INTERVIEW: Tulliah releases debut EP 'Fre$h Hugs': "If you just try things and see if it works, you never know what will come out of it."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Simon Eeles
Today Tulliah releases her debut EP Fre$h Hugs. The 19 year old hails from the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria and released her first single ‘Company’ in 2019 which secured her a finalist spot in the triple j Unearthed High competition that year. Last year she released the single ‘Just My Type (A Little Bit Lonely)’, a divine track which is instantly familiar yet utterly unique, with a mix of soul, pop, indie and blues. This was followed in February this year with ‘Distant Dreams’, an atmospheric, eclectic indiepop track with a ever-changing sonic backdrop. Both tracks feature on Fre$h Hugs and are joined by ‘Take It Off Now Boy’ and ‘Okay’, both emotive, intimate, vulnerable piano driven ballads with the latter exploring the value of friendship and always being there for each other.
Recorded throughout 2020 in her home town as it came out of, and back into, lockdown, Tulliah worked on the EP with producer Dean Tuza (Stella Donnelly, The Rubens) and Grammy-winning producer David Kahne (Lana Del Rey, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks), who produced the string arrangements. For a debut EP it is a remarkably accomplished body of work, combining lush melodies with poetic lyricism and Tulliah’s warm, emotive vocals. A remarkable talent, Fre$h Hugs is just the start of what promises to be a stellar music career for Tulliah. We recently caught up with her to find out more.
Hi Tulliah! Your career has been going up in leaps & bounds, how are things in the world with you?
It's good. I'm just working with my dad in the painting business at the moment and it just makes me want to do music more! It's good motivation.
You recently came off a sell-out show at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne where you played all your songs and it went wild. How was it to headline and have those songs out and singing them live?
It was amazing. It was the first time that I've played them to a big audience other than my friends and family. The atmosphere was amazing, because of COVID everyone was sitting down. it was the perfect space for it. I had my best friend Sean on the piano and also my friend from school Maisie on the drums, so it was really awesome.
There's something very, very beautiful about your music. Your recent release ‘Distant Dreams’ is this kind of stunning, folk-tinged tune that's just steeped in a really sleepy nostalgia. Then you've got that selection of very distinctive instruments that just orbit around your vocals. It is so beautiful. Can you talk me through the origins of that track?
I first wrote it probably about a year ago and it was when my friend Sean gave me his old upright piano. My parents were moving a painting to above the piano and my mum read out the title on the back and it said distant dreams. We've had that painting for ages, it's been in our house since i was born. In that moment I just sat on the piano and wrote that song. It came to me pretty freely. It's about not wanting to break away from your visions and goals and only really believing in them when you're dreaming.
When it came to producing the EP, what were your initial desires? It's got such an interesting collection of sounds with your voice and i just want to know how the ideas came about?
I went into the studio with Dean Tuza and I had no idea what I wanted things to sound like. I didn't know what my sound was, I hadn't really discovered what my sound was. I went in with just voice memos of me playing the songs. piano ballads in their original forms. A lot of tracks by other artists that I loved at the time were all pretty much acoustic based and guitar driven. So we switched out the piano for the guitar and just went from there. It was our first day working on ‘Distant Dreams’ and i just started playing it on the guitar and my friend Sean was on piano and Dean was on drums just doing really light percussion and we just jammed it out and recorded it as one take. It just felt so right, like it was heading in the right direction. Again, i didn't know it was going to head in this direction at all but it felt really, really right and I'm very proud of it.
Beautiful. When you write music do you lean towards the piano initially?
No, probably the guitar actually but because I got the piano very new at that time, I was playing it so much. If I’m just walking around the house and I come up with some kind of melody and if i don't know the chords I go to the piano and transpose it to the guitar. But it also just depends on the vibe of the song and what I’m feeling at the time. You can always switch as well.
I love listening to song writers because they always treat the instrument like a language. It's really interesting the way you speak about it, like you couldn't pinpoint that note so you had to then translate it into a guitar. I think that’s really beautiful. Let's talk about ‘Just My Type (A Little Bit Lonely)’, that song is just an incredible track. And the lyrics: ‘You’re just my type a little bit lonely / I always finds it never works out for me / It's like I'm drawn only to what remains’. First of all, actually break this one down for me and then I'll gush over it a bit more.
Those lyrics are probably what sum up the track the most. Probably like a year and a half ago I was kind of drawn to people that were a little bit broken and I wanted to help them. in a sense that can also be bad for your own mental health when you’re trying to help someone else and they’re not willing to help themselves. Although I always want to be there for my friends and I always am there for my friends, sometimes it is better to take a step back. I was getting too involved, so that's what it was about. Originally that one was another piano ballad, I wrote it at the same time as ‘Distant Dreams’. I remember just sitting down at the piano and the first verse just came to me. For a while I had no clue what it was about and then in the studio as we were playing around with it, again we switched with guitar and added really light percussion, which was actually me just hitting the extra drum. That's how we started off with the drums and then we just added from there. That one was probably the hardest to get our heads around in the studio. It probably took us four long day sessions to then start feeling it was going in the right direction. As soon as we switched to guitar it just felt right again. That's something that carries through the whole EP. There's only one song that doesn't have guitar in it.
