Danielle of NewJeans is the New Global Ambassador for CELINE

The K-Pop singer was born in Newcastle, Australia.

Article by T Australia

Danielle of K Pop group NewJeans has been named as the new brand ambassador for CELINE. Photo: CELINE

Australian K-Pop musician Danielle, from the South Korean girl group NewJeans, has been named as the new Global Ambassador at CELINE.

Danielle Marsh, 18, was born in Newcastle, Australia to an Australian father and a Korean mother.

Last year she voiced the character Ariel in the Korean dubbed version of the live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid”. 

She also signed on as a global ambassador for luxury brand Burberry and a brand ambassador for YSL Beauty.

Songs to Accompany a Dreamy Summer Dinner Party

John Cale, Sharon Van Etten, Donavon Smallwood and other creative types make suggestions for an eclectic playlist sure to help set a festive mood.

Article by T Australia

23-TMAG-SUMMER-DINNER-SONGSMalick Sidibé‘s “Regardez-moi!” (1962). Photography by Malick Sidibé. Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. All Rights Reserved.

When creating a playlist for a dinner party, it can be useful to think ahead and imagine the end of the night — should things conclude with whiskey and delayed goodbyes on the couch or with dancing into the wee hours? Because music, after all, can not only set the tone but also help determine the entire trajectory of an evening. Where to begin, though? Curating the perfect lineup can feel like a daunting task, and even music obsessives can fall into ruts and benefit from others offering up song suggestions. Recently, we asked a range of artists, musicians and other creative types to do just that, and to share a few tips on putting your selections together.

“I’ll start off with ‘Clair de Lune’; it invokes Paris and New York in equal parts, with mixed drinks clinking and obligatory salutations on display,” said the musician John Cale, a co-founder of The Velvet Underground. Personally, I’d recommend including any of the songs from Cale’s own 1970 album “Vintage Violence,” which is full of upbeat grooves with an effortless delivery, for the beginning of the evening. You can also use songs to subtly signal transitions. As you move from cocktails to dinner, for instance, try playing something mid-tempo, soulful and longish, like Gram Parsons’s “She” (1973), which, as the guitar slides past the four-minute mark, might subconsciously induce hunger. For the meal itself, keep in mind, as the musician Sharon Van Etten says, that “it’s important to pick songs that don’t take over the conversations. If it’s too loud or bumping, it’s impossible to talk to your friends or sit over dinner in a relaxing way.” A close friend and host extraordinaire recently recommended Arooj Aftab’s quietly haunting album “Vulture Prince” (2021) to me, and it’s become my new go-to.

But don’t be afraid to experiment and switch things up as you go. I was recently at a gathering where we were listening to Bob Dylan’s album “Nashville Skyline” (1969) until the conversation turned to our favourite albums of the last 20 years and our host started playing Ghostface Killah’s “Fishscale” (2006) instead, a catalyst to raucousness that no one knew they needed. To bring some renewed excitement to the room once dinner is beginning to wrap up, Paolina Leccese and Julian Taffel, the duo behind the fashion label Leorosa, recommend the jubilant “Gigi l’amoroso” (1974) by Dalida. “People will pretend to know all the words as they sing along while pouring more drinks at the table. Always more pasta, more Campari, more singing!” Hopefully, the below will provide inspiration whatever your preferences for any and all parts of the event, but, as far as Cale is concerned, “the great send-off is Kendrick Lamar’s ‘HUMBLE.’ (2017),” which he describes as “food for thought.”


Donavon Smallwood, Photographer

“ZaZa and Some Runtz (Smoke Break)” — Terry Presume

“After over a year of being in lockdown, when I step outside, I need music with a groove. This song is the one. It’s what a hot summer sounds like: everything drenched in the orange of the sun as you sit on a stoop blasting music through a speaker with friends — irresistible stuff!”

