INTERVIEW: Carla Wehbe returns with new single 'Sideshow': "I've been exploring more of the organic instrumentation and bringing a little bit more of that into my music."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Published: 8 April, 2024
Australian rising superstar Carla Wehbe has returned with her new single ‘Sideshow’, her first new music of 2023.
Written with regular collabortor Robby De Sa along with fellow break out star Peach PRC, it marks a sidestep into a sonic soundscape we haven’t heard in full bloom from Wehbe to date, with the song embracing an indie rock sound interspersed with the occasional sprinkle of country music. Lyrically the song looks at what happens at the end of a relationship when one side doesn’t want to let go: “You've turnеd all my friends on me / Now they're on your side…You're turning this into a sideshow / Cause you don't wanna let go / Every time you make a scene.”
“‘Sideshow’ is the spectacle, drama, and unnecessary dramatisation that someone makes of a situation,” Wehbe says.. “It’s about swerving the situation, whether it be a friendship or relationship, because you know it’s not for you, and their reaction being all the confirmation you needed that you made the right choice. Breakups of any kind can get messy, and ‘Sideshow’ is about the circus of breakups.”
From her independent beginnings with 2020 single ‘Don’t Tell Me’ through to her critically acclaimed 2023 EP ‘Jupiter and Mars’ and supporting international superstars on their Australian tours including The Chicks, Alec Benjamin, Benson Boone and Teddy Swims. She has recently wrapped up touring with Peach PRC on her Australian tour.
Carla Wehbe is a very special artist who always creates music that touches your soul. She has a remarkable talent to connect deeply with the listener and the warmth and pure honesty of her songs make her stories feel just like your own. We recently sat down with Wehbe to chat all about the creation of ‘Sideshow’ and her growth as an artist.
Hi Carla, so good to chat to you again. Before I get into ‘Sideshow’, I wan to know - you're always doing stuff, you're always around and you're always singing. In this exciting, chaotic industry and world you find yourself in, what's your favourite part?
Oh, that's a hard question. I love performing. I love being on stage. I never used to. I used to dread it. But it's my favourite now. I love the writing as well, but I think it’s playing live.
What was it that you used to dread?
I never felt comfortable. I didn't know what to do my arms, I didn't know what to do with my legs. So when I first started singing I actually sat down because I felt like my limbs were doing their own things. I'm like, ‘why would you do that? Why would you put your arm out there?’ I would analyse every movement. I didn't know how to speak to a crowd, I didn't know how to speak to people in general. So I was just like, ‘I'm not made for this, this is not for me. Maybe I'm just meant to write’. And then you know something changed and now I love it so much.
Because you do it really well!
Oh, thank you. I'm getting there!
I feel like you've always had a lot of energy in your life shows and there's just so much joy that comes out. Maybe because you didn't initially feel good doing it, you've found your own joy, or you’ve found your own way to do it.
Yeah, I think so. I think it also goes along with being more comfortable with myself in general. I'm a lot more confident in who I am as a person, so it allows me to just kind of have fun on stage rather than overanalyse every single movement my body’s doing.
On that note, you been playing all over the country and doing some amazing shows lately. What have been some highlights for you?
Supporting G Flip was amazing, I respect them very much and so to be asked to be on that was amazing and so much fun. I’m currently during the Peach PRC shows, and that's also absolutely incredible. That's my start of the year, those two, which is pretty good.
It's a little bit kickass isn't? I'm loving the clips from these shows, because it's such a beautiful crowd.
Yeah, they're incredible. She has the best fans.
You couldn't have paired two better artists with a better crowd.
It works, surprisingly, because I'm a very different artists but somehow it works. They're very very welcoming and open and there's no negativity.
Let's talk about ‘Sideshow’. I particularly love the fact that you build and you build and you build and then we think we're about to rock the fuck out in that final bridge and then we're into a music box. And then we end on thrash! It's amazing. I know you hate genres and you're very picky with music, but ell me where this one came from.
