(upbeat music)
- Hey everybody, welcome back to the Phantom Power Artist Hour.
This is a listener supported value cast, snow ads,
there's no commercials, there's no sponsors.
And if you like it, if it brings value into your life,
I would ask that you share some of that value in return,
be it with your time, talent or treasure.
And I hope you do the same, not only for today's guest,
Abby Muir, but for all of the artists that we play
on our shows, be it the music review
or the music hour, the business hour, all of it.
That is what value for value is about.
It's not just about sharing satoshies and Bitcoin.
It's also about time and talent.
So as always, welcome your feedback and suggestions,
artists, songs, band suggestions, anything.
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Thank you.
Lovely conversation today with Abby Muir.
It had been a while since we had spoken.
I actually had the pleasure of playing piano for her
up here in Nashville a year and a half ago.
But since then, every conversation we've had
has been via email or me with her team.
So it was great to actually get on the horn with her again
and catch up and talk about her songwriting
and her trip to Tokyo recently to cut vocals
and finish up a whole new bunch of tracks
that she's got coming and talk a little bit about
where she's from in Scotland and moving down to Australia
and all that fun stuff.
But before we get to the interview,
let's crank it up with Stock Home,
the song that she dropped into the value verse
a couple of months ago.
You ready?
We'll check it out and then bring her on.
Here we go.
♪ My dear, you could go meet in the south ♪
♪ And tell me the road was and you go into detail ♪
♪ Just hide and then for me I would so stay ♪
♪ No roads around my head ♪
♪ Just tell me you love me and I'm change ♪
♪ To your command ♪
♪ I love the way you're mean and force your head ♪
♪ And your touch ♪
♪ The way you're gonna sit my name is Isaac ♪
♪ When I'm using it at the end this way ♪
♪ So I'll find a beauty and call in you ♪
♪ Baby, you're the man I love you ♪
♪ I say I'm scared it's the truth ♪
♪ And I know that this is all a phone ♪
♪ I know that you'll be excited when you leave me ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ For a reason is like you caught up in your faint ♪
♪ Just bring me things out people ♪
♪ Who suddenly wouldn't say ♪
♪ And I'm over my head and blood that I've fled ♪
♪ In time that I've spent ♪
♪ But I do it again ♪
♪ You could leave me dead ♪
♪ And I'm still love ♪
♪ The way you're mean and force your head ♪
♪ And your touch ♪
♪ The way you're gonna sit my name is Isaac ♪
♪ When I'm using it at the end this way ♪
♪ So I'll find a beauty and call in you ♪
♪ Baby, you're the man I love you ♪
♪ I say I'm scared it's the truth ♪
♪ And I know that this is all a phone ♪
♪ I've got to be where I'll be if I am ♪
♪ Oh, I'd take all the pain away from you ♪
♪ You know I'd take all the pain away ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Wait ♪
♪ Oh, oh, wait ♪
♪ I leave her blind ♪
♪ If you can't embrace me ♪
♪ I'll leave you blind ♪
♪ And I'll confess ♪
♪ Please ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ I say I'm scared it's the truth ♪
♪ And I know that this is all a phone ♪
♪ I've got to be where I'll be if I am ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
(rock music)
- All right, Stockholm.
What's up Abby?
How are you, dear?
- I'm amazing.
How are you?
- I'm doing great.
I'm so glad we finally get a chance to chat.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, me too.
It's been too long.
You quite frankly have been ignoring me.
I've been stuck relegated to speaking.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- Me.
- I haven't been ignoring you.
I've just been shit sitting around little crazy life.
- Yeah, good.
- But a lot of stuff going on.
- You really have.
I mean, so for those who didn't catch it,
when I've introduced a couple of your songs,
either in the review or on the music hour,
I actually played a gig with Abby.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, up here in Nashville.
It was a year and a half ago, dude.
Can you believe that?
- I know, I can't believe it.
- It's been a lot, but if they dive deep
into your Facebook profile,
they probably find it.
- Yeah, they can probably.
- Yeah, they could easily find it.
- Yeah, that was a beautiful song,
"Indee" with a nice little chord change,
and I love that.
- Mm-hmm.
- Major Six Play, the name of the song is,
I forgot about me, but that was a lot of fun.
And I'm so thankful that our paths have crossed again,
and here you are in the values.
- Yeah, who would have thought?
- It's crazyness.
All right, so let's start with this.
What is going on?
What were you doing up in Tokyo?
Rit recently, tell me about it.