“My Girls” — Animal Collective

“I love a bit of nostalgia in the summer, and this song has an incredible hook, even though I have no idea what they’re singing and at this point I’m afraid to ask. Plus, the production sounds like some sort of fractal tie-dye houndstooth explosion.”

“Angst in My Pants” — Sparks

“No playlist is complete without a Sparks song.”


Paolina Leccese and Julian Taffel, Co-Founders and Designers of Leorosa

“Se mi compri un gelato” — Mina

“Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” — Domenico Modugno

“Gigi l’amoroso” — Dalida

“Luglio” — Riccardo Del Turco

“Just the titles of ‘Se mi compri un gelato’ (‘If you buy me an ice cream’), by Mina, and ‘Luglio’ (‘July’), by Riccardo Del Turco, set the tone for enjoying the season and being completely carefree.”


Danielle McKinney, Artist

“Blue Bell Knoll” — Cocteau Twins

“Best of Us Go Down” — Aquilo

“Two Men Down” — James Blake

“The perfect ambient mix to wind down the evening with, whether you’re with friends or solo. These songs are among my top plays and have a way of centring me when the outside world becomes oversaturated.”


Jerome Byron, Architect and Designer

“Glow (feat. Raphael Saadiq)” — Kelis

“A nice throwback to play as the table begins to clear and people enjoy a post-dessert cocktail, when the night is starting to become less of a dinner and more of a party.”

“Love Me Tonight (Love, Love, Love)” — Fern Kinney

“Some disco energy to match the euphoria of seeing old friends for the first time in a long time.”

“Snooze 4 Love” — Todd Terje

“This will always remind me of late nights and early mornings with friends. It’s good for the very end of the night, when you’re saying goodbye and opening the windows to let the house cool down.”


Tanya Tucker, Singer-Songwriter

“Maybe You’ll Be There” — Diana Krall

“Diana Krall is such a great musician and singer — I love anything she does, really, and this song especially.”

“Ashokan Farewell” — Chuck Leavell

“A beautiful piece of music — very soothing.”

“A Moment of Forever” — Kris Kristofferson

“Kris’s wife, Lisa Meyers, sent this to me several months ago and told me it reminded her of her father. We’re both daddy’s girls so she thought I would enjoy it and think about my dad. And just a few days ago, my boyfriend, Craig, played it for me and I said, ‘oh my gosh, this song is haunting me.’ I would love to record it some day.”


Brooks Headley, Musician and Chef

“Cmon Let’s Go” — Girlschool

“A fist-pumping rager that’s fun, fun, fun. Who doesn’t want to listen to something like this while hanging out with pals and eating barely cooked Greenmarket corn straight off the cob in someone’s backyard?”

“Far From Right” — Habibi

Rahill Jamalifard, Habibi’s vocalist, is a Superiority Burger alum from way back when we first opened in 2015. This track is from 2014, and it still hits really hard in 2021. It has a very difficult to achieve kinetic nonchalance with a vocal delivery that asserts the influence of Rahill’s Michigan upbringing.”

“Dressed in Black” — Teengenerate

“Greatest band of all time? Tokyo’s Teengenerate. No question. And Fifi, the former guitarist and vocalist, currently operates the greatest bar on the planet — Poor Cow, also in Tokyo.”

“Wiwasharnine” — Mdou Moctar

“This plays pretty much once every other day on the Superiority Burger iPod. The groove on this track is relentless. They are playing in Brooklyn in mid-September, a not-to-be-missed gig.”


John Cale, Musician

“Clair de Lune” — Claude Debussy

Various — Sly & The Family Stone

“When you’re listening to folks nattering about, talking over one another and getting louder and louder, it’s time for Sly & The Family Stone to take over the room — quick! Take your pick — ‘Family Affair,’ ‘Everyday People,’ ‘If You Want Me to Stay,’ ‘Everybody Is a Star’ — or just put on all of them!”

“HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar


Sharon Van Etten, Singer-Songwriter

“Reason to Believe (feat. Courtney Barnett)” — Vagabon

“As if the Karen Dalton version weren’t dreamy enough, this one makes me tear up instantly.”

