INTERVIEW: Gretta Ziller returns with new single 'Unlikely Believer': "I’ve been through a lot in life it's much more rewarding to keep believing rather than dwelling on the hurt and hardship."
Gretta Ziller released her first new music of 2020 in July with the single ‘Unlikely Believer’, a warm, empowering guitar based ballad that reflects the personal struggles Ziller has faced, yet ultimately triumphed over to become a stronger person. “I wrote ‘Unlikely Believer’ to remind myself that although I’ve been through a lot in life that it’s harder but so much more rewarding to keep believing in things, rather than dwelling on the hurt and hardship,” she says.
Since her debut album Queen of Boomtown was released in 2017, Ziller has attracted growing critical acclaim, including two Golden Guitar nominations. With a sonic landscape that spans jazz, country, Americana, rock, blues, pop and classical Ziller is a diverse performer who defies categorisation. Newly signed to ABC Music and with her second album due next year, Ziller is an artist coming into her own and we recently caught up with her to find out more.
Hello Gretta, how have you been keeping these days?
Good thank you. I'm in Melbourne, so I'm in lockdown. I'm literally just sitting in my office with my dog on the table.
Before we jump into your latest track, I want to quickly dive into your debut album Queen of Boomtown. It received such critical acclaim, we were just blown away by your many musical facets. There was gothic country, there was heartache and gospel, there was indie rock particularly with my favourite ‘Let It Go’. Was your intention always to create such an eclectic album while at the same time being such a complete body of work?
That's very kind of you to say. It kind of was. I grew up listening to all those styles of music and the last one that came in was country. My musical tastes lean towards a little bit of blues, a little bit of rock, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. The album was very much me and my musical past.
Now your latest release ‘Unlikely Believer’ is such a soulful track. Again, you've got that beautiful lyrical imagery and heart. Can you talk me through the story behind this track?
I actually started writing this song a couple of years ago. It started with the chorus. As a song writer you start wherever you start but it got to the point where that ended up being the chorus. I was going through a period where I was feeling down, I lost my mum a number of years ago. I was just having one of those days where I was really missing her and missing her not being a part of my life now. And the song started off as a little bit of a self-pity and a self-wallow. I got to the end of the chorus and I'm like ‘Gretta, there's so much more that you're enjoying.’ Mum was a big part of my life, and I do miss her but there's so much other stuff that I enjoy, and there's so many other things in my life that I look forward to and that bring me happiness. The thought popped into my head - I still believe in things, I still have hope, I still have faith. I have love in my life. All those things and my brain was like ‘stop being so miserable!’ So, by the time I got to the end of the chorus, it was that’s what makes me a unlikely believer!
That's beautiful and I love the way that the song pans out exactly how you've explained it. It's quite beautiful. it's from your upcoming new album, why did you chose this one as the first single?
To be honest, it hadn't originally been planned as a single. But then 2020 happened and we were looking at all the tracks going ‘what do we release?!’ ‘Unlikely Believer’ stood out as an appropriate track to release for this year. Not just me but so many of my friends and so many people are in this situation where it feels a little hopeless. We're all stuck at home. We've lost our jobs or things have been cut back and the pressure's on financially. A lot of people are finding it difficult mentally and I just thought if I can release this song and it helps someone get through this period. Keep going. Keep believing.
With your second album, is it sounding similar to Queen of Boomtown in the sense that you've got this eclectic sound, but still a very complete body of work?
Yeah, it is. I used the same producer and a lot of the same musicians and when we went to make the album my producer Paul said ‘look what do you want it to sound like?’ I said ‘I want it to be an extension of Queen of Boomtown. There was a song on that album called ‘Whiskey Shivers’ and I said ‘I want it to be like ‘Whiskey Shivers’ but forward, so it's a little bit grittier a little bit darker, but it still has an eclectic sort of sound to it. There's a song that I can't wait for people to hear, that is a little 90s pop inspired. There’s songs that are a little bit more bluesy. It's a bigger album, but it still has that same feel of eclecticness to it.
Your YouTube channel also sports some incredible covers, your version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’ is absolutely divine. What is the allure and the power of a cover for you?
I really enjoy playing covers. I am fairly select in the ones that I choose, it has to be a great song for me. But also it has to be something that I can put my own spin on, I don't necessarily like just doing a cover and keeping it exactly the same as the original artist has done. I like to tweak it a little bit or just make it a little bit more mine.
Are there any songs that are your absolute favourite and you're still wanting to do?
There are a couple of songs that I've had on my wish list for a while. One that I did end up doing was ‘Sunglasses at Night’ by Corey Hart. I had that in my wish list for a while. I'd like to do ‘Tusk’ by Fleetwood Mac. I think that would be a really cool cover to do, but I just have to get my brain around doing that song.
Beautiful. I'm looking forward to it. Now I want to go a little to your back story. Your musical origins. Tell me... what role did music as a whole play in your early years growing up?
I grew up literally in the middle of nowhere on the Murray River and I come from a farming family. I was definitely the odd duck in the family. My parents were farmers, my sister was a farmer and I was the kid that wanted to play and sing. My music journey started pretty early. I was really fortunate enough to have my grandmother in my life for my first few years before she moved back to Germany. She got me playing violin. It all just started from there. I played violin up until I finished high school. When I went to high school, I did all the choirs, anything musical I could. My mum was a great influence as well. She really enjoyed listening to music, hence the diverse musical background I come from. When I finished high school I went to Melbourne University and studied music. I was planning on being a classical singer of some sort, I don't even know what I wanted to do. I discovered country music, my sister went to agricultural college and started listening to country music. I stole one of her CDs. That was sort of the pivot moment for me, finding country as a genre. It led me to Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams and the more Americana, rootsy style of music that I lean towards.
