HOLLY HEBE TALKS GHOST OF YOU

Interviewed by Culture Coast Talks editor Daniel John. Interview transcripts might have been edited for length and clarity.

Ending last year with a four-track EP, who would have dreamt of you already blessing us with your first song of this year. What inspired 'Ghost of You'?

Thank you so much! I actually was inspired by a dream that I had one night. In the dream, there was a girl in a white dress standing in a big old mansion. This image inspired the idea of a ghost and particularly helped me write the lyrics to the first verse. The song is all about feeling as though there has been a dynamic-shift in a relationship. And you begin to mourn the old version.

Speaking of dreamy things, your pop emanates surrealism, the way you weave lyrics and melodies together showcases a deep love of language and poetry alike. Do you find it easier to express yourself this way than you would in a more "normal" conversation?

Definitely, I use songwriting and lyricism as a way of expressing things I feel as though I couldn't express properly through a conversation or words on their own. Often when I'm feeling unhappy, or reflecting on an experience I just had, I will go and play the piano as a way of letting any emotion out. I often write songs out of all sorts of experiences that I feel like I need to process. I do not think I could do this without music or songwriting. Writing and sharing often feels like a weird language that somehow has been embedded into my brain, it feels so natural and I don't know what I would do without it as an outlet. It has led me to make some many amazing connections with beautiful people, and has helped me travel to some really cool places. It brings me so much adventure.

Does songwriting allow you to leave your ghosts behind?

It's a tricky one because on one hand, songwriting helps me process complex emotions, and it can be a very healing process. But on the other hand, when you continually perform them, it can bring these emotions back up and cause you to re-live them. It’s a bittersweet feeling. Some songs feel like a time capsule, and everytime I play them, it reopens wounds and transports me back to the time I wrote them. After a while I begin to be able to distance myself from the emotions of the song, and when this happens, I am able to just enjoy playing the song from almost an outsider’s perspective.

If people are in Melbourne this August they can catch you on stage where you seem to love being. But you having been out busking since you were seven sounds way early?

I do really love being on stage, and I started busking when I was super young. I used to take my little battery powered keyboard to the local market in the small town I grew up in, and I would play for hours. The byproduct of this was some nice funds to help me buy better music equipment as I got older. I worked really hard when I was younger, but mainly because I enjoyed it so much. The shows in August are going to be a celebration of this, and a sort of "going back to my roots" experience. When I play live, I usually play with a band, but these shows are going to be an intimate, piano based experience that I'm really excited to showcase.

Not everyone who finds themselves "plinking" on a piano at a young age will still be doing it years later. Was it just an instant love you felt?

It definitely was an instant love for me. I started playing when I was around four years old. My older sister at the time was learning the recorder, and would practice 'Hot Cross Buns’. One morning I went up to the piano and just played it back to her. My parents thought my sister must have taught me how to play it. I was a bit of a weird kid in that way!

What piano are you playing these days?

When I moved out of my parents home, I wasn't able to take my beloved pianola with me. I grew up playing this lovely antique hundred-year old pianola, and it became my absolute favorite thing. In 2021, I bought a piano off Facebook Marketplace for two dollars! During the lockdown, I had fun with painting it all nice and pretty, and that’s the piano I'm using today.