“Open Eyes” — duendita

“Hot summer days, hazy hangs with friends and feelings of love.”

“No Perfect Focus” — Kindest Lines

“This song belongs on the soundtrack of ‘Memories Being Made.’ It makes me feel like I’m in the end scene of a movie.”


Penny Arcade, Performance Artist

“I Fly Tonight” — Church of Betty

“Pop music with Indian folkloric rhythms and Chris Rael’s soaring vocals. It’s so enlivening and will lift your dinner party midway through!”

“Risk Of Change” — Holcombe Waller

“This has Holcombe’s smooth and dreamy voice with lyrics that will make your smarter if unaware guests ask, ‘Who’s that?’ Secret history: I am the ‘Penny’ mentioned in the song and the ‘Jeff’ is Jeff Buckley.”

“God’s Little Acre” — Rachelle Garniez

“Rachelle is a whimsical storyteller — ‘God’s Little Acre’ is a quintessential New York tale — and a multi-instrumentalist whose songs will cheer you right up.”


Mdou Moctar, Songwriter

“Chet Boghassa” — Tinariwen

“Takamba” — Baba Salah

“Adounia (Life)” — Bombino

“These songs are good for any kind of party. They have lots of energy and will make people dance.”

Quotes have been edited and condensed.

The soulful evolution of Conrad Sewell

Almost four years on from his chart-topping debut, the singer-songwriter Conrad Sewell has a son, a dream band and a new album that mines the influences of his childhood.

Article by Tom Lazarus

Conrad SewellThe award-winning musician Conrad Sewell has had “a crazy couple of years”. Photography by Simon Lakeman.

Conrad Sewell’s music should come with a warning: contains earworms of Marvel Universe proportions. If you have somehow made it this far without being able to recall the opening couplet of “Firestone”, his 2014 mega hit with the DJ and producer Kygo, ask your smart speaker to cue it up — and say goodbye to half your mental real estate for the next two days. Upon its release, the song was streamed a million times a day, and its success sent Sewell careening off on a world tour of arenas and dance floors he has characterised as “a blessing and a curse”. After other profitable DJ pairings, with Arminvan Buuren and the late Swedish hitmaker Avicii, Sewell released a series of indelible solo singles culminating in his debut album, “Life”, launched in early 2019. A slick, piano-driven package chronicling love, heartbreak, ambition and self-sabotage, it landed atop the ARIA chart. Finally, after doggedly trying to make his career happen since he first strapped on a plastic guitar in his lounge room at age seven, Sewell had made it. When he performed at his old high school, St Laurence’s College in Brisbane, wearing sunglasses and a cabana shirt that showed off his tattoos, it felt like vindication. “Australian Idol” may have passed on his talents, but Bono approved.

Sewell, by then living in Los Angeles, started to plan his second album. Then the pandemic hit and, with it, a personal crisis. Sewell was confined to his apartment for months. “If there were any cracks or flaws you weren’t dealing with, [lockdown] shone a light on it,” he tells T Australia over Zoom from a rehearsal studio. “I feel like I’d been chasing success in the music industry for so long, it got kind of dark. It got to a point where I was so unhappy, and I got really bitter about the industry and why I’m even doing it in the first place.” Despite his status among the glow-stick crowd, Sewell was never a club kid. “That’s just the way my trajectory was,” he says. “It all got put into a very ‘pop’ place.” He found himself missing the camaraderie of his early days in rock bands. “I don’t like being by myself,” he says, “as much as I crave the attention when I’m on stage.” Sewell aims for “brutal honesty” in his lyrics, but now wanted authenticity in the songs’ delivery, too: “You turn around and you’re 33 and you’ve never made anything that really feels like you.”