- Oh, yeah, I just got back a couple of weeks ago.
I was recording there.
I found a producer online, and he was really cool,
and I wanted to sort of go somewhere outside of the box,
'cause I wasn't sure about saying Australia to record.
I was gonna be recording an album,
so I had 10 to 13 songs that I was ready
to lay down on the vocals for,
and yeah, I went to Tokyo,
and it was very, very overwhelming at first.
And also the first week I was there, and I got stripped through,
so I couldn't even record for the first week.
- Oh, no.
- So I had only one week to record an entire album of songs,
and we got seven songs down, which I am very proud of.
That's seven out of 10, and I think we got
a good chunk done out of them,
but yeah, it was very disappointing being sick,
but I still had such a great time,
and I've never actually enjoyed working
with an engineer so much,
I get along so well with him.
- Nice. - So I would really love to go back and do more.
- And finish him up.
- Wow, that is, man, what a bummer you got strep going up there.
- I know.
- Would you just get in the hotel for like a week?
- Yeah, I tried to rest up.
I ended up my producer and his wife took me to the doctors,
and they didn't speak English,
so I had to, his wife had to try and translate for me
and tell them what I was feeling, what was wrong,
and I was trying to describe like little white stones
coming out my throat, and so they did test on me,
and then I thought it was tonsillitis,
'cause I've had tonsillitis before,
but then he was like, no, it's strep throat,
and it's pretty bad, so no singing for at least three days.
- And they gave me antibiotics and medication,
and but, but I felt healed up the next day.
Like after taking the meds that night,
the next morning I felt completely healed.
I was like, what the heck?
Japanese medication is next level.
- So that green tea, man.
- Yeah, the matcha, matcha cup.
- Yeah.
- Well, I know a thing or two about being in a hospital
in a foreign country and the doctor
and the nurse not speaking English.
- Yeah. - What happened?
- I was in Germany.
I was in Germany, and yeah, I got hit.
I got hit, let's just put it that way.
- Hit as in like, punch store by a court.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I got punched.
It's a totally embarrassing story.
- We're not here to talk about me.
I'll tell you the story offline.
- Yeah, okay.
- But yeah, I know a thing or two about that.
Yeah, I was-- - It's scary.
- Yeah, it is, especially when you young,
'cause I was like, 20, 21 when it happened, so.
- Yeah, no.
Yeah, it's very isolating, but yeah,
everything worked out in there, and so very grateful.
- So where did you get, so, all right,
so you fly up to Tokyo to do the vocals,
but where did you track?
Where'd you track the instruments?
Where was that?
- Oh, so my producer Kyle, he's actually making them
in the studio.
- Okay, and Kyle's, Kyle's,
- He did, yeah. - Aaron Australia?
- Nope, he's in Japan.
- Okay.
- But we've been bouncing back and forth for a while,
and I sent him reference tracks and everything,
and like I've heard demos that he's done,
so I'm just waiting on the next song
that I'm gonna be putting out,
and I should be getting that in the next couple of days,
like the final mix and master.
- So Kyle, so like when you guys are writing these songs together,
do you send Kyle like a rough draft,
like what we would call a Nashville,
as like a work tape, of just you banging it out on the piano?
Okay.
- So it depends on the song,
because sometimes I write acoustically,
and then sometimes I'll search up beats,
and instrumentals online,
and then I'll write to that,
and then I'll just send him that instrumental,
and we can make something new,
just using that as a reference.
- Very cool.
- That makes sense, yeah.
- Yeah, it does.
I just didn't understand how you did it,
because I know, like, obviously I've followed you now
for a year and a half ever since we had that gig together,
and I've seen you doing some gigs with,
yeah, you're sister playing guitar,
and some other guitar,
and I see your band.
So I was like, "Oh, how's she putting the music together?"
So, yeah. - Cool.
- Well, cool.
And you found this dude online, right?
- Yeah.
- His studio, Tokyo dope studios,
I think the third top studio in Tokyo,
and that's coming second to like the really big label studios.
- How long did it take you guys to get into
a good working relationship to get into like,
"Oh, this dude is fire.
"I'm definitely gonna work with this guy."
Like, how long did it take?
- Well, we clicked pretty much straight away.
Like, he's really easy to talk to.
He's got a good vibe,
but I would say like, probably in like the third session,
he actually sat me down and started having a deep chat
about it.
He was telling me that he was the more time he was spending
with me, he was really impressed with my lyricism
and like all these little things.
And it was really, really nice.
