music into those open, natural spaces?
The single is about finding light in dark times. For me, the things that help me do that are community, music and nature. So I wanted to find a way to bring all these things together on the tour. And the more I started exploring, the more I realised there are countless community gardens all over the country, with people coming together to build something really positive and special. I’m just stoked I get to hang out in broad bean patches every weekend!
You’ve toured across North America and Europe and shared stages with major acts, but this series of intimate garden shows feels quite the opposite. How does performing in that kind of setting change your relationship with the audience?
It’s really different, which I love. The shows are intimate, so I usually get to chat with most people after the set. There are usually lots of dogs and kids, plus the shows are during the day, out in the sunshine and amongst all the plants and trees and flowers. The shows feel more like a conversation with the audience, rather than a one-way thing.
Grief is often something people shy away from talking about, yet this song feels like an invitation to connect through it. What do you hope listeners take away when they hear “Garden-Variety Grief”?
Grief can be so isolating; it creates a distance between you and the people around you. When my dad died, I found that a lot of people really struggled to know how to talk about their own grief, or to ask about mine. At the same time, I think there’s a strange comfort in knowing that everyone has been through hard stuff; we’re all walking around nursing loss. They’ve survived it, and so will you. Maybe if we talked about it more, it wouldn’t feel so isolating. So I guess I hope that people take away some sense of solidarity.
Looking ahead, what can you tell us about the upcoming album, and how does “Garden-Variety Grief” set the tone for what’s to come?
The record explores denial in many guises: denial of how you really feel, denial after losing a loved one, denial about the future. There are songs in the vein of Garden-Variety Grief, with that 90s-influenced indie rock feel, and then there are also some vulnerable alt-folk tracks. I hope people will find that there are moments of darkness and grief, as well as moments of light, humour and resilience.
Upcoming shows:
15 November – Springdale Community Garden Curlewis, Australia
22 November – Secret VIP show Melbourne, Australia
11 April – Mirrorball Ministries West End, Australia
Tickets and information at: https://www.annasmyrk.com/