Sonically, there was no reference for this one. It kind of feels a bit 2000s, if I dare say. We were just like, ‘yeah, guitars, yeah, cool, just like a little bit of a trashy B’, and then it kind of just became that. I wrote it in November 2022, I went back and found the voice memo when I was writing it and it just kind of it wrote itself pretty quickly. I wrote most of it on my bed one day! And then when I was in the studio with Robbie De Sa who I always work with, Peach PRC works in the same building and she was there hanging out and she helped me finish it. So she’s also on the song, which is cool. But there wasn't a specific inspiration for it, we just threw some guitars, drums, bass, and saw what happened
On that, because you wrote it in 2022, because your songs are always going to be so very personal, by the time the song is released I imagine not only have you moved through the emotions behind the lyrics of the song, but I imagine that also affects the composition?
This one stayed pretty similar the whole way through. But the inspiration for what the song is about kind of lasted a fairly long time, so it still feels relevant to me. Only a few things changed. We added more guitars, we definitely had more guitars, we sped it up a little bit. It was too slow, we wanted people to at least be able to dance along a little bit. But it stayed pretty similar the whole way through.
I think you can do that really well. You've got this thing where you can do these really haunting ballads but then flip it on its head and we're jumping along to it like teenagers, but it's all within the same show, the same EP was which I think is really cool. Does that come with your confidence as an artist and what you're doing and just going ‘Do you know what? What I do is a bit of everything’ as opposed to ‘I can do this, I can do that’.
Yeah, definitely. I always used to think about, ‘does this make sense with this? And does this work with this?’ Obviously I’m still mindful of that, but I am more like ‘this feels right, and they're very different, but they serve their purpose separately and they work together’. So I'm less thinking about is this a big ballad, and this is a more upbeat track. If I love it, I'm just gonna go with it.
We were just talking about your confidence and I just want to know, have you noticed the development in your sound with your personal growth?
Yeah, recently I've been exploring more of the organic instrumentation. I was very synth heavy in the old music, but a lot of the bands or the artists I like listening to were very guitars, drums, bass, real instruments. And so I think I'm bringing a little bit more of that into my music these days.
Let's talk about your very, very, very beautiful cover of ‘Wicked Game’ because I just watched a clip of you and Charlie Collins singing it in a stairwell, which I loved. That's a beast of a track and very tricky to sing. A lot of people try to karaoke it and they fall on their arse. There are some people that are incredible at karaoke, get out there, hit play and then go ‘shit!’
Yes! It's such an amazing song. I was trying to think of a cover to put in the set and I was asking opinions from my team, manager and friends.. And they're like the young crowd might not know it, and initially I was like ‘Yeah, you're right’. But I started thinking and then I was like, you know what? I don't care. I'm gonna sing this because I feel drawn to singing it. And if they've never heard the song before, but I do a version of it that touches them in any way, then they'll remember it, regardless of whether they know the song. I just went with what I felt, and people seem to love it. So I'm really glad that I stuck with it.
It’s so beautiful. And you've got the pipes to do it.
It's a bit difficult. I'm not gonna lie! I do it in a key that's really pushing my range. So I’ve got to be mentally prepared for it every time I sing it.
You're touring with amazing people, you work with amazing people, and you're also singing some really cool covers. If you could collaborate with any artists, dead or alive, who would it be?
ABBA. I just can't get past them. If I had one choice, that’s who I'm going with
I would love to see that, that's such a good choice! And lastly, Carla we have ‘Sideshow’ out now, what else is coming up for you?
I have so much music just sitting there waiting to get released, so there'll be more music. I know we spoke about [fashion brand] Space Cowboy a while ago, and that actually goes live this week. So look up the first couple pieces. It’s actually happening! Only three pieces to start, but I'm just gonna slowly add a couple of pieces every so often. Plus more live shows!
‘Sideshow’ is out now via Warner Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Carla Wehbe you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