And I feel like that moment, we bonded a lot as musicians.
Like, we were just talking about our experiences.
And, you know, so I'd say probably like,
by our third session, we were locked in.
- We locked in.
Right on, good, I know it's hard, man.
I know it's hard to find a good,
I mean, how it's hard?
- It's very hard, yeah.
- It's just hard to find good bandmates, right?
I think like one of the things that I've gotten into the habit
here in Nashville is like, if somebody wants me to play
in their band or, you know, work with them, I'm like,
okay, let's go have a cup of coffee, let's hang.
- Mm-hmm.
- You know, 'cause you're gonna hang more than your gig
and more than your work.
And if that hang, if the hang sucks, I ain't gonna do it.
- Well, yeah, can you imagine if I didn't like Kyle
and I was stuck there for two weeks trying to record
an album with him?
- Oh, screw that.
- No.
- It would drag, it would suck so bad.
- Yeah, 'cause once you get it in your head
that the relationship is shot,
then your creative energy is gone.
- Yeah, it's over.
- Yeah, and you're not gonna perform the same.
You're not gonna perform the same.
- Yeah, when you, yeah.
- So you got seven done, seven out of 10, not bad.
Yeah, okay.
And then the rest of the other three were sort of like
acoustic tracks anyways.
So it's something that I could record at home
because I do have a pretty good set up here
and I do enjoy producing my own vocals anyways.
So recording myself here at home
might be something that I'll look at.
- Well, yeah.
- Yeah, that's one of the questions I had for you
because I broke down the lyrics on Blueprint
and I ordered not the lyrics but, well,
I did the lyrics a little bit.
Like I liked your comment about the hands.
- Oh, thank you.
- But I broke down the track of Blueprint
and all the vocals that she did.
And then I learned afterwards,
so like your team told me, yeah, she cut those at home.
I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.
So tell me, like, let's get nerdy.
What do you have for your interface?
What do you have for your DAW?
What do you have for your mics?
What are you doing?
- Okay, so I've got my interfaces, the Apollo Twin.
- Okay.
- But I recently just got a new one.
I did have the Oli's, the Easonies and I think I have a...
- Okay, my dad actually is very obsessed with mics
and everything and he likes to research some.
- Good, good dad.
- He shows this one, yeah.
- And then what are you using for your DAW?
- I use Logic Perk.
- Oh, look at you.
- Yeah, I love Logic because I started on Garageband.
That's what I put my first song out with.
- Which one?
- I did on Garageband.
- Jimmy Jeebies.
- You did he be Jeebies on Garageband?
- Yeah, yeah, I did.
- Yeah, and I bet you your dad is like,
well, you got 160,000 dreams on the free software.
- What the hell do I do?
- Hey Logic.
- Jeebies like Mars, but I guess you Logic.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I love it.
I've ever since I've first started recording myself at home,
like harmonies and just producing my vocals.
I've been so obsessed with it.
It's my favorite part to be honest about making music is the layering and...
- Really?
- Yeah.
- How, what are you using in Logic for compression?
Are you just using the stock plug-in?
- Yeah, I just use the stock plug-in.
- Really?
- Yeah, and like tweak some little things.
I'm really not like a wizz with it.
Like I don't actually know too much.
I just know when it sounds good and go with the flow.
- No, that's good though.
That's good because if you're kicking those raw stems up to Kyle,
you're gonna want to send them to him as I say up here,
just raw and down the middle, meaning no effects, no pan.
- Nothing on him, yeah.
- Right, yeah.
So that's cool, good for you.
You're going with the bear tracks in there.
So how on BluPrint specifically,
if you can, if you remember,
how many tracks did you have of just BluPrint?
- I probably had, man, I had a lot,
like I probably had seven to ten different harmony lines.
- Yeah.
- And then I had adlibs on top of that.
- And duplicates.
- And leads, yeah.
- Yeah.
- I had a lot, like 20, maybe 30.
- 30 vocal tracks.
I believe it.
- Yeah.
- I believe it.
How long did it take you to do to complete that?
- So I wrote BluPrint.
This is gonna sound so like, you know what I mean?
But I actually wrote BluPrint in a couple hours
and did like rough ideas for the harmonies.
It took me about a day, but then when I was properly recording it,
it took me, I think a couple days to just get everything
how I wanted it and make sure everything was right
and not clashing.
- Yeah.
Well, it's brilliant.
It's really brilliant.
Like, I love your runs up in there.
