- Hey, thank you for joining us.
- Of course.
How are you?
- Good, good.
How's it going over in New Zealand?
How was your,
how was your un-quarantine now, right?
As of like, a week ago?
- We are un-quarantined now,
as of a week.
And, it feels good.
It feels good to be out of it all, I think.
I kind of was like,
I was kind of losing it in the last week,
I think.
It was like, it was what, was like seven weeks.
It was just like, ugh.
I just felt like I was in a little box,
but it's okay,
because tomorrow is gonna be the first gig
that's been put on in
however long it's been now since there was a gig,
which is crazy.
- [Gab] Crazy.
- Yeah, it's nice to kind of have things
go back to normal.
- Tell us how you got started
growing up in New Zealand, when you started writing music,
when you started being interested in that.
- Yeah. - The whole foundation.
- Yeah, definitely.
Well, I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand,
and I've always kind of, I've always loved music
and I grew up around a family who was musical.
Mom sings in a choir,
and Dad claims that he can sing
and he used to play the clarinet.
Yeah, when I was, I think,
when I was eight years old I asked my parents
if I could learn the saxophone,
and then I played the guitar in,
in my primary school, which was fun.
Then, yeah, I went into high school
and music was compulsory for the first four years,
but it was strictly classical music,
and I wanted to do the guitar,
but I ended up doing the saxophone
and singing a little bit in the school choir.
I also played a lot of water polo,
so that was like, my life.
Was seven years in high school,
and intermediate was like, water polo.
But, then in my last year, in 2017,
I was kind of like, "Oh my goodness,
"I don't wanna do this for the rest of my--
"I don't wanna do water polo."
And, I wasn't gonna do water polo.
I don't know, I kind of like,
I got kind of into SoundCloud,
and just finding people on there, and stuff.
I found that a few people that I knew kind
of were relating on there.
And, I was like, "Hmm, maybe I'll record some covers
"on GarageBand with my guitar.",
and it was terrible.
But, then I recorded them,
and I put them out there just for my friends,
and surprisingly, got contacted by,
by a couple of people,
and that got me into,
connected with my manager Paul,
and my now producer still, Josh Fountain,
who I've been working with on all of my,
all of my music for the last like, three years,
which is cool.
But, yeah.
That's how that kind of started
and then, start of 2018,
I was going to university for two weeks,
and I had released one song at the end of 2017
called Tough Guy.
And, I guess the response to that was kind of just like,
"Oh.
"What?"
Some people were actually interested
in what I was doing,
and I was like, "Oh my goodness.", and I kind of,
I don't know.
I didn't last very long at university, obviously.
But, I knew that,
I knew that I didn't want
to be stuck doing that
because I felt like,
I felt like at that point,
I knew that music was something that I wanted
to at least try out, if you know what I mean.
And, I think,
I call it my quarter life crisis,
I tell everyone that I had a quarter life crisis,
'cause I really had, like,
I was so freaked out.
And, it was like,
it was scary 'cause I was like,
"Yeah I wanna go for music.",
but then I was like, freaking out
'cause like, imagine if I, you know if I,
pour everything into music
and I get really excited,
and then just nothing,
you know, no one wants to hear about it or anything,
and then I'll feel,
I mean I'll feel gutted,
but, yeah.
I kind of, I like the idea of giving everything up
and just focusing on music.
And, been doing it ever since, which is fun.
- I mean it's a testament to how vital
it was for you to connect with Josh,
because that is what kicked off your trajectory.
- Yeah, I was super lucky to, I think,
fall into the studio
with him as the first person that I ever worked with,
'cause I feel like he was in no way like,
"You need to sound like this.",
and I think that that could be the case
for a lot of young musicians
who haven't found their sound.
But, he's the sweetest, most gentle, genuine human,
and I think that he,
we gave each other a lot of time
to kind of figure out exactly what I wanted to make,
and I think that that's why I'm still working with him,
just 'cause he,
he gets it, he gets me.
(laughs)
Yeah.
- So, let's talk Supalonely.
- Mhm.
What was the origin of this song?
The process, the inspiration?
- Yeah, I wrote it last year when I went on
a trip to L.A. for a month.
It was gonna be a month of just making music.
I kind of, uh,
I had been in a relationship with this guy
for like, a couple of years,
and it had been on and off,
and long distance the whole time,
and I kind of,
I just like, I was kind of in a little bit of a hole,
'cause I was like, "Oh my gosh,
I know that this is not working."
