Bathurst-based duo Great Aunt return with a bang, with their new song, ‘What’s A Girl To Do Now?’

“This is a song about our frustration. As women, for women. Of all shapes, sizes, identities, races, and cultures. The world says we’re not woman enough: too loud, too ugly, too fat, queer, trans, too butch. And at the other end of the scale, if you’re a man, you must not be too ‘girly’, and not express any femininity.”

There’s room for all of us. To celebrate all of us.

“Personally, I’ve been told I don’t look like a girl, I don’t act like a girl, and have been asked the question, “Don’t I want to be a girl?” The truth is: I am a (queer, fat) girl, just not as you want me to be - my existence makes you uncomfortable.”

“I’ve been dismissed, verbally abused, sexually harassed, and assaulted because I’m a girl. When I was younger, I didn’t understand my value, and was led to believe it was my fault.”

We’re so tired of history repeating itself, with violence against women normalised, and the visible attacks on our trans and drag queen community. As white queer women, we recognise that we have a great deal of privilege and a platform to call out hatred and prejudice against our BIPOC friends.

“In high school, I was bullied and harassed every day. Relentlessly, physically and verbally. Some days, I didn’t want to live. It breaks my heart to see queer kids, trans, non-binary kids, have to walk through the fire of this hatred, whilst politicisation of the subject has amplified it beyond measure.”

We can do better for each other in 2024. 

So let’s. 


"Why don’t you smile?
Just a little bit more
And don’t you go around 
Looking like you’ve been asking for anything more
These ain’t my rules
It’s just the way
And behind every great man
Is a girl in wait
It’s for your good
And know your place
And tell me, what’s a girl to do now?


Credits:	

Written by Great Aunt (Megan Bird and Chelsea Allen)
Vocals - Megan Bird
Backing vocals - Chelsea Allen
‘Yeah the Girls’ Choir – Laura Coates, Sophie Jones, Genni Kane, Abby Smith, Sue Ray, Bek Chapman, Julie Nolen
Resonator  - Megan Bird
Electric bass - Chelsea Allen
Tambourine, bass drum - Chelsea Allen
Claps – Suzy Evans, Chelsea Allen

Tracked, produced and mixed by Great Aunt
Mastered by Joe Carra, Crystal Mastering

What's A Girl To Do Now?

Love where you're at, even if it's not exactly where you thought you'd be.

Country folk duo Great Aunt return with a lush new folk tune, 'Freeburgh' - an ode to their favourite little town in high country, Victoria. Halfway to home.

After some personal and professional setbacks, the duo found solace in the safety and warmth of Nan and Pop's Pad, the family's beloved caravan nestled deep within Freeburgh, to drink all the whisky, sing all the songs, and befriend all the birds.

"Whisky burns to heal my heart
Plovers cry from dawn to dark
The lights go out from time to time
But the campfire's lit
So we're just fine
Just fine... "

Credits:

Written by Great Aunt (Megan Bird and Chelsea Allen)
Vocals - Megan Bird, Chelsea Allen
Acoustic guitar - Megan Bird
Double bass - Chelsea Allen
Stomps - Chelsea Allen

Tracked, produced and mixed by Great Aunt
Mastered by Joe Carra, Crystal Mastering

Film clip available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdk7U1i-Nvc
Filmed by Great Aunt on location at Nan and Pop's Pad, Freeburgh, VIC.
Video edited by Chelsea Allen

Freeburgh

Spare and bold, simple and evocative, melancholic and hopeful – with the release of an ambitious debut EP, Great Aunt begin to define for themselves a unique path in folk and Americana.

‘A Mess That I Left’ combines elements of contemporary folk and Americana with the traditions of old time, bluegrass, and gospel music. The instrumentation and arrangements are bare and bold: various combinations of mandolin, guitar and upright bass explore well-worn themes of grief, love, acceptance, hope, resilience and faith. Striking too, are the evocative voices of Megan Bird and Chelsea Allen.