Yeah, your runs were killer on that.
- Yeah.
- And it's funny too, how, I mean, you know,
I know you've got at least a dozen songs that you've released now.
- And I don't take them, you know, when you said
that you wrote BluPrint in a couple hours,
that doesn't surprise me, you know?
I mean, you've been doing this enough that you know,
some of your songs are gonna take you a couple of days,
a couple of weeks, maybe even a month or two to finish.
And then some days, you know, it's just like,
you know, one pops out and you're like, what the hell was that?
- Yeah.
- Why can't they always be like that?
- Yeah, I know.
- Yeah.
- How long did it take you to write Stockholm?
- So, I think I actually also wrote that one in a day.
And then I brought it to the band and then the music part
was the part that took the longest to write,
but my vocals and lyrics, I did that in a day.
That one just came to me really quick as well,
because at the time I wrote it, I was in my like,
Harry Potter obsession era.
And I was really, really obsessed with Draco Malfoy.
And so my idea, I like when it's a writer song about
being in love with a villain or like the bad guy
and knowing it's wrong.
And so it kind of just came to me really quickly
and I was just like a word vomiting out all the lyrics.
And so when it happens like that, yeah, it's easy.
I can get songs done super quickly.
- Do you find that you use literature or movies a lot
as an inspiration or is it daily life?
Like, where do your ideas come from primarily?
- Yeah, I really, um, lyrics are very, very important to me.
I read a lot of books and I think poetry as well
as sort of an inspiration when it comes to writing.
And you know, I'm a big movie head too,
so I would say literature and stuff.
- So?
- Like a part of my writing, but, um, yeah,
it's all my songs are sort of from real life experiences
or scenarios that I make up in my head and then
put myself in the shoes of that character
and then trying right from that perspective.
- So who are some of your favorite poets?
- Maya Angelou, um, subtle.
- Yeah, popular American.
- Yeah.
- And I also, I like, this sounds really cringy,
but I get a lot of like poetry,
up on Instagram and TikTok.
And when I see one of those and they like, it inspire me,
I'll save them and write a song using one of the lines
or like, the feel of it.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- You're not inspired by any of the great poets from Scotland
from the Highlands?
- I mean, I probably shouldn't say no.
(laughs)
- Right, 'cause you're like--
- It doesn't even matter to me who wrote it if I read it
and it makes me feel something, then I'll take inspiration from it.
- Fair enough, 'cause you were actually born and raised in Scotland.
- Yeah, that was.
- And then your family immigrates over to a warmer climate.
- I'm in much warmer climate.
- Yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, you're up on the northern,
or on the northeastern side,
and it's like, hot as hell, pretty much every day, right?
- It's like the hottest it gets here in Australia.
It's like, can get to the five thirties to forties in the summer.
- Oh, yeah.
- And it's the humidity too.
It's so bad, it's like 97%.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So when it's raining, it's like boiling hot,
and you're sticky and sweaty.
- Yeah, oh, sounds like being a Disney world in August.
(laughs)
That's no fun.
And you guys, so you're in your fall right now,
you're coming into your quote unquote winter or so.
- Mm-hmm.
- Do you have a desire to go back to Scotland?
I mean, you're getting to the point where you can probably go anywhere
that you want to go.
- Yeah.
- Are you cool with Stan and Australia?
Are you thinking about going back to the British Isles?
- I would love to go back and see family and see where I grew up.
Again, it's really weird we're talking about this
because I had a dream last night that I went back to Barra where I'm from.
And I really would love to.
I do miss it.
I don't think I would ever move back there because Australia's,
it feels like going to me now, caring especially.
I've noticed like the last couple times I've gone away,
like to Japan and so far, I've found myself really, really missing it here.
- Mm-hmm.
- Just all the little things about it.
So I would love to go back to Scotland and visit for a holiday.
But I just feel like I'd always end up wanting to come back here.
- Yeah.
How big of a town is it?
First of all, how the hell do you pronounce it?
Is it corn?
- Cains.
- Cains?
Like France?
- Cains.
- Yeah, like, like, like, where they do the film festival in France?
Can?
- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Sort of.
Cains.
- Right.
How big of a town is it?
How big of a city is it?
- It's not massive.
I think there's like 150,000 people.
- Okay.
I mean, it must be pretty good because you're getting a bunch of gigs there.
So.
- Yeah, it is good.
There's a good little music scene here.
- Okay.
How long does it take you to get down to, like, Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane?
- Oh, so it's like a two to three hour flight.