Sewell grew up listening to Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, then Joe Cocker, Queen, The Rolling Stones. His grandparents sang with the Gibb brothers pre-Bee Gees, and he was exposed to “a lot of Motown in the house, a lot of great singers”. He recalls discovering Michael Jackson’s “Ben” at age six and spending hours imitating the vocals in front of a mirror. In his Los Angeles apartment, he realised his new album needed to mix truth-telling with soul-rock swagger in homage to his childhood idols; he’d write his way out of the rut, this time without the crutch of a Grammy-winning team. “I playlisted my favourite songs,” he says. “A lot of them were from the ’70s and’80s — Simply Red, Rod Stewart — me and my manager call them ‘grocery-store records’. Songs that get played in grocery stores for the next 50 years. And that was the pitch for the album: shamelessly classic, timeless songs.”

Through the grapevine of Los Angeles friendships, Sewell corralled a dream team: the keyboardist Adam MacDougall (ex-The Black Crowes); the guitarist Zane Carney (who plays with John Mayer); the drummer Victor Indrizzo (Alanis Morissette); the bassist Aiden Moore( Justin Timberlake); and a brass section, The Regiment Horns. They rented Jackson Browne’s studio and took six weeks to turn voice memos on Sewell’s iPhone into full-band arrangements. Produced by Pro J (Robin Thicke) and Roderick Kerr, the album was recorded like they used to be — live, in one room, with minimal overdubs.

Working this way “wasn’t the world I came from,” says Sewell. “This was the first time I got to create a sound around my voice and take time with the arrangements and choose performers and record something that felt unique to me. It’s been really freeing.” The resulting album (launching March 3, 2023; the single “Believer” is out now), is alternately raucous and honeyed, and richly textured with hand claps, roaming basslines, shimmering organ, tambourines and sultry guitar licks. Sewell’s voice is raw and virtuosic, elasticising into a falsetto and assuming the rock ’n’ roll yowl he perfected playing rowdy pub gigs with his first band, The Frets. The hooks are real, but they persuade rather than bludgeon.

Sewell is now 34, “almost completely sober — off all the hard stuff”, more at ease in the spotlight and “in a great place” after therapeutic self-reflection. “I tend to make better decisions these days,” he says. In March, his fiancée, Jasmine Hingston, gave birth to their first child, Memphis Rose Ignatius. Sewell strums his guitar to soothe him when he cries and has vowed to trade after-parties for family time. His best friend, the guitarist Matthew Copley, joked, “If anyone needs a kid, it’s you. You need the responsibility.”

Sewell recently posted to Instagram a gauzy snap of him playing an acoustic guitar next to a blonde in a hat by a lake. It was Taylor Hanson of “MMMBop” fame, a fellow survivor of the pop machine, whom he met through the DJ Samantha Ronson. They bonded — both had worked with the late vocal coach Ron Anderson and been signed by Def Jam’s Lyor Cohen — and co-wrote four songs, which Sewell produced and hopes to release. “I pretty much have the next album finished,” he says, adding that he co-wrote feverishly with Pro J. He often jams with his sister, Grace, who has her own career as Say Grace. Genre-agnostic, Sewell is ever evolving.

It’s common for artists to view past work peeking through their fingers. What was once an urgent truth can calcify into what feels to them like an emotional remnant. “I don’t want to perform anything that I can’t wholeheartedly sing,” says Sewell of culling his live set lists. A song can also take on unanticipated meaning when it soundtracks a cultural moment. The first single from the new album, “God Save the Queen”, was released hours before news broke of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, imbuing its titular refrain with an eerie resonance. “It was obviously such a sad day for the world, and it felt really weird,” says Sewell. He has been oddly prescient before. In “Big World”, long before the pregnancy and the plaudits, he sang:

“I hope one day before I’m gone / I leave a legacy that people know / I hope I get a chance to tell my son.”

This is a short extract from our newest issue.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of our new issue in newsagents nationally or subscribe to receive T Australia straight to your letterbox. You will find it on Page 28 of Issue #9, titled “Soul Searching”.

