I’m always impressed by a quality cover, a rendition that breathes new life into a song and makes a statement all its own. So I’m really digging what country artist Fanny Lumsden has done with Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” We’re used to hearing this song as a haunting indie-pop duet with Kimbra, but Fanny’s country-folk version features her live band, The Prawn Stars. It was also produced by Matt Fell, Dan Freeman and Fanny, mixed by Matt Fell, and mastered by William Bowden (who mastered Gotye’s original).
“After doing our own version of ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ on ABC’s Spicks and Specks last year, we started adding it to our live show, and have loved playing around with it so much that we thought it about time we recorded it! It’s the first song that has my whole live touring band on it, and it makes me so happy that each of these people I spend so much time with on the road, brought a little of themselves to the song. We also wanted to feature the harmonies, which are a big thing for us live.”
Fanny and The Prawn Stars are heading to the United Kingdom next month, but they’ll be back before you know it for shows with Paul Kelly and Lucinda Williams.
It feels like only yesterday that Ocean Alley burst onto the scene, so my head is spinning with the news that they’re about to release album number five, called Love Balloon. While the title track is a pretty funky affair, we should expect plenty of diversity from the album.
“The album explores the many layered dimensions of love – not just the cinematic kind where you’re falling head over heels, but the full spectrum: joy, hurt, discomfort and disappointment,” explained Ocean Alley’s keyboardist and vocalist Lach Galbraith. “Let’s call it the river of love – whether it’s with a partner, a friend, or family, you never know when it’ll get deep, go shallow, or suddenly change course. It’s such a force that you have to just surrender to its current.”
The Love Balloon album drops on September 19. Ocean Alley has plenty of shows in North America, South America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand planned. Here are all the dates you need.
Tarntanya/Adelaide outfit The Tullamarines perfectly balance upbeat vibes with bittersweet lyrics in their latest single “Lying.” It’s got a laidback summery feel, but once you start digging into those lyrics you realise it’s really raw and introspective.
“‘Lying’ is about insecurity, imposter syndrome, self-loathing, and the effort to do better,” The Tullamarines explained. “That feeling of people leaving before we perform is a running joke, but it comes from real doubt. We struggle with confidence in our music, image-everything. So we said exactly how we felt, but wrapped it in sunny, 90s pop-inspired sounds. It’s sad-happy. Sometimes it’s easier to pretend you’re okay than to be vulnerable. We hope this song helps people feel seen and encourages real conversations.”
The Tullamarines are currently on tour with the Preatures and have plenty more new music on the way. You’ll also see them at some of the hottest upcoming festivals, so the back half of the year is shaping up to be huge for them. Here are all the places you can catch them live in the coming months.
Seb Szabo has got me swooning with “Crumbs From Your Table,” a bittersweet alt-rock track about having a crush on someone who’s already attached.
“The song started out as a larger-than-life inner monologue. A bunch of messy feelings I wished I could say out loud,” Seb remembered. “It’s one for people with gigantic hearts, even if it might get you into trouble. It’s a privilege to feel this much. Hopefully, the song reminds you not to suppress everything – because you never know what might happen next. It could go either way … and that’s beautifully terrifying.”
Seb will hit the road in August to support Jordy Maxwell on his national tour. If you want to see him live, here’s where you’ll find him.
Boorloo/Perth-based pop artist Hannah Stow has my heart with “I Never Changed.” This bittersweet indie-pop ballad unravels the aftermath of a relationship breakdown caused by two people moving in different directions. Hannah’s sincere vocals bring her introspective lyrics to life so beautifully.
“This track is about giving someone everything and them being fake and switching up who they are whilst you stay consistent,” Hannah said, “Being so bound by the bare minimum and lowering your expectations when you date someone. Forgetting your worth and begging them to stay and hear you out. Trying to be what they need when you don’t even believe in yourself enough to stand by what you need.”
Hannah has built a strong reputation as a force on stage with supporting slots for 360 and sold out shows of her own. She’s got a couple of shows scheduled for the coming months, so if you’re out West make sure you get along to discover what all the buzz is about.
A force on the Eora/Sydney live music scene for more than 20 years, Josh Orange have just released their fantastic new single “Believers and Dreamers (What Have We Become).” A reworked version of a track from their 2024 album Birds For the Bayou, it showcases the talents of this veteran folk-rock act. I caught up with founding member Gordon Burke to chat about the single, the creative team that brought it to life, and what comes next for Josh Orange.
You’ve just released your new single “Believers and Dreamers (What Have We Become)” today. At its heart, it’s a classic protest song. What inspired you to write it?