Like my sister just moved to Melbourne and that's a three hour flight away.
- Okay.
All right.
- Yeah.
- So, and there's a pretty good gig scene there now.
I think you'll stay up in that corner of Australia or you think you'll go down into one of the
capitals.
- I would like to venture out and experience living in one of the bigger cities.
I don't know when, but it's definitely something that I would like to do.
- All right, on.
Well, let's talk a little bit about Blueprint again.
- Yeah.
- What was some of the inspiration behind the track?
- Well, I was very heartbroken when I wrote it.
Very, very heartbroken.
I had a really tough year, last year.
- I'm tired of that.
- Yeah, it's okay.
It's good though, because I've gotten a lot of content out of it.
I've gotten an entire album that I love from it.
So, you know, silver linings.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I was just really heartbroken and at the time I was on a mission to finish this album
that I was writing as well.
And so I was thinking about what I wanted to write about, what I was feeling.
And it just like concept of feeling like I would never fall in love again.
And this person I was with has set a standard that no one else can ever meet because they're
just not him.
And so that's kind of just how happened.
And I found an instrumental online that I really liked.
It was like a mini web style track.
And I like her a lot.
And so, yeah, I wrote to that and they pretty much finished it in a couple hours.
And they sent it around my team and they all loved it.
- They're like, "Okay, it's on.
Let's get it done."
- So, the seven to ten songs that are going to be part of this project, are they all referencing
this relationship for the past year or is there, do you have some other topics that you're,
I mean, don't get me wrong, man.
Like heartbreak is always a great topic.
I mean, God knows I wrote probably three quarters of my stuff about that.
- Let's be here.
Well, actually, my, I'd say half and half, half are kind of like sad and heartbreak songs,
but the other half are about just being in love and being head over heels.
And at the time, like, I wasn't really writing, I wasn't writing about how I was feeling,
because I wasn't feeling in love and over the moon.
I, I don't know, I wanted to be, so I guess writing like that, it gave me, it put me in that headspace
of like feeling like that, so it helped me out at the time.
- Do you find that when you write, like, are you taking like a whole span of time,
like, you know, you're addressing, well, you kind of do it in Blueprint, like with Blueprint,
you took the whole relationship of this, with this dude, and how this dude created the Blueprint,
and you made that into a song.
Do you ever find yourself writing about that one instance in life where it's like,
you know, that one flash, and then during that flash, you have a rush of emotion that come through.
It could be, it could be love, it could be fear, it could be pain, it could be anything,
like, I remember a bunch of times, I would, I would have an experience in my life,
and it would be like a flash, and I'd have a rush of emotions about just this one little instance,
this one little small thing, and I would end up writing a three or four minute song about that minding thing.
- Just that one little feeling, yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, absolutely.
- Do you have that as well?
- Yeah, of course, I think like, emotion is a huge part about writing, so I feel like, yeah, of course.
- Well, what is, what, to you, what's the best part about being a songwriter?
- Hmm, I think on obviously having a creative outlet, a way to express myself and tell my stories,
and I also love that I can give other people something to relate to,
and I know Blueprint is a really great song for girls that are heartbroken.
I know a lot of girls that feel that way where they have like that one X that they don't think they'll ever get over,
and so I would hope that I can provide some kind of comfort,
even if it's only for like the three minutes that they're listening to the song,
that they can feel a little bit more okay.
- Yeah. - I have like some, I have a really, really emotional song,
my favorite song I've ever written, that I'm probably going to be putting out in a couple months.
- Yeah, I'm so, so excited for it to be out, and for people to listen and feel like everybody that I've played it,
I've had like cried or had goosebumps, it sounds like I'm really talking myself up, but...
- Yeah, I think that's something I'm not emotional about.
- Go for it. - What are you not emotional about?
- What's the title? - It's called Fighting Up Hill.
- Fighting Up Hill? - Yeah.
- Okay, okay. Good Scottish, I just got good Scottish Highland vibes.
- Are you seeing like Braveheart in your mind?
- Yeah, I mean I could do without, yeah. I am getting, I am getting Braveheart vibes,
but you know, not the bad extras that you could see standing off in the movie were wearing their tennis shoes.
- Yeah.
- All right, so what is the worst part about being a songwriter?
- Probably that it's really hard to do it and get paid for it,
because living out of it is, you know what I mean?
- Wait a second, I'm sorry, you want to get paid for this?
- Yeah, I mean it would be nice, you know.