Angus Stone on the Healing Power of Songwriting

The musician, aka Dope Lemon, describes his new record, “Rose Pink Cadillac” as a labour of love.

Article by Christopher Riley

Stone, who records as Dope Lemon, released his new album “Rose Pink Cadillac”, today. Courtesy of Angus Stone.

The pandemic period has tended to impact artists in one of two ways. For some, the isolation has been catastrophic, drying up the well of inspiration and preventing them from creating. For others, it has been the opposite: a welcome break from the distractions of the outside world, leading to a triumphant surge of productivity.

For Angus Stone, the musician who records as Dope Lemon, it was the latter. In August, Stone reunited with his sister Julia for “Life Is Strange”, a soundtrack album that is the duo’s first joint project in four years. Today, he follows it up with “Rose Pink Cadillac”, a 10-song outing of dreamy psychedelic surf rock that serves as his third album as Dope Lemon and another reason he remains regarded as one of the country’s most creative songwriters.

It’s perhaps no surprise that Stone has managed to stay inspired over the past year when you consider the 35-year-old spent the time on a beautiful 48-hectare farm inland from Byron Bay that he now calls home. He’s sitting on the deck when I call him to discuss “Rose Pink Cadillac”, he says he is “overlooking a field with horses and cows”, which certainly beats the shed I have rather hastily turned into a makeshift office.

“It’s an old barn,” Stone explains. “I converted it into a studio with this beautiful sunken fire pit where we chew over ideas and drink whisky.” It’s here that Stone wrote and recorded “Rose Pink Cadillac” and where he has remained during what he calls the “anarchy portion” of recent history. With him overlooking a scene of rural bliss — and me a blank wall — we discuss how songwriting has helped him to survive the past year, the process of translating his poetry into French for the album and why there are even bigger things in store for 2022.

Stone is regarded as one of the country’s most creative songwriters. Courtesy of Angus Stone.

What was it like making an album during a year of lockdowns?

“It meant less distractions and made things more quiet. We spent our 20s touring around the world and then in the last five years we’re sort of at that point where we can take bigger breaks and chill, and then when it came to this, it was just like, Well, this is a whole new thing. It’s a new style of life and flow that I hadn’t experienced since I was a kid. Which was being at home and just waking up and not having a thousand interviews, not having to roll to the next city and hit all the spots. It’s been very grounding in that stillness that I haven’t really got to enjoy for so long. It’s been wonderful, actually.”

Can you describe the album and what it means to you?

“I think with everything that’s going on and the world kicking up dust the way it did, when I was in the studio, seeing all this happening, my natural reaction was to put an emphasis on love and sharing that through music. And I like to call this my love album. I guess the songs they all change, you know — you roll out of bed, throw on some clothes and whatever mood you’re in will affect the way you write. But the catalyst for this record was love.”

Was it challenging capturing that sense of love with everything else that has been going on?

“Songwriting, for me, has been this way to wander off into the wilderness of this Disney world that you can create by the stretch of your imagination. I might be going through the worst day of my life but I can float off into a daydream and write one of the most magical songs I’ve ever written about love and the beauty of the world. I feel very lucky that I’m able to do that. While we were making this record it looked like people were tearing each other apart and society was just imploding. It was just disastrous to watch. But when I’m walking in the studio, I like to drift off into these magical places. I’m really stoked that with this craft, it’s something that I’ve been able to disappear with at times. I think that’s what music is for me. It’s special like that.”

You’ve spoken before about how this album was the perfect mix of “hard work and pure joy”. How did you manage to maintain that balance between the two?

“The bottom line is it must always be a labour of love. As soon as it starts to become a chore, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, be it financial or trying to meet someone else’s needs. And it’s easy to get caught up with that stuff in this world. I’ve always been hyper-aware of my intentions when it comes to what I do in my craft. Over time you start to realise it has to be from the heart, but it also has to be bloody hard work and long hours before it all makes sense. It’s like proof of concept: you have to prove these things that are rolling around in your head for their existence to become tangible. I think that’s what songwriting means. And when you arrive there and it’s in front of you, it’s like, I knew it was there!”

