I once played a gig and told a story behind one of my songs and the girl who played after me said “No one gives a shit what your songs are about, nobody knows who you are…”
So I’d like to dedicate this to her…
Australian storytellers Laura Attwood and the Tourists take us through their emotive new EP Anywhere, one track at a time.
Edmond Green
I wrote this song in like two hours and I had just come back from playing Peats Ridge Festival and was rehearsing to support Gang of Youths at The Annandale Hotel that night. I remember watching them afterwards and just being awestruck by their talent. The whole band were so goddamn nice to me and I remember the lead singer Dave Le’aupepe talking to me and saying that he had my same guitar, I was playing a Cole Clark Fat Lady. I was absolutely blown away by Dave’s voice and the power of the band. I guess you can hear the happiness of that night and those times in this song.
Some people (like two) have asked me who Edmond Green is and honestly I have no idea. I told my band it’s not a real name so we Facebook stalked people with that name during rehearsal… turns out it’s a thing. Anyway. This song is just like a happy “I’m in love with somebody and they are awesome” snappy tune, an innocent expression of new love.
Adam Van Eyk wrote a banger horn section for this song. He’s a saxophonist as well as our guitarist and he really made this song come to life, he called in some sweet favours from master brass legend Bien Havier.
Save Me
Save Me is a song I wrote about being so infatuated with someone that it becomes a kind of shared insanity, like a drug that destroys both of your lives. It’s about having to leave someone that you are so deeply in love with with for the sake of your own mental health. I think we all really connected with this one as a band.
The bass in this is my favourite and poor Jackson, who we forced to play bass (even though he’s not a bass player) smashed it! Chris Xirocostas our drummer decided to add a groovy little bit of synth to this one on a whim and it turned out rad! It kind of captures the tone of sadness and release that comes after such an exhausting experience.
Anywhere
Nick Franklin and his assistant Matt Stewart at Rolodex Sound really made this song sound awesome. Their guidance on this song really helped us because we had played it so much that we really couldn’t hear what it sounded like anymore.
I wrote this about one of my first ever boyfriends. It was my first experience with heartbreak. I’ve always been a tomboy and probably intimidated most of the boys in my class. This was my first ever boyfriend and he was older and cool and I was obsessed with him for three months then he broke up with me and went out with a beautiful girl named Emma. She was sparkly and cute and shiny and confident and stuff.
I can remember writing this song on my bed at my parent’s old house in Penrith and it was just a real earnest, therapeutic outpouring of what I was feeling. It makes my heart ache for that insecure and shy young girl. I wanna go back and tell her it’s gonna be all sweet and you will meet lovely boys who like you better cause you are a weirdo and you like boy stuff.
Also I played this song live once and heard some people say “well this is depressing…” so theres also that.
Lover
This song initially felt a bit daggy to me actually, but there’s something about it that I can’t get away from. It’s also my Mum’s favourite song so you know…thanks Ann.
This was another teenage breakup story. I’m so happy with the band in this one Adam absolutely kills it on the guitar. He said he was listening to a lot of Eagles stuff around the time of this recording. So that explains the hotel California-esk guitary bits which I’m obsessed with.
Anywhere is out now.
