Queenie Interview

Mitch: Your latest single, Vivid, just came out on June 23! Do you mind sharing a bit about the track and what inspired it?
Queenie: Vivid came from healing from a lot of the stuff I’d experienced earlier in life and relationship-wise, and hoping that it wasn’t all just a dream.

The life I’d envisioned for myself had started to come to fruition a little bit, and Vivid is about coming to land in a fluffy, safe nest that’s really beautiful and warm. At the same time, it’s about the fear of that maybe being taken away, or maybe not being real.

That’s really what the song addresses — me hoping that it is real, and that it does stick around.

Mitch: What do you hope people feel while listening?
Queenie: I hope they feel the dreaminess of the song, and I hope it connects with people in the same way that I’ve come to feel about life, and overcoming adversity, overcoming trauma, and finding a safe place to land.

I hope it brings people the same feeling of safeness and warmth that I feel when I listen to the song, and what I felt while writing it.

Mitch: If the track was playing in a movie scene, what would the scene look and feel like?
Queenie: I see lots of running. I see clouds, and I see rolling hills.

With these new releases, they’re a little less sad and depressing than my last album. A lot of the songs are more positive, dreamy and feel-good, but there’s always that underlying feeling of darkness or apprehension — like in Vivid, where maybe it is all just a big dream.

So if it were in a movie, it would be running and rolling hills, but maybe with dark clouds in the sky.

Mitch: You’ve just announced your sophomore album, Pleasance, coming out August 21! What can fans expect from the record as a whole?
Queenie: It’s different sonically and lyrically. I think it’s different to New Moult and it explores different themes as well.

It feels like I’ve moved forward and stepped into a new chapter, not just musically, but stylistically and aesthetically too. It feels like we’ve moved into a new Queenie world.

The songs feel a lot more cohesive because I wrote them within a smaller period of time. They were all relevant to the same stage of life and written together, as opposed to New Moult, which was more of a collection of songs I’d been holding onto for a longer period.

These songs naturally create a whole world because of the way they were written, whereas with the first album we were trying to make the songs feel cohesive.

Mitch: What was your favourite memory from making the album?
Queenie: The studio we record in is out in Mollongghip, near Ballarat, and it’s a renovated old church. The people who owned the property before him moved the church there with horses and carts, and Josh has transformed it into this amazing studio.

Going out there through summer and into the colder months, you see this full array of colours in the trees. There are cows, rolling hills, and the pine trees sound like the ocean when they’re swaying.

Sitting out there and watching the cows and birds between takes was just the most magical experience, and I think it really added to the magic of the album.

Also Josh is a freak, he’s amazing. He runs around finding things in his garden that we can use to make sounds from. Being able to work with him is incredible.

Mitch: You’re someone who I describe as impossible to put in a box sonically. Is that something you actively avoid or is it something that just naturally happens?
Queenie: I think it happens naturally. I’ve never really tried to write for anything or for anyone. It’s always just been whatever falls out of my brain. I change all the time. What I like changes all the time. I’m always flip-flopping from one thing to another, and I think that’s reflective of me as a person.

I’ve never sat down and tried to write a country album, an Americana album, a pop album or a metal album. I’ve always just written whatever comes out. This time around, we were a little more conscious of leaning away from the country box I’d been put in. I think because the music was raw and honest, there was guitar, and I wore a cowboy hat one time, people naturally put it there.

Being a little more measured and conscious of the vibe I was going for has definitely helped shift things. But they call me the genre bender, so I’ll take that.

Mitch: For those who haven’t listened to your music yet, how would you sell it to them?
Queenie: My mum actually coined this really great term. She said it’s lustrous, which means sparkly and beautiful.

I thought that was such a great describing word. The music is ethereal, and the visuals I naturally write about have always been ethereal too. I’ve always been a very visual writer, so lustrous works really well.

If you could imagine Kate Bush and Florence Welch and The War on Drugs having a baby, that’s what it would be.

Mitch: You’ve got some shows coming up, including BIGSOUND. Why should people come? What can they expect from a Queenie show?
Queenie: They’re raucous, loud, crude, silly and sad. It’s a big rollercoaster of emotions.

Our live set is so different to how the music comes across recorded. I’m pretty loud, and I’m a theatre kid at heart, so I’m always going to put on a show.

The live show is a little more rock and roll than the recordings, and I think it’s nice to hear something and then see it exist in a totally different world.

Mitch: What could the industry do as a whole to better support emerging local artists in Australia?
Queenie: From an industry standpoint, I think it’s important to support artists who don’t have label backing and to really champion independent artists who are DIYing it.

Making sure queer artists, non-binary artists, female artists and First Nations artists are getting opportunities, support and visibility is really important.

It’s a fickle world out there, and people from marginalised communities need as much support as they can get.

Mitch: What is the best way for people to support you?
Queenie: Everything.

Come to live shows, buy merch, buy vinyl.

I know we live in the world of streaming now, and that’s fine — stream my music. I love it. I get dopamine from seeing those numbers go up.

Just listen to the music, show up to the shows, and follow my freaking Instagram because I spend so much time making content for that shit.

Mitch: Who are some emerging AUS/NZ musicians that people should get behind?
Queenie: Milly Strange is a great artist. Dayfever are fantastic. We played a show with them in Ballarat and it was sick. Workfriend and Goldminds are fantastic too!

RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS!!

Mitch: Favourite lyric from Vivid?
Queenie: "I don't want to run. I've finally come to rest."

Mitch: If you could feature any artist on Vivid, who?
Queenie: I'd put Amy Taylor on there.

Mitch: Go-to karaoke song?
Queenie: "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas. It's the only song I know all the words to.

Mitch: Most underrated song in your whole discography?
Queenie: Son, the last song on New Moult. There's nothing really going on. It's just me and the piano. I think lyrically it's one of my favourite songs.

Mitch: Finish the sentence! Queenie is for fans of...
Queenie: Kate Bush, Florence Welch and The War on Drugs.