But, then I was also like, "I know that if I end it,
"I'm gonna be depressed for a long time."
to be honest,
and I think, yeah I don't know,
I ended up just kind of saying
to him that it wasn't working
four days before I left to L.A.
Which was not the wisest decision,
but that happened
and, yeah I don't know,
I kind of just got to L.A.
And, I feel like L.A. is massive,
and there are so many people there.
And, I knew no one.
I literally did not know a single person here.
(laughs)
So, I felt very lonely,
and I think that usually, following a break up,
I would go to my friends,
and my mom, and stuff.
And, obviously I didn't have that there,
which sucked, but.
Yeah, it was the first session that I did there,
which was fun,
and I worked with Josh, obviously,
and this girl called Gina Andrews,
who's a good friend of ours.
It was my first time ever working with Gina.
But, yeah, I mean,
I kind of got in there,
and I had never worked with another girl before, either.
Which was interesting.
Or like, just a writer being put into a session
and I was like, a bit spooked by that idea,
'cause I had kind of heard stories
about how writers, you know,
they write the song for you,
and that's not what I wanted.
But, no, yeah, I got in there
and it was so cool,
'cause it was like, feel like
it was like that female presence
that I needed right then.
And, she kind of just like,
you know I could vent to her.
And Josh, 'cause I'm super comfortable around him.
But, yeah we kind of just talked about it and stuff.
I feel like breakups and relationships,
you just get so many ideas,
they just flow so easily, all the lyrics.
So, I kind of just like vomited my words
onto my notes on my computer
and then went in there,
and I, yeah I think,
I was obviously sad,
but, yeah I say that I'm just
super self deprecating about it,
because I was like, you know,
I was like , "You know what,
"I give up.
"I'm not gonna be super sad girl."
Yeah.
I was kind of just like, "I'm not gonna be super sad girl."
- You know, it's an optimistic song,
in that it is accepting
of the idea of (mumbles).
You know, you're not like,
just lamenting, "This is how I'm gonna be forever."
It's just okay (mumbles) - This is true.
Yeah, I think that was kind of what I kind of felt
at that time.
I was kinda just like, "You know what, stuff it.
"I'm just gonna have fun
"with this feeling of being miserable."
And, I think that,
yeah, I kind of just fully embraced that kind of sad girl.
You know, I put a ton of Auto-Tune in the verses,
because I wanted to be kind of a trappy, like a raver.
And, then I screamed my ad-libs
'cause I just wanted to let it all out,
and it was a really good,
it was just like a big old venting session,
which was great for me at the time.
Probably the most fun I've ever had in a session,
to be honest.
Worked out, which is cool.
- When and how did you find out this whole album
was getting attention on TikTok?
- I found out by people sending me videos every day.
People would, like,
I think it started with my friends, like look at this,
and then people on Instagram.
I would get tagged and stuff, as well.
And, I think that it was kinda just like, you know.
I kinda didn't really think of it at the start,
'cause it was like yeah we won.
And, I was like, "Aw, that's really cute."
Then, it kind of like, happened more,
and I was like, "Oh, what the heck."
My brother gave me the inside scoop
on who the big TikTok stars are
and someone forwarded me this video
of this girl who had Charli D'Amelio dancing to it,
and Ollie, my brother, had told me that she was like,
the queen of TikTok,
and I was like, "Oh okay.
"I understand what's happening, this is crazy."
- That's the royal blessing, there.
Do you know where the dance originated?
- This girl called Zoe Fish.
- Cool.
- Yeah, she made the dance up,
and she can dance obviously,
because the dance is difficult.
I can't do it.
I had, people asked me to do it,
and the girl can't save herself.
- Is it not the Macarena?
- No!
You kidding me?
It's like some, super difficult stuff.
I'm too unco.
- Once, once the song started having chart success,
kind of a life outside of TikTok,
how did that feel?
- Pretty insane, I think.
Yeah, it was kind of crazy
watching it kind of happen quite fast on the app,
and then that moving to being played on radio stations
in other countries.
I was like, "What the heck is happening?",
and I think that, even still I'm doing promo
in countries that I've never kind of been to before,
and stuff, which is insane.
But, yeah, I have a lot to thank the app for, I think.