What was the country music CD that you stole from your sister?
It was actually Garth Brooks, his double life album. I still remember the moment when I first started listening to it. It was something in those songs and in that sound that just touched me. It literally changed my life. I heard it and I cried the whole way through that album and I was like ‘this is me, this is my path’. And it veered from there. That was the moment where I went ‘this is what I want to do. I don't want to join the Victoria Opera Company or do whatever I had planned on doing’.
What do you think it was for you? Obviously, there are so many different facets and I guess assumptions on country music. It was everyone's dirty secret for such a long time. Only Dolly was allowed, but people now are coming more with it. Taylor Swift has helped a whole lot for country pop. I want to know what was the pull to country music for you?
For me, it was the song writing. A lot of that pop country, especially in past 5-10 years, it's a little bit more just pop. It's pop with twang. Original stuff like Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and Shania Twain that era for me are working people songs and they're everyday songs. They deal with stories of loss and love, one of Garth Brooks’s songs deals with domestic violence. There's another song of his that's one of my favourites called ‘Pushing Up Daisies’. It's about that little dash there in between the year of your birth and the year of your death and what happened in that dash on the gravestone. That's the important part. How is that not touching to people? How does that not get you in the heart?
For you, when you're writing is there generally a method to the madness or is it music first? What's your process like?
I'm constantly singing in my head. I'm constantly creating noise in my head that's musical. When it comes to writing, I collect ideas and thoughts and the lyrics I write down. It's just a bit of a mess on my notes on my phone. When I get to the mood to write or I need to write something, or I allocate time to write, I'll go through those notes. A lot of it is rubbish. I think ‘what was I thinking then?’ But every so often, I'll have a line or a word or something that sticks out to me and affects me in that moment and I'll go from there. 90 percent of what I write is personal. It's augmented reality.
What has been one of your most defining moments as a singer song writer?
I would actually have to say it was when I wrote ‘Hell’s Half Acre’ for my first EP. I had sort of been wondering where I fit and how do I portray myself? How do I get from me onto a paper onto a song. When I wrote ‘Hell's Half Acre’ I nearly scrapped it. I was really nervous about it and I shared it with a friend of mine who works for Mushroom Publishing but was also part of the Telstra Road to Discovery Competition that I was involved with many many years ago. I performed it for that competition and it was that moment where I was like ‘this is the song that I need to base the rest of my songs on’. So it was definitely writing ‘Hell's Half Acre’ that was my ‘this is me’ song.
I read an interview you did a couple of years ago where you said that the gender imbalance in the music industry is the biggest problem within it. Female song writers and producers often say they need to be the best of the best to even be slightly heard or to have their hand noticed in that room for their talent and even then it doesn't always happen. What are your thoughts today and/or your experiences within the industry?
I can only talk for country music because that's where I've been. It's strange. You go to Tamworth Country Music Festival which is the place that everyone congregates at once a year and you wouldn't think that sexism is a thing. There's so many female artists. So many amazing and strong female song writers and performers and they have fans that come and see them and love what they do. But as a female that isn't what I like to call tiny or shiny, I do see it in the more commercial side of things. You look at the charts, on certain radio stations and you think ‘that person is under 30 and a size 8, that person is under 30 and a size 10’. That sounds really harsh of me as a female, saying that. But, my friends are never on the charts. I'm never on the charts. And you think, well something's a little fishy there. You don't want to say it out loud because that might not be the case. Unless you’re an act that's been around for a while like a Kasey Chambers or a Becky Cole, one of those amazing women that's got a name for themselves and grew up in the country music scene. If you are someone that's left of centre and not a tiny shiny, you are generally not in the charts. That isn't the be all and end all of your work. But it is interesting to note.
I'm interested about the Australian country music scene actually because in the States although it looks to be very supportive, there was a report put out a few years ago on gender representation on country format radio. According to the report, women in the country music industry would hear things like women aren't financially viable and women don’t want to hear women when they were told why they weren't being heard on the airwaves. Do you think there's a difference in Australia's appreciation of country music?
I think there is a little bit of that in Australia. It's not a great deal and I'm talking about a minority of people and stations and media that are like that. The small minority I think it's not as prevalent in Australia because we're a smaller market and everyone knows everyone. We all play shows together and we all are friends.
You feel it's actually a really supportive community here in Australia?
As a whole, it is a really supportive community. If you are a beginner and you want to learn how to write a song or want to become a better performer and you go to a festival like Tamworth, you will find friends straight away. You can go up to anyone and have a conversation, you know, find your people.
Oh that's so nice. Many readers now are going to want to go straight to Tamworth.
I encourage it. Country music sort of has this, you know, I call it the C word, country music. It's kind of a forbidden word but It's not as bad anymore. But the community is amazing. It's a beautiful community.
It's good. It's been reborn. Lastly Gretta, if you ever get the dog off your lap and are allowed out of your office, what is on the horizon for you?
I’m planning a little small tour, whether that comes to fruition or not, I am not sure as yet. And then every January I actually go on tour and do a caravan park tour with a buddy of mine, Andrew Swift. We tour from Melbourne all the way up to coast to just above Newcastle and come across and do Tamworth. So I will be on tour in January.
Do you call it the caravan park tour?
We call it the Great Australian Caravan Park Tour or the Great Australian Caravan Park Country Music Showcase.
Goodness. I wish we led with that. That is incredible. That should be turned into a comic book and a TV show. That's brilliant. Gretta, thank you so much for your time today. Congratulations on all your music it's really beautiful to hear.
Thank you!
‘Unlikely Believer’ by Gretta Ziller is out now via ABC Music. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things Gretta Ziller, you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
