TALLY SPEAR TALKS WANT TO WANT YOU

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

What is this new single about?

Have you ever really wanted to want someone, knowing they would be good for you, but you just can't. This track is about being stuck in relationship that no longer serves you, no matter how much you wish you could feel differently. It is about the conflict of trying to pick apart your emotions to see what the message is underneath. Hearing about this situation a friend was in made me inspired to step into their shoes. 

With a guitar-playing dad, drummer-brother and actress-mom, were you ever not set on the trajectory to being an artist?

Being a singer-songwriter was not ever a conscious decision, it has just always been a part of who I am. Since I could hold and use a pen. I was writing poems first, always on scraps of paper I'd find around the house. I was obviously fascinated by storytelling and rhyming words. This developed into songwriter a little later when I'd learnt how to play piano. I started writing poems and songs when I was very young, and was lucky enough to have always been encouraged and supported by my family. It used to just be for fun. And only recently have I really started to find my own identity as an artist.

Were you ever drawn to follow in your mother's footsteps and act?

I really enjoyed drama at school so yes sort of! Although now, I'm pretty camera shy so feel like I'd struggle being filmed if I was an actor. It's such a tough business having all the eyes on you, it goes the same for being a music artist!

Everybody loves the results of creativity be it music or film or theatre, but creative people do not always find as much love for being outside the box in their own lives. Which arguably is why the process itself is so valuable for any artist. Was, or even is, it always easy for you to be a creative, a sensitive soul on the lookout for purpose and connection, putting down the barriers between you and the universe listening?

What a poetic question! Nothing is always easy, including being creative. I do struggle with depression and anxiety like many creative people unfortunately do and sometimes it’s hard to get that spark of inspiration you need to create new material when you’re lacking motivation. I try not to force myself to write when I’m not feeling like it, and take time off the grind when it gets a bit too overwhelming. It might make my journey a little longer and more complicated but I always come back to my writing when I’m rebalanced. 

What do you, best case scenario, get out of sitting down by the piano writing on a rainy day?

Best case scenario is that all the conditions are just right for a new idea to land in your mind and flow easily out. And you have that feeling where you know you’re onto something really good.

You have kept re-imagining yourself as an artist, with music on both a lighter and darker side?

Right now, I’m making music that connects with all those different parts of me and all the different eras I have been through. There are elements of my folky-pop nature that shines through in these new songs, especially in my melodies and lyrics. Then my love for darker and harder hitting elements are still being woven in with the verses and breakdowns. I am really just being experimental and trying new things and listening to my instincts, without judging myself or the music.

Having grown up probably listening to your brother’s punk rock band quite a bit, is this music you always wanted to get into more?

Yes, I mean, when I was growing up I loved Hilary Duff and Avril Lavigne and Miley Cyrus, but I also loved NoFX thanks to my bro and Bullet For My Valentine and Nirvana. (Laughs) I've always thought I needed to box myself into one thing or another, but I am realising now I don't. I'm really an amalgamation of all of those influences and I love that about my music!

You have been dropping songs like raindrops this year, this already being your second single after ‘Here Comes The Rain’ in February. Is this the pace you are moving at now. Is it just pouring from now on?

Ha! I’m not sure what’s in store for the year, so I guess we will all find out together, but new music is a definite.