I once heard someone say if you can’t say it, then sing it. I loved that. The song is a protest song. It’s hard not to get angry about the state of things around us at the moment, and the feeling of helplessness at the behaviour of some very powerful entities. It’s also a very personal look inside ourselves and how much we can ignore before we stand up and do something. The world needs Believers and Dreamers more than ever right now.
What issues are getting you fired up lately?
Have you tried to book a flight recently? Living in Australia and having a lot of family and friends in Europe, I fly most years. It’s gone crazy, literally. And then when you get to Europe you have to change the Aussie Battler into Euros … heart breaking stuff LOL.
While I might joke about a first-world problem, there are a lot of things currently that are hard to watch, hard to swallow and even harder to understand. Our world is changing, but I am not quite sure if it is headed in an entirly good direction. Believers & Dreamers asks some hard questions, both of ourselves and others.
The single is actually a new studio version of “What Have We Become,” which features on your fifth album Birds for the Bayou. What made you want to re-record it?
Great question. We had thought of it as an album track at four and a half minutes long. In saying that though, we don’t write songs to fit in a particular bag. We try and get out of the way of the song as much as possible. This song opened a few live shows in support of the album and we kept getting asked about it after the shows. We decided to go back into the studio and take another look at it, and be very pointed about it. We went into Everland Studios in Sydney in April 2025 to record a single. We then had a great bit of luck getting Tim Palmer to mix the record and do some co-production. He loved it and spent a week working on the song. That was such a great experience.
What really struck me when comparing the single to the album version is the addition of the harp, which isn’t an instrument we normally associate with rock music. How did that come about?
It was one of those cases of just trying something new. A friend of ours Kaela Phillips plays harp in a Sydney orchestra, and we met at a show we were both playing. We simply asked her if she would be interested in playing some harp on a pop-rock song and she said why not. We had no idea what would come out in the studio, but Kaela is amazing, and she has such a beautiful energy, it was a pleasure to have her involved.
I noticed the single was mixed by Tim Palmer, who’s worked with industry heavyweights like Pearl Jam and U2. How did you connect with him?
Back in my youth, I was in an Australian band called Oblivia. We were signed to BMG/RCA. Tim Palmer was in Sydney and came to an Oblivia show. I met him after the show and he quite liked a song we had on the album called ‘Stupid’. To cut a long story short, Tim ended up mixing ‘Stupid”. Funny enough, the song ended up on a compilation CD released by BMG alongside U2’s “Beautiful Day.” I thought he was a talented legend when I was with Oblivia and always wanted a Tim Palmer’s creative touch on a Josh Orange song. “Believers & Dreamers” just felt like the song to get him involved in. We simply reached out with a dump of everything we had recorded and he just loved it. In fact, he said it sounded like a hit song to him, whatever that means these days.
You also reunited with Ben Worsey at Everland Studios for this one. He’s been your engineer for the last few albums. What is it about Ben that makes you want to keep working with him?
Another great question. When you have a band as experienced as Josh Orange at recording, things can happen very quickly. The red light so to speak is not always on, but Ben never misses a beat. He is sharp, fast and he hears the music, he catches things we don’t. He also has a great rapport with the band, which is so important when recording. And he is an amazing mixer. We have been in studios where there is all sorts of fancy coffee machines and fridges full of all sorts of beverages, but we didn’t go back. With Ben you are lucky if there is milk in the fridge, his head is in the music, the placements of mics, the dynamic in the room, the speed of the song … he is literally an extra member of the band when we head into Everland. And that’s the way it should be.
Obviously, everyone should be listening to Josh Orange right now. But who are you listening to at the moment?
Haha, yes of course they should. There is a playlist on our Spotify channel called JO Preshow, and we are always updating it with what we are listening to. I think it’s about 12 hours long now. There is also the vinyl in the home studio which I love to sit back and listen to. Currently that would be Steely Dan, Paolo Nutini, Thin Lizzy, and always some Thom Yorke.
Josh Orange formed way back in 2004. How do you think you’ve evolved as a band in that time?
The great thing about being in this band is that we are not here for fame or money; that ship sailed a long time ago. We simply love each other’s company. We love to write and spend many hours pulling stuff apart, throwing it in the bin, then taking it back out. Andrew Wass and myself founded the band and we are still as in love as ever with what it gives us. There is a purpose in being able to create something from thin air that has such a wonderful reward. Alex Miller joined very shortly after, and the three of us have been together for 21 years now. We are excited to be releasing a new song. We are like a bunch of brothers really, and we rarely argue at all anymore (wink, wink) LOL.
You’re launching the single at Lazybones on August 28. What can people expect from that show?
