Pre-order vinyl LP https://www.belovedrecordings.com/store/p/lewis-coleman-offline

Beloved Naarm/Melbourne art rocker Lewis Coleman (he/him) proudly reveals his new single and video “Courts”, a delicate and deeply personal chronicle through love and loss in real-time, rippled with Colemans’ idiosyncratic and clever observations. Co-produced with his good friend Sam Cromack (Ball Park Music), “Courts” lays bare the anxieties and feelings of detachment and vertigo that arise from losing love. 

A staple of the Naarm/Melbourne music community, Lewis Coleman makes music that is “heady, bewitching, and ultimately immersive” (Clash Magazine). Following last month's “Indigo”, a bop that “touches a nerve” (Dave Ruby Howe, Triple J), “Courts” is the latest from his sophomore album Offline, due out on October 27 via Beloved Recordings.

Reflecting on the song, “Courts is the stage of grieving when you desperately try to clutch back at something that has gone, washing over anything that was wrong”, says Coleman. Lyrically, it speaks to a disconnected state of mind, an intersection between limbo and self-realisation - “Wait a minute, don’t you love me as much? What if I just changed it up, made it work?”. Coleman journeys through inner dialogue, delicately reconciling moments in his past and arriving with bittersweet clarity as he ponders “Love’s not that clear / Love’s not that fair”.

Coleman had planned to play more shows around Method Of Places but, like many of us in the early days of the pandemic, he spent a lot of time alone instead. He insulated himself in his bungalow studio, crafting what would become, for him, a collection of songs that celebrate a more confident and daring side. His goals were simple, perhaps an antidote to the time: Create “a record that encourages the listener to energise themselves and move forward. It’s music to get out of bed for.” With most of the instrumentation and lyrics laid down by Coleman in Naarm, a five-day stint in Meanjin/Brisbane with dear friend Sam Cromack of Ball Park Music granted Coleman time to shape and oxygenate the structure of Offline and its lyrical form. What emerges is a collection of songs that both melodically and lyrically conjure imagery of someone looking inwards to expand outwards. 

“There’s always going to be a particular soft, introspective character to the way I go about putting music together. But here I am leaning against that discovering how colour can be brought out of the blues and into the reds”

Between records, Coleman has become a preeminent collaborator, producing music for and performing with Mo’Ju, Ruby Gill, Kat Edwards, Gabriella Cohen, Darvid Thor, Chitra and Coda Chroma. A generous, well (be)loved and similarly underrated musical gem in our community, he has comfortably come into his own. Offline is a strut with Coleman and his friends, it’s a top button undone and coarse indigo sheets, it's creased and complex like Coleman and can’t be ironed out.

Offline

Courts

Lewis Coleman - Courts

Mood board and more information: https://prairie-vicuna-992.notion.site/Rowena-Wise-and-her-new-record-Senseless-Acts-of-Beauty-1d27e6437f684ce08ee3e80edaa3d66a?pvs=4

Rowena Wise - Gone

Rowena Wise is a Naarm-based artist whose ruminations on love, alienation, and self-empowerment are fast catching attention. Described by CLASH as “carefully etched indie folk” and recently signed to Beloved Recordings (Lewis Coleman, Darvid Thor) in AUNZ, Rowena gets one step closer to her new album with ‘We Are Nothing’, a euphoric track that foregoes anxiety and old wounds to live in the moment instead.

Inspired by the strong storytelling sensibilities of 60s folk icons, Rowena’s musical journey started at a young age in the Western Australian surf town of Margaret River, spending a lot of her youth performing in her family band (her mother is a folk musician from Chicago, her father a luthier who hand builds the custom guitars she plays). Now based in Melbourne and with a burgeoning reputation as a live performer, her songs captivate, holding space for all life’s wonder and mess - an exciting new talent in the mold of Aldous Harding, Julia Jacklin, and Waxahatchee.
 
Working with producer Robert Muiños (Didirri, Julia Jacklin, Little May) in his Rat Shack studio full of vintage gear, he records Rowena and her band live in the room, often capturing them in one take. While bottling the energy of their live show, he also retains all blemishes and humanity. The overall effect is both undeniable and vital, helping Rowena’s poignant lyrics and delivery to be lifted to great heights.

‘We Are Nothing’ is a direct song that sees Rowena shelve all worries to rather just live in the now. She says, “this song is about trying to open yourself up to someone new. I’ve been questioning my selfhood a lot lately and started to notice that my thoughts can come and go outside of my control. I’ve realised that I can’t be the sum of my thoughts, I am only a mirror of whatever room I’m in and the people I’m with.”

We Are Nothing

Rowena Wise - We Are Nothing

Rowena Wise - Knife

Rowena Wise - New Years

Rowena Wise - Life Of The Party

Rowena Wise - Indifferent

Rowena Wise - Forgiving Up

Rowena Wise - Nobody's Saviour

Rowena Wise - 26 Hours

Rowena Wise - In For The Kill

Beloved is a record label based in Naarm/Melbourne championing lyrically captivating and musically daring art-rock, indie-folk, and weirdo pop music.

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