INTERVIEW: Introducing edith and her new single 'Fear': "I knew it was special when I wrote it, I knew it was going to be a powerful one."

Interview: Jett Tattersall
Images: Bones Collective, Matt Cussen

Australian singer-songwriter edith first came to prominence in 2021 when she reached the finals of triple j Unearthed High. She immediately started receiving acclaim for her earthy, warm indiepop, honest lyrics and compelling voice.

Her debut single ‘Sink’ is a masterful track that combines indiepop, guitar rock, piano ballad with just a hint.of rippling synths, while last year’s ‘Who Cares’ is a charming, swinging pop tune with darker lyrics that make reference to the anxiety of being stuck inside, in your own head and the joy and release “when I finally started living outside, in the moment, with my beautiful friends.”

After collaborating with Taj Ralph on the single ‘Falling Away’, edith returned last month with ‘Fear’, her first new solo music in over a year. A moody, indie pop track coupled with a subtle electronic beat, the verses are gentle and introspective before it erupts into a guitar-and-drum rock chorus. Co-written with Robby De Sa (MAY-A, Sahara Beck) and mixed by Eric J Dubowsky (Tove Lo), the song deals with the loss of friendships as you grow up and lives start moving in different directions.

“‘Fear’ is about losing someone you depended on for so long,” edith says. “The friendships you have as a child are your whole world, and ‘Fear’ is the realisation that these sometimes come to an end It is about growing up and growing out of these friendships that we were once so comfortable in.”

edith is fast becoming one of Australia’s most promising new talents. With ‘Fear’ recently climbing to number 15 on Triple J’s Most Played chart, and gigs supporting Odette, Greta Stanley and Annie Hamilton, her profile is rising and it will only be a matter of time before she captures your heart. We recently caught up with her to chat more about ‘Fear’ and her music career to date.

Hi edith, so lovely to see you. Before I get into anything else, on your Triple J Unearthed page it says ‘edith… can't dance, can sing.’ Amazing.
Yeah. I’m not a great dancer! I was like, what can I say that's kind of quirky, kind of funny? Obviously I'm a singer, but I am definitely not a dancer. So I thought that'd be a good one to write in.

I love that you call it out as well, because you know what? We're just expected to be able to do all those things, but some of us just can't do the left and right rhythm.
I know. Seriously…. my best friend, she's a really, really good dancer and she's tried to teach me and I still have no rhythm, no coordination whatsoever.

But luckily you've got an amazing set of pipes.
Thank you. Yeah, I think when people come to my shows I try… [but] there's not much dancing going on, let's just say that.

Let's talk about your new single ‘Fear’, which is just so beautiful. It's a song to belt to. Talk to me about where this song came from.
I pretty much wrote ‘Fear’ at the start of last year, summertime. I was just starting year 12 and I fell out with my friend. Not in a big fight sort of way, just as you get older, you sort of lose friendships, and I had known this girl since I was born. It's not like we're not friends anymore, but we're just not as close as we used to be growing up. And I found that really difficult. She’s that friend that you could just call up and be like, ‘do you want to go for a drive?’, a spontaneous friend. I found it really challenging and difficult not having her by my side, so I wrote a song about it. Most of my songs are about friendships and growing up in high school, because I found that a bit challenging. It's a really meaningful, personal song and a very vulnerable song as well.

It's so good. I also like that your songs are about high school and the vulnerability. With music, there is this assumption that if you are an artist, you have to sound like grownups all of the time. That adolescence and developmental time in your life doesn't get written about because people kind of pooh pooh it. But that moment in your life is when you're feeling heartbreak for the first time, whether it's from a friend or a lover, you're feeling all these things for the first time, and it cuts like a knife, and I love that you've brought that to your song because you sing it with such weight.
Thank you. I've always written about things that have happened to me. I always write from experience, personal experience. Growing up, I always say I used my song writing like a journal. When I first started high school, that's when I first started song writing because I found it really challenging. A lot of my songs sound like breakup songs with boys or whatever, but a lot of them are about friends and going through things with friends, friendship groups. I went to an all-girls school, so a lot of that sort of stuff.

It's also when you exercise your relationship skills amongst that group of friends, but unlike a romantic breakup, you can't break up with a friend. It's very awkward. It is much more painful because there's no rules around it.
Exactly. There's a line in ‘Fear’, it is one of my favourite lines, ‘Walking in silence / Small talk is our friend’. I remember at school, I wouldn't be able to talk to this friend anymore like I used to. We were just making weird small talk and I was like, ‘this is so weird’, but it's just something I had to accept. As you said, with a breakup, you distance yourself and there's no contact, but I was seeing this friend every day at school and it was really hard. So that's one of my favourite lines, because I just remember it so vividly and it being so, so awkward and so weird to me.