This will be an awesome show. We are so excited for this one. There has to be at least two songs from each album in the set, so it will span all five albums and 21 years of writing. We also have the amazing Primitive who is doing so well in Sydney with his hip hop sound. He is an amazing performer and I am personally hanging to see his set. We also having Kadi Paton opening for us on the night. Kadi has a voice that just floored me the first time I heard it, so we are very lucky to have her. We also love playing Lazybones as it is one of the coolest venues in Sydney, with an amazing stage and sound system. We sold it out in February this year, so we are hoping it will be a big night.
After the launch, what’s next for Josh Orange?
We dropped an album in 2024 and we are enjoying playing live at the moment. We don’t tend to make any grand plans; we are a bit laid back in that way. There is some writing happening in the background but nothing heavy at this stage. We will just roll with the punches, I think. That being said, if the musical God’s answered my prayers, I would be performing on the road.
“Believers and Dreamers (What Have We Become)” by Josh Orange is out today. Tickets are on sale now for Josh Orange’s single launch at Lazybones in Bulanaming/Marrickville on August 28.
Naarm/Melbourne-based Noongar artist Bumpy is back with her breathtaking new single “Maambakoort,” her first new music since the release of her debut EP Morning Sun in 2023. This neo-soul single an exercise in restraint and the perfect vehicle for showcasing her spine-tingling voice.
“’Maambakoort’ means ocean,” Bumpy explained. “This song narrates the way I felt when I entered the saltwater on my country. It felt powerful. It felt dramatic. The wind swirled around me and the light broke through the clouds. It felt like it recognised me. The water connects me to my Ancestors who also swam in those oceans, connecting me to my past, present and future generations.
“I wanted it to be grand like that encounter and the instrumentation to sound like the rumbling and crashing ocean. This track features the choir and specifically my siblings Emmy, Ben and Dan singing language in the climax of the song. It really highlighted the impact of language learning and that with every new word I learn and pass on, affects all the people around me.”
“Maambakoort” comes with this gorgeous music video directed by Emily Dynes. I don’t normally talk fashion on this blog, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that it features stunning outfits from ethical plant-based Afro-Futurist artisan clothing label REMUSE.
James Reyne doesn’t pump out the hits as rapidly as he did in the past, but that just makes new material so much sweeter. His latest track “Going Back to Nashville” is an upbeat country-rock gem that’s at least the equal to anything in his celebrated back catalogue.
The song was inspired by James’ visits to Nashville where he went sightseeing with the legendary and dearly departed singer-songwriter Tony Joe White.
“Back then, a bit of a status symbol was how many head of buffalo you had on your ranch,” he recalled. “Pointing at Wynonna Judd’s place, Tony Joe said in that distinctively deep voice, ‘She’s got like 20 head of buffalo.’”
Think of it as James Reyne’s Lonely Planet guide to Nashville, “where Wynonna’s buffalo roam” and “if it ain’t the heat, it’s the humidity”.
“This song is how I see Nashville,” he added.
James is currently touring around Oz before he heads across the ditch. Tickets are still available for all these shows:
Prepare to discover your next song obsession. The upbeat grooves of “So Long,” by Naarm/Melbourne jazz fusion act The Addictions, are exactly what you need to kickstart your Monday. It starts out subtle but it’s a party by the time the chorus kicks in. While it’s such a vibe, the lyrics reveal an emotional depth.
“So Long’ embarks the listener on a journey through grief and acceptance all whilst disguising itself with bright tones and upbeat instrumentation,” explained vocalist Ben Pucci.
“So Long” comes from The Addictions’ highly anticipated third studio album Have a Seat, which drops later this year.
Aussie hip hop artist Saif has teamed up with the UK’s Samiul Haque and America’s THKreturns for “Gangladesh.” This song delivers more than a fusion of cultures. There’s also a really cool fusion of sounds, with jazz influences and a soulful chorus contrasting beautifully with the rap verses. Make sure you tap into those lyrics that explore class struggles, inequality, and injustice from a global perspective.
Saif opened up on his Instagram page about what motivated him to write “Gangladesh,” noting “Growing up in Dhaka, I could never make sense of something that felt so wrong: I had clothes on my back and food on my plate, but kids who looked just like me stood barefoot on the streets, begging. As a kid, it was impossible to understand. But it stayed with me — always. That contrast, that injustice, followed me everywhere I went.
“It’s what led me to study Economics, to try to make sense of global inequality — why poverty, child labor, and exploitation still shape so much of the world. ‘Gangladesh’ is my attempt to step into someone else’s shoes, to reflect on the weight of these experiences. But it’s only my first step toward a larger purpose: a life committed to international development and meaningful change.
“I never got into music for accolades, money or fame. I turned to music when I had nowhere else to go – when life felt like a bottomless pit. Now, it’s become my channel for hope, reason and action.”
If you want to follow Saif on his musical journey, make sure you follow him on Instagram to learn more about his next moves and the global issues that inspire him.
