PODCAST: Carla Wehbe releases new EP 'Jupiter and Mars': "I wanted to explore a variety of different things that people could relate to."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Kyle Caulfield
Rising Australian superstar Carla Wehbe today releases her second EP Jupiter and Mars and joins us on the Women In Pop podcast to tell us all about its creation.
Co-written by Wehbe over five years and produced by Xavier Dunn and Robby De Sa, the five track EP moves her sound into a more indiepop, cinematic sound after the pop synth of her 2020 debut EP Half Past Nine.
“This EP has been a long time coming for me. it’s cinematic, emotionally dramatic and expresses this extensional sense of longing for something, which I really wanted to express in all the songs,” she says. “Five years in the making, the songs were all written at very different times in my life - from the title track ‘jupiter and mars’ which was written 5 years ago, to ‘addicted to self deprecation’ written as recently as late last year, it seems as though a completely different version of me wrote each song, yet somehow they all fit perfectly together.”
It features the previously released singles ‘is forever off the table?’, ‘introvert (with extroverted expectations)’ and ‘knight to E5’ plus two new tracks.
‘addicted to self-deprecation’ examines Wehbe’s relationship with love and the endless search for the perfect partner, questioning along the way if you are the problem. ‘I never know if I’m in love / Or just hate being alone’. It is is an insanely addictive guitar pop-rock with delicious melodies and a stunning vocal performance from Wehbe.
The second new track ‘jupiter and mars’ closes the EP and begins as a lush pared back ballad that builds into a full-blooded guitar track. It tells a story of unrequited love, two people that are so close but so far apart. “So close, but we’re light years apart…so tell me how to love you from afar?”
Jupiter and Mars is a beautifully heartfelt, intimate, warm EP and showcases Wehbe as one of the greatest young talents in Australian music, with an ability to turn her hand to any genre of music. She has an incredible talent of creating music that not only sweeps you away in a rush of gorgeous melodies and mesmerising sounds, but also connects deeply with you. A true superstar in the making. We recently caught up with Wehbe on the Women In Pop podcast, you can listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or on our podcast page. You can also read a edited excerpt from the podcast below.
Hi Carla, it is so good to be speaking to you again. We're so excited for this EP Jupiter and Mars. What a beast. Talk to me about it.
Well, it's called Jupiter and Mars and there's five songs on there, two of which are new and haven't been released. It's a combination of songs that date back from like five years ago until just a couple of months ago. So they were written over a fairly long period of time. These are the five songs that felt like they deserved a place on the EP, and I'm just very excited to share it with everyone.
Tell me about the song ‘jupiter and mars’. This song’s been coming for five years, what was it about this track that you're like, ‘Okay, this is the title’?
I don't know, it felt right. It's one of my favourite songs I've ever written. And I love space, that's no surprise! Because of how much I love that song and what it meant to me I felt like it had earned its right to be called that.
You've got five songs, but it's still also absolutely eclectic. One of the new tracks 'addicted to self deprecation' I'm getting huge kind of 90s pop punk energy from, but it still feels like it's all in line with the EP as a whole. Can you tell me about the themes you were working with?
It's a combination. There's some love in there, or heartbreak. ‘addicted to self deprecation' explores more of a personal kind of reflection. It doesn't really have to do with another person, it was more ‘me’ focused. ‘introvert (with extroverted expectations)’ is very myself focused as well, or how I fit into my friend circles or stuff like that. 'knight to e5' is about the struggle with a relationship that means a lot to you, not necessarily love related, and putting someone else before yourself, which is not always an easy thing to do consistently. 'jupiter and mars', and 'is forever off the table?' are the only love themed songs on the EP. I wanted to explore just a variety of different things that people could relate to.
Because you had, obviously very different songs, that same top and tailing, with Half Past Nine, where it was moments of stepping outside yourself, but then also those moments of looking in with this very honest study of both insecurities, but also the things that you kind of kick ass at as well.
Yeah, it's always important to have that looking in as well. Because I feel if we neglect that, then we struggle in outside areas of our life. So I always place an importance on the self reflection or self awareness side of things.
I think that's beautiful, even when that self-reflection can be a little bit like, ‘Oh, God, I fucked up’, it comes from a place of self love, which I don't think we're used to hearing in music.
Yeah. I mean, it's definitely been a very big learning curve for me. I didn't always come from that place. I am very critical of myself, but I try where I can to be more gentle with myself and see things from a less critical place when it comes to myself. I find myself being kinder to other people than myself, and it doesn't really make sense when you think about it. It's trying to explore what I consider my flaws, but not in a very negative way, just more of an observe observing way. And just noticing certain patterns that I have, or certain behaviours, stuff like that.
Let's talk a little bit about 'knight to e5'. You mentioned putting someone else's needs before your own. This song's got some beautiful metaphors in it, but I really love the melody. Talk to me about this track.
It's a song I wrote with a couple of my best friends, like most of my songs. It wasn't something that I went into the studio thinking that I wanted to write about. We were hanging out in the studio, coming up with some chords and melodies, and there were a couple of chords that felt really good and so we stuck with them. The concept of ‘knight to e5’, I was trying to think, what's something a little bit abstract that we can write about, that I haven't done before. The title ‘knight to E5’ just came to me, it was from Harry Potter and I thought about what actually happens in that scene, and how Ron sacrifices his knight to let Harry continue and be successful in his little mission. And I related to that, in the sense that I felt like I do that a lot. I put other people's happiness over my own. I want to do everything that I can to make sure that someone else doesn't feel sad or lonely or upset or hurt. So I tend to neglect my own emotions sometimes. I thought it was a really cool concept, and they loved it. So we explored that and to be honest, I don't remember exact details of that session, it's a little bit of a blur, the song was written fairly easily. I wanted it to be very dramatic, the strings for me bring out a certain level of emotion that not many other instruments can. There were certain choices of instruments that I felt complemented what we're trying to get across with the song.
Absolutely. It's so nice to hear it paired with your, your very distinct voice. As soon as we heard ‘is forever off the table?’ we realised this isn't what we've heard from Carla before. Half Past Nine was just beautiful, synth soaked nostalgia. But this EP, I feel like you're toying with the melody and the instruments and the composition a bit more. Has that come from just growth and confidence in your own voice?
Yeah, I think so. I've always viewed music as having no real rules to how you create it. So I was just playing around a little bit more outside the lines that I was restricting myself to before. I was able to experiment with things and explore different parts of music creation that I hadn't before. It just opened me up to different things and I drew inspiration from everything rather than just certain things. I had more fun with it as well, because I wasn't placing as many restrictions on myself as I did before.
With Half Past Nine, people knew you and they were associating you with she's an 80s collector, everything is retro, synthpop. That was incredible, but I imagine you’re then going, ‘Oh, I guess that's what I do!’
Yeah, exactly. I didn't want to be boxed into that 80s synth. I loved it, and it served its purpose when I did it. And I could still explore elements of that, but I didn't want to just be boxed into that.
What does the rest of this year look like for you?
I haven't got concrete plans, but I'm definitely looking at doing my own headline tour after the EP. Currently working out the details for that. Things show up all the time, so I'm hopeful that I'll be doing a lot of live performances this year.
Jupiter and Mars 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.