The duo engineered and produced their record alone, in their home studio in Melbourne’s inner north. Each song is realised with deliberate sparseness, and aims to capture and replicate their acoustic performance. Listen and you'll hear breaths, sighs, chirping birds, imperfections, moments of hope and joy, fear and happiness. ‘A Mess That I Left’ is a living, breathing thing: a palpable moment in musical time.

The message is clear: beginning and ending the 6-track EP is a hymn pleading for inclusivity and hope. The first iteration of ‘Oh, Cruel World’ is an introductory refrain of gospel-like harmonies; re-imagined in the last moments of the final song of the EP with a more sombre and intimate tone:

“Oh, cruel world
Oh, my girl
Treat her right
Oh, cruel world”

‘Oh, Cruel World’ tells the story of Bird’s family and others like them; her struggle coming out as a queer woman, and the lived experiences of her transgender brother. It talks too of their family’s struggles coming to terms with both, and of their concern for their children’s safety and place in the world. The song is sombre but hopeful: a celebration of the diversity in family and friends. 

Pre order now: https://tinyurl.com/yd8uwflk
Released August 31, 2018

Credits:
All songs written by Megan Bird & Chelsea Allen
Engineered and produced by Megan Bird & Chelsea Allen
Mastered by Joe Carra at Crystal Mastering
Artwork by Megan Bird

Head Up

Diggin' Holes

Part I (They Came)

Great Aunt’s ‘FOMO’ speaks of a modern anxiety – the fear of missing out on something better. Somewhere better. Someone better. Between the wailing steel-body resonator, cavernous double bass, and their trademark cacophony of stomps and claps, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a good-ol’ whiskey-swillin’ hoe-down of sorts. It might just be a ruse, though; this duo isn’t afraid to sing about fear: of craving validation, measuring self-worth, false assumptions, and deprioritising the important and real. If ‘FOMO’ was a journey, it’d be a dark spiral into a selfie-taking, status-comparing, worth-measuring wasteland.

Entirely self-produced and recorded in Melbourne’s north, ‘FOMO’ is the first single from Great Aunt’s forthcoming full-length debut LP, ‘So (Not) Right Now’, due for release in November 2019. The song lives in an authentic space between joy and lament, and like them, aims to represent Australian-made Americana and folk music with a twist; by paying homage to beloved old-time styles of music like gospel and bluegrass, through themes of modern malaise.

It’s simple and bold, raw and austere; full of stomping feet and clapping hands, whispered words and soulful lament. It’s worth your attention. 

Stop scrolling. 

Listen.

FOMO

Lighting up the dark places: Personal revival is a hand-clapping affair in Great Aunt's newest release, ‘Oh, Won't You Save Me'

In their trademark spare and bold style, Great Aunt offer up handfuls of heart in 'Oh, Won't You Save Me' - the newest single from their forthcoming debut album, ‘It’s All Downhill From Here’.

Outwardly, the song is joyous and buoyant - there's a New Orleans-inspired street beat and an orchestra of clapping hands, but it's a head fake: the song deals with deeply personal themes of mental ill-health, self-worth, and faith.

Not faith in a god, necessarily, says vocalist Megan Bird, though she admits that she'd be delighted if others relate to it in that way.

"Sometimes, when I'm in a very dark place, I've found there's a pervasive feeling that I'm bringing my loved ones down," she says. "You keep trying, and they keep trying for you, but you're all at your wits end."

“Oh, won’t you save me from myself
I’ve been trying and I need help
My heart’s been turnin’ to stone
And my eyes are dry
‘Cause I can’t cry no more
I keep turnin’ to wine.
Oh God, I’ve tried.”

"You keep trying, looking for a morsel of hope. And almost always, I've found that I need to rely on my loved ones to help me, and to be willing for them to help me," says Bird. "Faith is key. And sometimes, community and friendship is everything."

Themes of reliance on alcohol feature heavily throughout the song, too: after all, it's the casual medication for so many modern malaises like anxiety, depression, and lack of self-worth.

"All my days I've been washing away..."