How did the collaborations come about?

“With the song “High Rollin’”, I always had a dream of wanting to translate my poetry into French. I had this poem about falling in love on this island with palm trees swaying and all this other nonsense. I called up a friend who speaks French and I showed it to her. The beauty of translation is that sometimes you get a double positive. You get these really curious things happening and then with certain lines she’d just look at me and be like, “We wouldn’t say this, it doesn’t exist.” And it’s like, “OK, so can we do it?” Working through that process was really interesting. We had to learn all the phonetics and how to actually say the words. Then we found this amazing singer-songwriter, Louise Verneuil, from Paris, who sang on the song.

Then there’s the collaboration with Winston Surfshirt. At the time, I was always hearing his songs coming on the radio and I was like, He’s so cool, he’s got such a great flow. And so I got his number, called him up and he was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” We connected and it was really, really cool. We flipped the song back and forth and it worked out really, really naturally.”

Why did you decide to give away an actual rose pink Cadillac with the album?

“The word ‘fan’ doesn’t really do our listener justice. For those people who have tuned in and listened to the evolution of the sound of Dope Lemon, buying the rose pink Cadillac and doing this competition was our way to give back to these people that have followed us for so long. The head of [the label] called me up and was like, “We should just buy this Cadillac and come out with a bang for this record because it’s epic.” It’s such a cool thing for the listeners and for one person to have that joy of winning this epic unicorn of a car.”

What’s in store for 2022?

“I’ve got a real surprise coming up. When I finished this record, I went straight back into another one. I’m on the final stretch of that. But this is going to be a whole new world and I’m very excited about where that goes. It might even be a whole new thing. I don’t know yet. I just had this flow and I felt like I just wanted to keep going. So that’s next year. Something cool will come out and we’re going to create something very epic around it.”

Dope Lemon’s “Rose Pink Cadillac” is out January 7.

The “Faux French” Duo Taking Over Australia’s Music Scene

Lara Goodridge and Abby Dobson perform in a language most of their audience doesn’t understand. But for these two Francophiles, it makes perfect sense.

Article by Lucy E Cousins

Lara Goodridge (left) and Abby Dobson are reimagining the art of the chanson. Photography by Henry K.

It all started about 10 years ago with a book of naughty French songs and a meet-cute in Paris. The Australian singer Abby Dobson (of the platinum- selling band Leonardo’s Bride) had been living in the French capital for six months when she ran into a fellow Australian, the violinist and singer Lara Goodridge (of FourPlay String Quartet), outside a cafe one sunny morning. Goodridge had released Dobson’s first solo album on her label, Craving Records, but until that point, they never realised they shared a love of all things French.

“We just met for a coffee and I was holding a book of slightly risqué early French songs I’d just bought, which we laughed over,” says Goodridge. “I’d always been a huge fan of Abby’s voice and music, but we had a relationship that was much more about the machinations of putting an album out rather than performing together in any capacity.” However, by the end of that coffee, the two agreed to meet up and sing a few French songs, purely for the joy of it. “It was absolutely a passion project at that point,” says Goodridge. “But we got together for one rehearsal and I remember Abby saying, ‘Oh my God, this is what I want to do when I grow up.’”

In the decade since, their group, Baby et Lulu, has not only been nominated for an ARIA Award, it has become a staple of radio playlists and the festival circuit, and has sold out music venues around Australia. In September, Baby et Lulu will release “Album Trois”, followed by an Australian tour, starting in October — pandemic-pending, of course.

and Baby et Lulu’s Australian tour starts on October 1, pandemic pending. Photography by Henry K.

You sing in French, when did you first fall in love with the French language?