- No, I feel like being a songwriter, it's very, very difficult to make a living out of it
and sort of be as successful as you might dream of.
- Yeah. - Because it's just so oversaturated,
there are so many people writing songs, so many amazing songwriters.
It's really hard to stand out and get your stuff noticed.
Like it's all about luck.
- Yeah, I mean being in the right place at the right time helps work ethic, work ethic helps.
And you're right, there is an awful lot.
I mean, there's never been a more crowded field of amazing artists.
- Yeah.
- Right?
- A lot of people who will never get hurt, you know?
And you can't say this, but I sure as hell can.
And I've said it a million times, there's also a lot of people who suck at this
and who put up a lot of garbage into the feeds and make it harder for you
and every other aspiring artist, because there's no barrier to entry.
- I think.
- Oh, dang it, I just had an, I wanted to ask another question about.
- Oh, well, you mentioned that of course you want to be paid for this.
Well, and along comes value for value and get paid in Bitcoin.
So let me ask you real quick, how?
You've got, I got your Spotify page up here and I'm looking.
You got about 6,100 monthly listeners, nicely done.
And you're looking at, I don't know, 300,000 streams total.
And I don't know what the payoffs are down in Australia, but how much have you made?
- Oh, hardly, hardly any to be honest.
I think probably maybe like four or five hundred dollars.
Like really not a lot at all.
- Yeah, and then, you know, you're a couple of months into value for value
and that's a little different, isn't it?
- It is, it's very different.
- Yeah, how's it going for you?
What do you think?
- It's going so well, I'm so grateful, just like the community
and everybody is so lovely and so welcoming and supportive.
- Yeah. - Which I'm really not used to like, I think here,
especially in Australia, there's a lot of like tall puppies in your own.
People don't want to see you succeed and I feel like in this space,
all I really receive is like support and praise
and it's been really, really nice.
And I'm so grateful for everyone that's, um...
- Who are streaming sets for your songs?
- Yeah.
- I appreciate that so, so, so much.
- Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's like, there are...
It's a small crew right now, just a couple thousand, right?
Like, I mean, especially over on the noster side.
But, I mean, there's a bigger following over on Fountain,
and in the different apps that are out there,
you can see that just from the downloads.
- Yeah. - You're good. I'm glad it's going well for you.
I don't know what your numbers are on, you know, in terms of how many stats you've gotten taken in,
but I can tell a little bit that's going on
and it seems like you're off to a pretty good start.
So, good. I'm glad you're finding value in it.
- Thank you, yeah, absolutely.
- The next gig you do, you know what you ought to do,
and I was telling this to the guys in the trusted two weeks ago,
who you should listen to, by the way, handsome,
handsome, nice young boys from London.
- Really, really great band, holy, carly, great band.
But I was telling them, hey man, next time you guys have a gig,
like, you know, you got your phone with you,
like, tell them you take tips and bitcoin and satosies.
- Mm-hmm. - Mm-hmm.
- You know, and if your sister's playing, don't share it with her.
- No, just kidding. - Yeah, don't worry, I would have.
- I'm just kidding. I'm sure she's lovely.
- Oh, yeah.
- So, I know we bounced around a little bit here,
but one of the things that I wanted to ask you about is how you analyze other vocalists.
- You know, when you listen to Sabrina Carpenter,
or you listen to Ariana, like, what are you here from them?
What do you pick out?
Do you pick out tone, diction, what?
What stands out?
- I don't know, probably more like personality in their voices.
I was already talking before about how I'm a sucker for harmonies.
I love love harmonies, so when I hear stacks and soons,
that makes me tingle.
I think that's why I really, I loved Ariana Grande.
I still do love, like, because she really,
she knows how to harmonize with herself and layer her vocals.
And I take a lot of inspiration from her when it comes to that.
- Yeah. - Yeah, I would say probably harmonies personality.
I love a good one and riff.
- Yeah.
Who are your biggest vocal inspirations right now?
- Right now.
I've always been one of them.
I really do love Sabrina Carpenter, actually.
Billy Eilish was a big inspiration for me a few years ago.
Not so much anymore, but I still love her for the inspiration.
She did give me back then, because like when I put "Heavy GVs" out,
she was all I was listening to.
I really, really love Sizza.
- Oh! - She's a huge inspiration for me right now.
- Okay. - Okay.
- Like her runs, her tone, everything about her lyricism.
I just love her a lot.
- It was actually so heartbroken, because she's coming to Australia on her tour
and I waited like five hours to buy tickets and then there were 400 each.
