Embracing Change

"I put it down to a few things,” Simmons begins, explaining the new sound on It's Not Like We're Trying to Move Mountains. “First and foremost, I think that I changed a little bit in personality over the last few years. I became happier. I had more of a social life than I ever had before. And I think, as a result, I was connecting to different music that I kind of had dismissed before as not really something that I was into. And then I was doing a solo show one night at The Troubadour and about halfway through it I realised I was just completely bored of what I was doing. I think those two things combined made me realise that it was time for a change. Time to focus. To really make that decision to change and do it.”

The music isn't the only shift. Lyrically, Simmons has become more personal, more direct.

“This is the first album that I've actually been quite straight up about stuff,” she states. “I think other songs I've written in the past, unless I've told someone a song was about them they wouldn't have really known. And this one I really walked the line between giving too much away and just holding enough back that it wasn't too obvious either. Where you need to protect people from a song, or where you need to protect yourself from a song, then you obviously hold back a little bit. But yeah, I definitely give a lot more away than I ever have before.”

When it came to creating live versions of the tracks, Simmons really enjoyed herself, drawing on experience from previous tours and also as a live member of YesYou to create a more organic environment.

“It's actually been a fun process,” Simmons admits excitedly. “And it's been easier to do than I thought it would be to get the fullness of the sound that we need. I've got a four-piece with me – I've got a bassist and drummer and then I've also got Lucas [Arundel] who's playing synths or keylines and then myself on keys. It's been a really good feeling to be able to do it all ourselves where in the past I'd use laptops and samples and a lot of stuff to try to get the sounds that I'd been doing in the recordings. There's just that kind of feeling that you don't know what the fuck is going to happen and there's more freedom to just do what you want or what feels right at the time when you're onstage.”

Despite her excitement about the new album, there's still a bit of trepidation when Simmons talks about her songs, but she sees that as a natural part of the process.

“I think you'd be very hard pressed to find a band who honestly felt 100% confident that everything that they'd done was great or right for them,” she says thoughtfully. “There's always that feeling that you haven't represented yourself exactly right or you haven't done what is truly you, but at the end of the day, anything that you write is truly you because you can't fake that stuff. It's just a matter of knowing that it's right and is the very best you could do and is the best representation of you. There's a saying out there, 'Nothing is ever finished until it's released', so it's just that feeling of 'Okay, it's done and I have to let go of it now'. If I didn't release it when I did I probably would still be going back to Yanto [Browning] saying I want to change stuff.”

Tara Simmons will be playing the following shows:

Wednesday 24 October - Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD
Friday 26 October - FBi Social, Sydney NSW
Thursday 1 November - The Workers Club, Melbourne VIC