When you're writing a song, you’re writing from the heart, lyrically. But what I'm curious about with ‘Fear’ is you've got a very powerful voice, but you swell your vocals, you come in so strong. When you were writing it, did you always know it was going to be that powerful?
I don't think I did to be completely honest. I knew it was special when I wrote it so quickly. When I write a song really quickly I know that it is special, because I am feeling all the emotions and I want to write it out straightaway. I start songs, and then I don't finish them sometimes, because I'm not connected to them as much, but I finished this song and probably wrote it in like a half an hour. And I was connected to it straightaway. So in a sense, I knew it was going to be a powerful one, but I didn't realise it was going to vocally be that powerful.

Earlier this year you released ‘Falling Away’ with Taj Ralph, which I just love. It's such a beautiful pop song, and pop is very hard to write. You're so early in your career but you are not shy of experimenting with sound quite a lot. Is that something that you just instinctively do, or is it something that you have to work towards like ‘okay, now I want to add some new layers’?
I think it's just as a grown up and the more I do music as I get older. Everyone used to ask me ‘what sound do you want, what sound are you going to fit into?’ And I never knew because I listened to so many different genres and I never knew. I couldn't understand why can’t I write a pop song and then an R&B song, why can’t I write different genres because I want to? With ‘Falling Away’, I wrote this with Aidan Whitehall and he's amazing at the guitar, so he really brought that because I can't play the guitar, I play the piano. So that was a new thing, and that really helped push that pop style song through. I love ‘Falling Away’, It's like one of my favourite songs I think I've ever written.

You said that song writing for you was your way of journaling and getting through high school, how long have you been playing the piano for and were you always writing on the piano?
I started playing the piano in primary school, probably around the age of maybe 8 to 10. I started off trying to play classical and then I didn't really like it, and then my teacher just taught me the basics of chords. That helped when I went into high school and I started writing my own songs. I remember writing my first song, and it was really bad. My brother's room is next door to me, and I ran into my brother's room and I was like, ‘did you hear that? I wrote that!’ He was like, ‘I don't care’. I remember vividly and I was like, ‘wow, there's other things you can do than just play classical music on the piano.’ And then from there, I just continued.

Amazing. With regards to that, you said you don't play guitar, but you're experimenting with sound. Are you still doing that when you're composing on the piano? Do you still toy with how a piano can sound with your vocals?
Oh, 100%. When I was younger, I did lessons and stuff, but I've stopped them, and I've been using the same chords a lot recently, so I definitely need to expand my piano skills. I think I experiment more in the studio, though, when I'm with a producer because we both bounce off each other with ideas. I tend to fall into a routine at home, playing the same chords because I like how that sounds and I'm used to it, and then I can write different melodies from it.

You came to our ears and our attention through Triple J Unearthed High, that platform has just been everything for Australian music, It's incredible. But having that while going into year 12 in high school, how have you kept yourself on track while being catapulted from high school into this incredible career that you're carving?
Last year, towards the end, I was doing my HSC as well as Triple J Unearthed High, and it was a really stressful time. I focused a lot of my attention on music because I know that's where my passion is and that's what I want to do as my career. So I didn't focus much on my studies - my mum wasn't too happy with that, but that's okay! I just go with the flow, and I just know that this is what I want to do. I get nervous, because I'm really young, and I've always felt really young. I did a song hub when I was 15, and there were all these adults up on the Gold Coast, and I remember feeling so out of place. I've always felt out of place because I'm so young. I'm still working on that, to not feel like an imposter. As I've gotten older, I've gotten a lot more confident, and as I do more things I become more confident. I went travelling this year, and I feel like that gave me confidence as well. As I grow up, I am gaining more confidence, but I'm still working that out.

We adults, we feel like the biggest imposters in the world. I swear that never goes away. It's really hard to overcome that one. You have been doing some incredible live performances and supporting some beautiful, beautiful women, but you've also got your headline launch show coming up at The Chippo. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
I'm so excited. It's this Saturday on the 3rd December. I've been rehearsing with my band and I'm just so excited. I've added some new songs, I'm playing a lot of originals, a lot of covers. I love performing live and because of COVID everybody couldn't do it for a long time, but it's a great feeling just being on stage and singing. I feel like, when I sing live people connect a lot. I get feedback from people and they're like ‘oh my god, that lyric!’ . Because I can hear it more, and it's more vulnerable. I am really excited for this show.

‘Fear’ is out now. You can buy and stream here.

To keep up with all things edith you can follow her on Instagram and TikTok.

‘Fear’ single launch will be held at The Chippo Hotel Sydney on December 3. Tickets on sale here.