And I was like, I just can't justify spending 400 with sterling dollars this year.
But one day I will see her.
- There you go.
- What about inspirations that nobody would think that you draw from?
Like who are some of your guilty pleasures?
Like if you hear Stockholm for the first time, you're like,
"Oh, this is a metal chick, like she's into this."
- This is his, right?
Who are some of your outside of the pop world artists that you like?
- I listened to a lot of rap music.
I really love.
Yeah, I know.
You wouldn't think so looking at me, but I probably more predominantly actually do listen to her.
I really do listen to rap and R&B.
Like Afro beats to I really love.
I love Don Talver.
His voice is just, "Oh, it makes me like melt into the floor."
- Why have I ever heard that name before?
Where's that dude from?
- Don Talver.
He's American.
He does R&B.
He's done songs with Sizzle before and met her boom in.
He has a few big songs.
You probably would know a couple of them if you heard them.
- All right.
- I really love Drake too.
Pretty basic.
I love Ty Dullesign.
I love his production as well, the way he makes his songs.
Kanye, Jay Cole, Frank Ocean, 21 Savage.
I love Kendrick Lamar.
- What is the attraction for?
And I, please don't misunderstand me.
I'm not bashing hip-hop and rap.
I've said many times that I obviously respect it as a genre.
I just don't know it well enough to really comment on it.
- Definitely.
- So what is the attraction to you with hip-hop and rap?
- I don't know.
I really didn't like it back when I was like 12, 13, 14,
but I think a lot of it, like Tyler the creator,
I think was who got me into that style of music.
I loved how alternative he was and I loved his lyrics and his production.
I thought it was so different, the sounds he would use, his synths and everything.
And I just, I really loved it and I was really obsessed with it.
And so that made me branch out and listen to different hip-hop artists.
And I don't know, I think it's just like, like I was saying before,
like if it makes me feel something, then I'll take inspiration from it.
And when I listen to rap music, I feel something,
like even if I'm feeling like a badass and I just want to speed,
like, you know, in the car, it's time to feel something.
And I, I don't know, I just like it.
- Well now, did you, how old were you when you guys moved
from Scotland down to Australia?
- I was 10, I think.
- Okay, and were you into music when you were 10?
Like, did you even care?
Were you doing something else?
Like, what were you?
Like, when did music start for you?
- I wasn't, I wasn't obsessed with music the way I am now.
I was more of like a movie geek, to be honest.
Music sort of started for me when I started school here.
All my friends were in the choir.
So I wanted to do that with my friends.
And so I auditioned and joined the choir.
And then, and then I think I discovered Ariana Grande
and I was really obsessed with the way she's saying,
how she was, she's saying like a devil, like she really used her voice.
And I wanted, I mimicked that a lot.
And then my best friend at the time, we were both singers.
Like we really enjoyed singing and our parents put us
into a singing competition that we didn't know about.
And then I ended up winning it and I won like $500, too.
So that was a big moment for me.
- And you lost your best friend because she won a ticket.
- And you know what funny story I actually did.
Yeah, she was very jealous and she did not make me.
She really hated me from that moment forward.
- Oh my god, I'm sorry to hear that.
- It's fine, it's fine.
She was the toxic manipulative person anyway.
I'm better off not having her as a friend.
- Wow, okay.
We'll move on to another topic.
- I'll try not to be such a smart ass.
I'm sorry about that.
- Wow.
- All right.
- Okay, so good, there's a good mix of influences there.
- Wow.
- All right, here's a fun question for you.
How many, you've been doing this now like hard for four or five years, right?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- Yeah, started when I was 15, I'm 20 now.
- You got any crazy, crazy gig stories, bad gig stories, anything that other musicians can relate to?
- I mean, a pretty recent gig I just had.
I've been like struggling a lot.
I've been getting colds and I don't know if it's COVID or something, but my immune system just really sucks.
And so I get sick really frequently and very easily, which affects my throat, obviously.
And I had a gig and I'd been recovering from a cold for like the whole two weeks leading up to it.
So my voice wasn't, you know, at its best.
And it was a three hour gig.
And so I was already pushing it because my voice was tired and sore.
And I made it through the first two hours of it.
But then in the last like half hour of my set, my voice started to just go.
And then I actually could not sing.
My voice would not come out.
And I was on stage trying so hard, but it was really, really bad and embarrassing.
And I just had to be like, no, I got to finish early.
- Yeah.