Abby Dobson: “When I was young, French seemed to be this magical portal language that opened up worlds and deliciousness. When I got older, I liked to get drunk and speak French. I used to travel to Paris whenever I could — that was the place I would go whenever I had any coins in my pocket.”

Lara Goodridge: “I fell in love with French as a kid, watching black-and- white movies on TV, like the old Yves Montand, Leslie Caron, Édith Piaf and Jeanne Moreau films. That was the beginning of it for me.”

How did Baby et Lulu become the success it is today?

LG: “It grew so organically in the beginning. The very first show we did was at The Vanguard in Sydney’s Newtown, which we only advertised on Facebook. It sold out, so then we thought, ‘Oh, well, let’s do a second show.’ ”

AD: “It wasn’t that viable at the start; I was living in Melbourne and Lara was in Sydney. But people loved it. We didn’t realise there were so many Francophiles in Sydney — we thought it was this silly thing that was just our personal joy. We had no idea if anyone else would be interested.”

What is it like to sing in a language that the majority of the Australian audience doesn’t speak or understand?

LG: “I think there’s something beautiful about the fact that most people who don’t understand French are really just connecting to some dream and some romantic feeling they have. We usually tell people what the song is about and people can connect to that, but as singers, we also have a different connection to the songs. I find that I’m a bit more open, a bit more confident in French, because I’m stepping through this portal and I don’t feel quite as vulnerable as I do in English.”

AD: “It’s funny because we both write songs in English as well as French, and I labour over the lyrics quite a bit. But once I perform them, it really is just about the vibration of the sounds and words, and the intention behind it all, even in English.”

Your latest album features classic songs that were written up to 80 years ago. Is there a period of history you’re particularly drawn to?

LG: “We always choose songs that span different time periods and we carefully curate those we perform for what feels right for us as a duo. There are songs we love that didn’t work for us and others that really came to life when we sang them as a duo.”

AD: “From the beginning, Lara and I tended to have a very innate understanding of what was a Baby et Lulu song and what wasn’t.”

Some of the songs on this latest album were written during the darkest days of World War II. How do you connect with those?

LG: “I always feel the era that a song comes from. So, the Maurice Chevalier song, “Paris sera toujours Paris”, which is the next single, I definitely feel that it’s a war song. And when we’re singing a Françoise Hardy song or a Brigitte Bardot song, the music without a doubt inhabits the time in which it was written.”

AD: “I also feel like I’m entering an era when we dress up. Before a gig, we step into, not so much an alter ego, but an “old version” of ourselves. Lots of things we do are evocative of an era, but at the same time, I like that we can turn it on its head. We’re not locked into any kind of paradigm and that’s kind of fun for the audience as well.”

How has the pandemic and the restrictions affected both your creativity and mental health?

AD: “We had a huge tour booked. We’d put a lot of work into the schedule and then it all just fell over like dominoes. My creativity was really quite affected by it.”

LG: “We were going to put out “Album Trois” last year, too, so that was disappointing. But as far as creativity, we’ve been designing merchandise.”

You have never toured in France. Why is that?

AD: “We would love to do it. Lots of French people come to our shows, which initially terrified us no end. But they keep coming back and they often say, ‘You should take this to France, no-one is doing this there anymore.’ However, it’s really expensive. Even touring Australia with a six-piece band is expensive.”

LG: “I think the only way we could do it is to pick up musicians over there. It’s still in our sights — we haven’t given up the dream yet.”

Baby et Lulu's Third Album, "Album Trois" is out September 3.

Baby et Lulu’s Fast French Favourites

Favourite French Food:
LG: “A freshly baked quiche épinards chèvre (spinach and goat cheese quiche)”

AD: “Tarte Tropézienne. It’s the local gateau from St Tropez. I spent an incredible couple of weeks near there in 2010. Created by Polish confectioner Alexandre Micka in 1955, it was named by actress Brigitte Bardot while she was there filming ‘And God Created Woman’.”

