I hope that everyone had an excellent holiday season at the end of 2021! How nice it is to unwind after losing oneself to the often relentless routine of usual everyday life in replacement of asking repeatedly – which day is it again? That lovely week between Christmas and New Year – lazy days heading to the beach, where reading books feels like a possibility and the latest Netflix series is gobbled up let alone the vast quantities of good food and drink consumed.

I had an excellent start to the New Year and one day in particular stands out. A small group of us, early in the morning, walked/waded over to Penguin Island at low tide where we proceeded to snorkel, swim and in general explore. It was one of those WA summer mornings – gentle breeze, hot and gorgeous. I sometimes cannot quite believe how tremendously beautiful the WA coast is – it’s hard to capture in photos – seeing is believing! Anyway – upon our return, I looked at my phone and noticed an email had come through. The email was the very happy news that my application for funding for an album project had been approved by the WA Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries! I whooped and sang in joy – briefly scaring my friends in the process (words truly did escape me for a few minutes)!

Over the past couple of years since the release of my last album, I’ve been steadily writing, composing, experimenting with different textures – perhaps if you’ve been to some of my shows you might’ve heard a few of these compositions/songs. I’d been talking to my regular band about recording for a while, so it was time to bite the bullet and actually do it!

So on the 20 & 21 January, during an extensive heatwave in Perth, we headed into the studio. Literally sweating between the takes and surviving on a diet of homemade blueberry muffins and cans of kombucha tea, we managed to lay down the tracks for the full-length album. It’s hard to describe how fulfilling it was to see the songs that have long been in my brain and on paper come to life.

It’s been beyond great working with Jeremy Thomson (guitar), Zac Grafton (bass) and Daniel Susnjar (drums). And another really, really fun part is that this recording incorporates a horn section made up of Jessica Carlton (trumpet/flugel), Tom Greble (saxophones) and Will Pethick (trombone). All are exceptional humans and players. We recorded with Brodie Stewart – who is simply excellent.

Next up is all the post-production fun! I can’t wait to get into it with ultimate human/producer/multi-instrumentalist Jarrad Payne from Wizard Tone Studios.

Also at the same time – we’ve been playing at the Fringe World Festival in Perth a tribute to Norah Jone’s debut album – Come Away With Me. The incredibly musical Dan Garner has joined the band on second guitar and backing vocals for this show and it’s been the best fun ever. It’s been an enjoyable challenge to play the entire album from beginning to end – it’s definitely a first for me. We have one more show on the 29th January in case you’re in Perth and keen to come and see! There’s a handful of tickets left to that one.

If you’d like to follow the journey of the latest recording or keep in touch about upcoming shows, please subscribe to my mailing list! I promise your inbox won’t be inundated – I usually keep it to once a month.

I hope you’re all going well and have had a great start to the year. Much love Georgie x