- Which was really upsetting because it was out of venue that I'd been trying to get a gig out for a long time.
And it was like a pretty bad first impression.
But they were really lovely about it.
And it was only like the last 20 minutes that I could have done.
So could have been way.
- Well, that's a hard, that's a hard gig for anybody to do.
I mean, three hours.
- Yeah.
- Right?
- Yeah, it's right.
- Drinking.
- Last night, I played a four hour set in Kentucky.
- Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
- And me and the butt, I mean, it was like, it wasn't that bad.
Cause I was split and lead vocals with the other guy.
So we would just have--
- Okay.
- We had bounced back and forth.
But still, man, after you get done with that third set, you're like, "Oh crap."
I got one more to go.
- Yeah, people underestimate how draining it is physically and mentally.
- Yeah.
- But, you know, parts you go to pay.
- All right, so what's the best gig you've had so far?
- Hmm.
I had a gig at Relay for Life.
It's a charity for cancer where people relay, like they run around the oval all day and all night.
And I've played at it.
I think four times running now, it's every year.
And the last time I played at it, it was really cute
because my cousin and her fiance from Scotland were here.
So they got to come watch me.
And I've never had any of my family from Scotland watch me play a gig or a show.
So that, in itself, was really, really cool.
- Oh, that's fun.
- There was a lot of kids and like young teens in the audience.
And I was doing, like, very commercial new songs that they knew.
And they were all singing along.
And they were all singing "Christ Tag."
And I don't know if you've seen it, but there's like memes about it.
And so they were singing the memes at me, like Taylor Swift.
You know that video of the goat where it's like, yeah.
- Yeah, I knew you were doing it.
- Yeah, like I would hold the mic out and they'd all scream, like, "Ghosts."
And it was just really nice.
It just had that really fun vibe.
- When you do your gigs around town, do you get a chance to play your originals?
Or do you still got to do mostly covers?
- Yeah, I play mostly covers, but I try to play all my originals for as many as I can.
And yeah, no one seems to have a problem with it.
- Yeah. And are you primarily doing acoustic gigs?
Or how often do you pull the band out?
- I haven't actually played with the band since probably like a year ago.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah, I pretty much only do acoustic gigs now.
I would really love to start doing band gigs again.
It's just like, you know the struggle of trying to get a band together and then have rehearsal times
that everyone can work with.
And then it's hard getting gigs for bands here.
That's nowhere, everywhere pretty much just wants solos or duos.
- Yeah, keep it down.
- Yeah, pretty much.
- Yeah, you're too loud.
- Yeah, no drums allowed.
- Oh, really?
Is that a thing down there?
Like, they really, I mean, is...
- Like, I heard the decibels and stuff.
- Oh, did they really?
- Yeah.
- God, it sounds like Sarah Soda, Florida, where all the...
My folks are down there and I live there for a while.
And yeah, the clubs down there, they get yelled at all the time because people are like,
"It's too loud."
- Yeah, turn down.
- So, all right, so what is the next single that you're going to release?
- So, I was bouncing between two.
I have one called "Anxious" in a good way and one called "Wish You Well."
I think though, I'm going to be putting "Anxious Out" first.
- Okay.
- Yeah, I'm excited for it.
It's a very poppy, sort of like pop trap style.
- Mm.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's got like an Ariana Grande vibe, I would say.
- I've got a lot of harmony stacks on it.
It's the style of music that I've been wanting to make for a long time
and just haven't been able to.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I'm really excited.
- And did Kyle up in Tokyo do this one?
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- All right, on.
Okay.
Well, Abby, thank you very much for coming on and chatting.
We've been...
- Mm-hmm.
- We've almost...
We've almost hit about an hour here.
- Cheesh!
Doesn't feel like an hour.
- Well, yeah.
- I'm flying.
- That's right.
- Hey, and when do I get a chance to play piano for you again?
- Mm, are you going to come to Canes anytime soon?
- Dude, send the jet.
Send...
- I said jet.
- Car, right?
- Send the jet.
- I can send it tonight.
Are you fine for a red eye?
- Yeah, sure.
It's fine.
Four years on the road.
Four years on the road, man, I can still sleep anywhere.
- It's different.
- Oh, good.
- Yeah.
- Thank you very much for coming on the show.
Stick around.
We'll talk a little bit after this, but...
- Yes.
- This is episode 19 of the Phantom Power Artist Hour,
and you have been listening to a fun-filled interview with Abby Mewer,
and here is Blueprint.
- Blueprint.
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