Nadia Phillips Explores the Misery of Love with Debut Album
By Wil Clifford | April 16th, 2021
'A Million Birds and One Stone' reflects on themes of growing up and infatuation through powerful folk songs.
Nadia grew up in Castlemaine, surrounded by the community's rich art scene from a young age. The town's biennial arts festival was something she always adored.
"Whether it's music or painting, drawing, scultpure or dance even, there's so much going on there," she said. "[The festival] was a huge exciting time for the town, everyone would come together...That's always been my favourite time of the year in Castlemaine."
Picking up piano at the age of five, she was inspired by her father's experiences in St. Kilda's illustrious music scene.
"A lot of the bands he liked I grew up listening to, that influenced me to play in a band," she said. "He always supported my solo stuff but always told me playing in a band was great."
Phillips' teenage years saw her take on the guitar, honing her craft as a songwriter with a few microphones and GarageBand. Soundcloud became an outlet for her creative ventures, uploading demos sporadically, if only for her own amusement.
"I've got heaps of songs on Soundcloud that I don't know if I'll ever touch on again. There's about 60 songs or something that I wrote throughout those years from 2016 onwards."
Despite the steady flow of solo recordings, the prospect of forming a band remained with her. It wasn't until her move to Melbourne a couple years ago that she formed The Girlfriends, comprising of fellow Castlemaine musicians Jet Mulls, Jaxon Bailey-Banks and Ezra Demchy.
"I knew of Jet and Jaxon, I didn't know Ezra yet - everyone knows everyone in Castlemaine so I knew his name," she said. "Initially they were really hesitant to play with me because they're all into different music to what I was creating...After playing so many gigs the last year or so we've finally said...'We want to be a seperate entity, this is the band'."
Releasing their debut EP 'Sort It Out' in March 2021, the band demonstrates a heavier tone in contrast to Phillips' solo material; songs are built on Jet's no-nonsense bass and Phillips' emotive melodies. Ezra supplies the post-punk atmosphere, thoughtfully intertwining his playing with vocals, while Jaxon's distinct drumming style displays an intricate feriocity without ever being overpowering.
According to Phillips, it's quite early in the writing stage when she figures out whether a song will be for The Girlfriends.
"When I'm writing something I can tell straight away if it needs to be a band song or if it needs to be solo because the band stuff is heavier and the solo stuff is lighter. It might not even be the sound of the song but it's the feeling behind writing it," she said. "It could just be my own personal energy towards writing that song...I guess there's no real definition as to which song gets played with which project but I just know when it feels right."
Nadia Phillips performing with The Girlfriends at The Curtin in November (Photography by Thom Lidgerwood)
"I feel as though I'm very good at writing poetry, so often I'll cheat and make that writing into lyrics - I mean it's not cheating, it's just another form."
'A Million Birds and One Stone' is Phillips' solo debut, a self-described "coming-of-age" piece harnessed through themes of love, loss and quiet reflection. Influenced by Phillips' move to Melbourne in 2020, 'A Million Birds' establishes her flourishing songwriting capabilities, dissecting complex emotions through thoughtful lyricism and purposeful performance.
"I write to process what's going on in my head," said Phillips. "I can't really unpack things properly without writing them down and making a song out of them which is quite odd, but that's just my process."
Leading singles 'Recall, Recoil' and 'Undress' are emblematic of Phillips' versatility as a songwriter, signifying two distinct sounds this album captures. The former harkens back to Nadia's work with The Girlfriends, minus the punkish grit; her dreamy electric guitar progression is tied together with a strong rhythm section, supplied by the exceptional Finn Inkster. 'Undress' examines a much more raw facet of Phillips' songwriting, both instrumentally as well as lyrically, all underpinned by Uma Dingemans' aching cello.
"A lot of people say I make quite melancholic music - which is probably true."
What shines through on this formidible debut is Nadia's lyrics, teetering between hope and misery whilst managing to articulate complex feelings. A notable highlight is the adoring ballad 'The Wick':
"If you were the sun and I was the moon, would you light the way?
If you were the sun and I was the moon, would you still walk away?"
'A Million Birds', while under the Nadia Phillips name, is a communal effort, something of a triumphant declaration representing an often overlooked Castlemaine clique. Many of the names within the album's liner notes are attached to significant Castlemaine acts such as 00_, Thistleswitch and Finn Quaid.
"I wanted [A Million Birds] to be intimate and personal and I wanted other young people to have opportunities to get involved," she said. "[Jim and Finn Inkster] can probably understand what I'm talking about rather than someone who doesn't know me. That was really special to be able to do that and invite them into the project."
This collaborative objective goes beyond the music; the physical CD release features a lyric booklet filled with art dedicated to individual tracks, each made by a different Castlemaine artist.
"Growing up in Castlemaine I've always been so community-orientated and so I wanted this to be a collaborative community project as well."
"I thought rather than choose just one [artist] and not allow all these other lovely people to get involved, why don't I allocate one song to each person and ask them to make an artwork...I think that was so successful because these people got to interpret the songs how they saw them, that brought out new perspectives for me as the writer."
A Million Birds and One Stone released November 26th. Static 0pen hosted the album launch.
Shortly after the release of 'A Million Birds', Castlemaine-affiliate Campbell Gray performed a cover of Phillips' 'Undress' under his moniker Oh, Sweet William. The moment, which took place at The Old Bar, was an intimate look into the way the emerging Castlemaine clique views art, even their own. The community that's built around this music, beyond genre and aesthetic, exhibits a constant flow of passion for one another and the resulting art, to the extent that the community is self-sufficient. Phillips' doesn't look towards world-renowned artists or historic musicians when asked about her influences, instead citing her friends and family within Castlemaine. In this sense, 'A Million Birds' and it's songs are detached from Nadia, instead belonging to the greater faction of artists that inspired it.
"A lot of my main influences are other local artists who happen to be friends, people where you go to their gig and hang around with [them], they take up a lot of your mental and emotional space," she said. "That's what I love most about putting out music, these have been my feelings and stories and now that they're out there they're everyones, anyone and everyone can listen to this and make it their own...I know music can be so healing for people and make them feel listened to or heard, even understood."
Listen to A Million Birds and One Stone on Bandcamp and Spotify.