Favourite French City:
LG: “Arles (south of France). It is so pretty with ancient ruins (albeit Roman), little alleyways. It is like a petit Paris.”

AD: “Paris! because Paris! Everything about it is delicious and beautiful and has been art directed! And now, even the subways don’t smell like piss!”

Favourite Parisian Café:
LG: “Any cafe around Saint-Germain-des-Prés. It’s a bustling, pretty area with little alleys and cobblestone streets, lined with great cafes and ‘resto’s’. Try a fresh baguette with some fromage, and a salad with heart of palm and artichoke.”

AD: “Diggity in the 11th arrondissement. Their menu changes all the time. It is all delicious!”

Favourite Fashion Designer:
LG: “There’s a lovely label called Sessun, which you can buy in Australia in some small shops. It’s classic and simple, yet pretty and feminine. There’s also a very classic Breton label called Armor Lux selling a lot of stripey clothing, like the Bretons wear. J’adore!”

AD: “Isabel Marant”

Favourite French Word:
LG: “A great little word for kiss is ‘bisou’, and it’s pretty sweet to say… and do.”

AD: “Je t’aime (I love you).”

Favourite Band/ Singer:
LG: “Camille. She is a stunning singer, a beautiful songwriter and an original voice in the global music world. Using layers and loops and body percussion, she is electric to watch and absolutely captivating.”

AD: “Daft Punk”

Favourite French Song:
LG: “Dis, quand reviendras-tu? by Barbara.”
AD: “Playground Love, by Air.”

 

“Album Trois” is out 3rd of September, and Baby et Lulu’s Australian tour starts on the 1st of October. For more information, visit www.babyetlulu.com.au

Do female musicians have to be solo artists to succeed?

All-female bands remain unbelievably rare; a fact that Australian band Erthlings says is a shame.

Article by Kate Hennessy

Sampa the Great. Photographed by Michaela Dutkova

Around the time that #MeToo cracked open fissures in the music industry that had festered for decades, an old story started to re-circulate. A record label talent scout, so the story goes, finds a female musician he wants to sign. He plays her to the label boss who agrees it’s great. Then knocks it back. When the talent scout asks why, the boss replies: “We’ve already got a woman on the label.”

You want to believe it’s a baseless urban myth. But still, today, a handful of women’s names are used to brush off the truth that non-male musicians remain under-represented. When this fact is raised, as it routinely is, it’s met with: “But what about Taylor Swift? Tash Sultana? Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, G Flip, Tones & I, Sampa The Great?”

GFlip (Jo Duck)

Yet, as Lissa Evans of Sydney band Erthlings points out – all these women are solo artists. The 18-year-old drummer had no idea, she says, how rare all-female bands were before they were signed to Future Classic.

She’d been in her band with Taylor Shutes (bass) and Jessame Stepto (guitar) since she was eight years old. To them, it was normal. All of it: the youth, the all-girl factor, the friendship. Then came the interest – and the articles. “[All the articles] started with ‘all-female 13-year-old band’,” says Stepto. It went on for some time, says Shutes. “We were still being called 13 when we were 15… We were a bit worried it would detract from our actual music!”

The members of Erthlings have finished school now and are planning their future in a year when even local touring is fraught. They don’t know what’s next – but they do know they’re happy doing it together.

Erthlings (Cybele Malinowski)

At festivals such as Splendour in The Grass and Groovin the Moo they’d spent a lot of time backstage “staring” at acts such as Billie Eilish and G Flip.

“We saw other artists, by themselves, and realised having each other is not only more fun but gives us more confidence,” says Evans. “If we mess up or feel nervous, one of us will say ‘it’s fine; everyone messes up’.” Stepto agrees. “We always have someone in the band who’s gonna back us up.”

Not to diminish the popularity or potency of solo woman acts – or indeed the seminal ‘girl in the band’ – however, there’s an obvious black hole when it comes to all-female bands making headlines in Australia and overseas. As Erthlings know from experience – all-female bands are still, sadly, a rarity.