KATIE AUSTRA STELMANIS OF AUSTRA
Hi Katie and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us at Musicology. Firstly congratulations on your new record. Every album tells its own tale, what is HiRUDiN saying to the world?
HiRUDiN is about toxic relationships, and it was an experiment in vulnerability and collaboration.
There were some new approaches taken on this album including working with some new collaborators. Can you explain what promoted this approach and also what was liberating in the areas you let go of, and what was restricting in the areas of coordinating with several others?
Working with outside producers and lots of different musicians was really liberating. I felt like I had hit some walls in terms of what I was able to create on my own and I really benefited from bouncing ideas off of other people to find new sources of creativity. I did tons of different sessions and took something from every single one - even if we didn’t play any actual music. Making music has always been a relatively isolated process for me so it was nice to be able to experience it with other people. The only restriction was geography - I traveled a lot to work with different people which gets expensive and tiring but it’s also fun to be constantly inspired by a new place.
An album can be a lifetime worth of experiences concentrated and refined into a body of work that encompases many years and phases in life. Other times it is a snap shot, a brief period in time crystallized into a record covering a specific epoch. Was it a case of either / or for HiRUDiN?
HiRUDiN definitely feels like a snapshot. I feel like while working on a new record they always kind of feel like my whole life feeds into them but once they're finished I’m able to better understand how reflective they are of where I am in the few years it takes to make one. With HiRUDiN I was adjusting to a new reality of parting ways with long term collaborators and opening new doors and I think that is very reflective in the music.
In terms of the writing and lyrical content, was there an overarching narrative tying the album together or an assortment of topics and inspirations that zig zag throughout the record?
The overall concept seems to be toxic relationships. There are a lot of songs about being in one, a few sort of “fuck you” tracks about getting out, and a then a few about moving on and meeting someone new. At the time it felt like I was creating a narrative - but since putting the album out I’ve realized I was reflecting on a cycle. The relationships in our lives will continue to change and grow and therefore will continue to be refreshed and weeded out.
Of the eleven tracks on the album, how considered was your approach with the track order in terms of the overall communicatory story you wanted to share?
I wanted the narrative of the album to come through in a much more linear way but the tracks didn’t quite fit together like that sonically. It does begin with
Anywayz which is a stressed out song about being in a relationship that is ending and end with
Messiah - which is a song about what I perceive to be the ideal relationship.
Recording in the Spanish countryside, was this particularly conducive to shaping the flow of the album or the did the location have little bearing on the end result?
I worked on the album between Toronto, London, and Spain, because my girlfriend at the time lived in London and was building a music artist residency in rural Spain. So while she was getting that off the ground, I was there writing. Its not a place I imagined I’d ever be spending time but it was perfect for making music - the town was typically Spanish in that everything moved really slowly, it felt like life literally slowed down.
In conjuring some of those atmospheric pieces and the sonic imagery you create through the electronic languages you use, are the certain pairings that you employ whereby a distinct sensation can only be expressed with a certain instrument?
Not really - because with computers these days any sounds can be so drastically manipulated from it’s original source its much more about the feeling, the performance, and often, the character mistakes that you want to hang on to.
As an artist evolving emotionally and musically from album to album with HiRUDiN being your fourth, what do you experience when performing some of your earlier material whereby the person you are today maybe completely different from the person you were when you first put pen to paper?
I love revisiting old material and re-working it and it’s really fun to be able to have four records worth of material to pick and choose from when putting together a live show. In general the “meaning” in the songs changes constantly and I’m usually able to reapply the lyrics to whatever is happening in my life at the present - it’s always possible to recontextualize things.
Having meet and performed with so any different musicians and artists over the years, during that time, has there been any defining moments or words of wisdom that were spoken to you which really resonated with you and in turn altered the way you approach your craft?
I don’t know if someone specifically has told me this but I used to obsess about the success of a one single record, and now that I’m older, I’m more able to appreciate all my releases as a body of work. Really when you think about your favorite artists - they may have released like 10 records and only a couple really resonate for the long term, except for the most devoted fans. I want to try to just have fun with releasing music and relax about trying to make something that is really “successful” every time, because it’s impossible for 99% of artists.
Perhaps it is fair to say that music has been the one underlying constant in your life and the prism through which the world is viewed, analysed and reimagined. How do you approach the dichotomy of introversion in writing about deeply personal matters and the extraversion of performing those pieces on stage?
In some ways, performing live is also very introverted. You’re not actually engaging in conversation, or fighting for attention, you are the attention, and you just need to exist. Sometimes that means connecting with an audience and sometimes that means connecting more deeply with yourself. Sometimes, the audience doesn’t even have to be there. As many artists have reflected on - the connection that can be built between yourself and a crowd can feel more lonely than the connection between yourself and one or two other people, and that feeling is often more obvious when you're by yourself, after the concert.
On a philosophical level, what does music give you that nothing else does?
Music is really the only thing that allows me to truly relax. I get distracted watching movies and reading books but I can sit and play music for hours and won’t feel the time pass. It’s nice to have something that allows you to disconnect from reality for a bit and venture into your own little world.