After COVID-19 chucked the proverbial spanner in Great Aunt's plans to release a live-action film clip for 'Oh, Won't You Save Me', the duo took the opportunity to engage with celebrated local artist, theatre maker and animator, Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman, who created a bespoke alternate universe to represent the song thematically in a striking animated film clip.

"The song's lyrical journey inspired me to create a parallel universe of monsters and mythic beings that relates to an internal emotional reality," she says. "The use of bright colours was a response to the vibrance and energy of the musical arrangements that transcend the darkness of the story with light hearted joyousness. The humanesque character that inhabits this world is dealing with life's ups and downs but falls on difficult times. The twin represents the notion of community and simultaneously a second self, both having the ability to pull us back from the brink. For me the heart of this journey is about helping ourselves so we can then help others, but it also points to interconnectedness and the importance of friendship."

'Oh, Won't You Save Me' is a much-needed and timely celebration of personal revival and salvation from dark places. Maybe 2020 is a dimly-lit party: but Great Aunt reckons you should still drop by. And bring a plate to share if you can.

Oh, Won't You Save Me

Folk the haters: Great Aunt muse on homophobia and hurt in ‘Rock Paper Neighbour’

What does it mean to be ‘neighbourly’? asks Great Aunt.

A quick wave across the fence, a friendly word, a welcoming smile? 

How about nails in your driveway?

Great Aunt’s new song, ‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ is a musical retelling of a series of events between neighbours at odds. Why at odds? Because Great Aunt are a queer couple, and that didn’t quite sit right with the folks next door.

‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ is contemporary folk and progressive bluegrass turned on its head, and made deeply personal. In Great Aunt’s trademark spare and bold style, the song opens with a catchy percussive interplay between mandolin and double bass, while vocalist Megan Bird begins the story from the perspective of the kids next door:

‘Like catching a ball or flying a kite
Dad said, it’s easy if you try
And nanna said words that you hadn’t heard But she laughed
You like it when she does.’

There’s serious and dark subject matter within, made accessible by rapid-fire instrumental exchanges, and elements of musical and lyrical tongue-in-cheek: the duo gleefully sing us a series of ‘folk-rap’ verses, with increasingly sinister subject matter:

‘Ringing the doorbell
And running like hell
Putting nails in the driveway You're yelling obscenities Meating vegetarians Everything is spam now
It isn't f@#king hard now.’

“It hurt us a lot at the time,” says bassist and vocalist, Chelsea Allen. "We were deeply fearful to go outside for a while, wondering if it would continue to escalate. We went from having spoken a few friendly words across the fence to our neighbour, to finding attempts at spiking our car tyres, meat on our doorstep, rocks being thrown, having homophobic epithets shouted at us by their kids. We’re quiet and private but friendly, and although we potentially had lots in common with the father and would have happily returned many a lost frisbee for the kids, now we’re at a very sad and hate-driven impasse.”

The song has its denouement after a distinct mood shift in the bridge, written again from the perspective of the neighbours’ children. It represents childlike innocence and simpler times, but also Great Aunt’s own wishes: that we teach our kids, and each other, the possibilities in equality, community, and the beauty of difference.

‘Summer days, sweet lemonade 
Forever climb, no yours and mine 
Mountains of rock and paper for planes 
Jump the fence,
We’re all the same.’

‘Rock Paper Neighbour’ is striking and important new music by Great Aunt, and a subversion of a real and hateful situation. 

Be neighbourly and take a listen.

Rock Paper Neighbour

Great Aunt is an Americana/folk duo from Melbourne, Australia, rambling a musical line between the plaintive and the joyous. Their music is raw and austere, simple and bold; full of stomping feet and clapping hands, chants and harmonies, whispered words, and soulful lament. Set somewhere between a gospel church in Louisiana and a dimly-lit speakeasy in Melbourne, listeners will hear tales of joy and grief, whiskey and wine, gratitude and purpose-seeking.

Formed in 2016, the duo is a collaboration between songwriter/instrumentalists Megan Bird (mandolin, guitar, vocals) and Chelsea Allen (double bass, vocals, percussion), and draws attitude and inspiration from their diverse musical backgrounds in punk, blues, jazz, and roots music.

Great Aunt

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