It's absolutely gorgeous. There's so many layers of sound to it. There is poetry in the lyrics as well, you've got a fascination with words as well as the melody. I want to know when you're song writing, you said that sometimes the melody will come to your head. Does it usually come when you're stewing over words or a problem? What does your process usually look like?
It usually starts as a melody of just humming. No real words have formed and then I would go to either the piano and guitar and work out the chords and then just kind of jam on them and see what happens. Usually when I listen to that voice memo I start to hear words that I’m subconsciously saying. Then things start to make sense and I’m like.. ‘ohhh, this is what I’m writing about’. it's usually something that has happened recently in my life or something that my friends have said.
Beautiful. The accompanying video was the real clincher for me. It's absolutely gorgeous. i know you were shooting it as lockdown was sort of easing in Melbourne and so the streets look empty and you've got your friend Miss Over-reaction splashing about in the shore with that gorgeous overture of voice. How important is it for you those accompanying visuals to a song?
I feel like it's really important. Whenever I listen to music I’m visualising things or seeing colours. As a kid i was always watching YouTube videos and video clips. It's just another element that is so fun about writing songs. You can bring in film and visualisation because i guess when you are listening to a song, there is no visual so it's cool to bring that to life and show people what you are seeing as you listen to it.
I think it is beautiful and it becomes like you called it, it is stepping away from video clip and it’s coming into film. They're like miniature films and that's very much the case with yours. You kind of blew up at the end of your adolescence with the single ‘Company’ in 2019 and this is an unattainable goal for most and it's great and it's like living the dream. But I feel that there must be some kind of sacrifice that comes with being propelled so far right out of the gate and so young. What have been some of the sacrifices you have made to get to where you are today?
When i released ‘Company’ I was in year 12. I started to get really busy towards the end with exams and during the summer holidays. Just before lockdown hit i was on tour straight after school and when lockdown hit, that’s when everything kind of slowed down again. But probably the only thing was just not being around for events and everything. It doesn't sound like much but since i was away so much i missed out on my friend’s birthdays, going out and all that stuff that you do as soon as you leave school, which isn't like a crazy sacrifice. I don't regret anything at all and I’m so grateful for the opportunities that I have but that was probably the only thing. I love it. I love travelling around and writing things. All my friends are so, so supportive, and it definitely makes a difference.
You released ‘Company’ when you were halfway through year 12. You’ve been writing and singing forever. Where did your love of music originate?
I've always sang. I would always listen to Adele, she was like my main inspiration when i was younger and I'd watch her concert at the Royal Albert Hall on DVD,. I'd watch that every day over and over again. My mum used to sing so I’m guessing i got my voice from her. I started writing when I was in year 9 after I broke my ankle. I just delved into song writing because there was nothing else I could do. I used to play soccer and soccer was my main thing. I absolutely loved it. since I couldn't do it, I was like ‘oh I need to occupy my mind’ because my mind was going a bit crazy just sitting there thinking and observing. That's where it all started.
As a young solo artist, do you feel that you've ever had to push harder to be heard or even taken seriously within the industry?
I'm very lucky because I've got a supportive team around me. My manager, Damien, has always hooked me up with genuine people that are very caring. I've been very lucky in that sense. Now there is a lot of young artists who are up and coming and are crazy talented, it's very admirable to see. I've never had an experience where I feel like I haven't been listened to. My opinions are still valid.
That's a good place to be in. You’ve said you're getting used to production, do you ever second guess yourself or are you always fully confident and aware of how you want your music to come out sounding and confident to call it as well?
I definitely always second guess myself and I've learned over the last year to just go with my gut. Especially with production, there's no limits. You can take it as far as you want and if it's too much you can just strip it back down and take a completely different turn. Nothing's ever locked in. I guess if you just try things, see if it works and you never know what will come out of it.
So Fre$h Hugs out today, what else is on the horizon for you? What's making you excited? What's coming up?
I'm hoping to be back into the studio. I've been writing a lot over the past month. Nothing that I'm really certain about. Again, I'm kind of second guessing myself about this new stuff that I'm writing. I reckon if I just start working on it and producing it and taking to my producer to say ‘yeah this is okay’, I'll start to feel a bit more ‘this is alright’! So I'm hoping to be back into the studio and depending on COVID a mini-tour around Australia - Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney which would be really, really cool. Just keep writing. And painting with my parents.
Fre$h Hugs is out now. You can download on iTunes and stream on Apple Music and Spotify.
To keep up with all things Tulliah you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
