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“And then the other half of the record, it’s kind of like pre-antidepressants and post-antidepressants.<\/p>\n
“It’s seasonal \u2013 there’s winter and then there’s spring, which is coming back out and feeling good again.”<\/p>\n
Living outside Melbourne also shifted her creative instincts, giving her space to work without external pressure.<\/p>\n
“I feel like there’s a sense of freedom when you get out of the city and you feel like you’ve just come out of a spell,” Senior said.<\/p>\n
“I felt like there was more freedom in my musicality just through being out, being on my own and just following my own direction rather than being so influenced by all the people around me.”<\/p>\n
That sense of distance is also reflected in Softly, Once Again, a tongue-in-cheek song that gently critiques Melbourne’s punk music scene and the pressure on artists to constantly amplify themselves.<\/p>\n
“It’s a cheeky little song. It starts off with the line, ‘So many punk bands in this town’,” Senior said.<\/p>\n
“It’s just a bit of a joke about the oversaturation of punk music in Melbourne and how in some ways to me, I feel like it’s more punk to do things softly, and to not have to fight this incredibly noisy world, and just go off and do things in secret and not have to post about it.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of those themes on the record of just like, it’s okay to just go off and do your own thing.”<\/p>\n
While the Surf Coast’s beauty runs through much of the album, Senior said living in a seasonal beach town also revealed a quieter side of coastal life.<\/p>\n
“It’s such an outrageously beautiful place that it’s the kind of place where you just step outside and you’re immediately taken out of yourself,” she said.<\/p>\n
“So in that way it’s beautiful\u2026 and it was kind of isolating in that it’s a surf town.”<\/p>\n
“The population explodes over summer and then for most of the year, we were the only ones with the lights on in our street and the whole street was so quiet.<\/p>\n
“That was in some ways a really beautiful experience, but it led to some introspective writing.”<\/p>\n
Leah Senior will perform at Martians Saloon in Deans Marsh on 25 July. Tickets are available via Humanitix.<\/p>\n