Maggie Alley's Live EP Gives an Exciting Look into Her Future
By Wil Clifford | September 9th, 2021
There was an electrifying energy in the air as singer/songwriter Maggie Alley took to the stage at The Brunswick Ballroom in July.
“The gig took a lot of planning between us,” said Alley. “It’s likely the best and biggest gig we’ve played.”
Invited to perform by good friend and ARIA award winner Matt Walker, the 19-year-old and her band brought their distinct brand of groovy punk blues to the dignified venue, establishing herself as a promising young artist to keep watch of.
Only a month later and ‘Maggie Alley Live at the Brunswick Ballroom’ was released without warning, a collection of recordings from that notable performance on Sydney Road.
“I just really wanted to release something,” Alley said. “It felt like a good move to show people what my songwriting is looking like these days and how my performances are sounding.”
Alley began performing solo at the age of 14, writing original music and gigging around the Dandenong Ranges. Meshing classic Australian rock and UK folk inspirations, she found inspiration from Melbourne’s persistent punk scene.
“I had a really weird taste in music when I was younger,” said Alley. “I used to go see bands illegally, going underage to The Tote to see fierce punk rock women do their thing, bands like Wet Lips and Lazertits.”
It was at a gig in Upwey when Alley first met Matt Walker; the Australian blues veteran happened to see her performance and was blown away by her songwriting chops.
“Matt is the gift that keeps on giving…[That] evening he was like ‘Come and record an EP when you’re around, that’d be brilliant!’. A couple of years later I went into the studio with him and recorded ‘Beasts’.”
Alley released her debut EP ‘Beasts’ in February, however the recording had taken place years before. Even at a young age, these tracks demonstrated her natural songwriting ability; cuts like Mr. Billy and the title track contain festive instrumentals, yet a complex and dynamic lyrical brood. Her vocal inflections mirror that of Kate Bush, amplifying a confident tone in her tenor.
“I wrote all the songs that were on the first EP between the age of 13 to 16...[Beasts] wasn’t outdated at all, but I’m a bit older now, my songwriting is a lot more mature.”
Maggie Alley performing at the Brunswick Ballroom in July (Photography by Aurora Kuhn)
Stars aligned when earlier this year she received a call from Walker, offering her a supporting slot at the Brunswick Ballroom for his band Lost Ragas, a role she seemed perfect for. This was a prestigious venue, one that differentiated from the usual pubs she was used to playing; this set would need to be something special.
“The setlist was really important to us, we wanted to make sure it flowed and was really smooth so we cut out a lot of the meeker songs that wouldn’t make so much of an impact,” said Alley.
Alley and her band - consisting of bassist Nick Lazzara (Prerock, Flaura) and drummer Brayden Becher (Kvll, Silurian) - began fixating on the set.
“We wanted something really punchy, something well-formed...It’s [about] finding the balance within the band.”
That night in July, the results spoke for themselves. Each song was a cathartic thrill, with Alley and co. firing on all cylinders. Tracks like Suffer Something and Witness Protection were brutal, with each beat hitting harder than the last. Becher’s thunderous drumming featured prominently on Goblin Market, while the cover of Patti Smith’s Pissing in a River was hypnotic, building smoothly to it’s colossal conclusion. All of this was laced with Alley’s roaring vocals tearing through each instrumental.
“We usually do two covers in the set, but I wanted my original material to come through as much as possible in that gig, [so] we chose to only do Pissing in a River because we’ve made that song our own anyway,” said Alley. “We took a long time to rehearse that and really picked apart the dynamics of certain songs, such as Goblin Market, which we slowed down”
Little did Alley know, Brunswick Ballroom sound engineer Stive Collins was recording the entire set, and within a couple of weeks had finished mastering it.
“It was really random,” Alley said. “Stive sent me a Dropbox file randomly and messaged me being like ‘Hey, here’s the recording, it’s all mastered and good to go if you want to listen to it’.”
“I stayed up quite late listening to it that night and I was really impressed by the performances and the sound quality, I didn’t expect it to be recorded at all. It was slightly impulsive to be honest, I messaged Nick and Brayden and was like ‘We gotta get this out there, let’s just do it’.”
'Live at the Brunswick Ballroom' released on the 14th of August.
‘Maggie Alley Live at the Brunswick Ballroom’ was released a month after the initial performance, showcasing what her audience can expect from the talented young performer in the future - a future she’s already planned.
“Melbourne’s a fantastic city for live music - arguably one of the best in the world - but I do want my music to reach other people and other communities,” Alley said. “I really want to get a studio album out as soon as possible...I’ve got it written already.”
“With music, the bigger the better.”