Where are you currently based?
I’m currently living in an attic in Redfern, Sydney. I’m originally from Bundaberg QLD, then I lived in Ireland for a few years, returned to Australia and moved to Sydney.
Alley, the original RACKETT bass player and BFF influenced the narrative and the sound was influenced by Gold Frapp. My friend and producer Dave Hammer has worked with RACKETT from the start of this journey, producing my first single BATS in 2017. Dave came to me with an idea for a song that’s meaning was a double entendre, one being a street alley, a metaphor for choosing the path of love and the other one being about my friendship with Alley and everything we’ve been through as friends and band wives. The piano, melody and lyrics were the foundation for the song, then Dave worked his magic touch on production.
Dave started with the chorus ‘mumma to a bubba, bubba to the universe, go wonder madly’, from there, he created the piano part and we workshopped the verses. It was an emotional process, each time Dave would add something to it and I’d hear it, I would cry. The production on the track is so beautiful.
We recorded the song as part of an eight-track collection on RKT2.0 music, recorded and produced in Sydney across several studios. I’ve shared Machinations, Oxytoxic and now ILY Alley from that collection and have more to share over the coming months.
The video is a visual representation of what I see in my head when I listen to ILY Alley. All those memories come flooding back and I wanted to see if I could find physical copies of these moments. I searched everywhere, on broken hard drives, camcorder cards, Instagram, Youtube, to collect all these memories captured by me, friends and fans at shows. Once I had collected all the footage, I cut it together to reflect the way I experience it, chronologically, from when we lived together in a decrepit mansion as a band, through to the moment in the studio we found out Alley was pregnant and the arrival of baby Billy.
The most challenging part was feeling regret. That’s hard to admit because I love my new music so much and it’s not a reflection of regretting where I am now, but more regret for the friendships I’ve lost along the way. The most rewarding part is looking at all the insane creative concepts we brought to life from dressing up in space suits to shaving my head live on stage and all the hard work that went into constantly touring and releasing music.
Right now I’m listening to A$AP Rocky, 070 Shake, Charli XCX and Tina Turner. I like to listen to 80s ballads just to see if I can sing along and hit those high notes like Whitney Houston. At night when the city is empty, I like to climb this hill in a park near my house that overloads a driving range and the whole city and blast A$AP rocky.
To be honest there isn’t much of my life that doesn’t revolve around music, aside from sleeping and even then most of my dreams are of me talking to Miley Cyrus about music. If I’m not writing or performing myself, I’m working on a new TV show that’s about music.
Loud N Queer TV is aired every Friday night at 8PM on Heaps Gay Facebook. It’s a digital replica of my favourite night out; live music and drag queens, with performances by artists from all around the world and guest appearances in the studio. The show is an opportunity for local Sydney artists to be captured beautifully on film by the DPLR team from Create or Die Studios and gives audiences a high-quality experience and opportunity to discover and connect with new artists. My main role in the show is producing. We’ve had artists like Jess B (NZ), Jackie Mendoza (USA), Lupa J (AUS), Theia (NZ) and many more on the show. Karaoke, DJ sets by Charlie Villas, Dance-offs, drag queens, skits, interviews and news by Ruby Miles. It’s so much fun. You can watch all four episodes here > https://www.facebook.com/
For the immediate future, I’ll be continuing to produce Loud n Queer TV and making all my friends and family listen to ILY Alley. Throughout the year I’ll be releasing more music I made with Dave Hammer and hopefully be back on stage before Christmas.
My favourite place to hang out is at Create or Die Studios on set filming Loud n Queer TV and my favourite food is champagne (can I say that?)
