What Made Donnelle Brooks Write 'Poppies'

Donnelle Brooks' folky EP Poppies flows as "a diary of sorts" - "I had a pretty bad relationship at the time that I wrote most of the songs. That's always equally inspiring and frustrating," she explains. "I wish there was a theme! They are just a collection of songs. The writing process is not something I can control, it sort of just comes out depending on how I'm feeling." 

Leaving school to work on a farm in Laidley, Brooks laughs that it was "pretty shit, so I quit my job and started studying music." She released an EP as a solo artist in 2012 before gathering her band Don & The Mobsters, before settling down again for a solo writing adventure with Poppies. Recording at Hunting Ground Studios in Moorooka, she was on familiar ground. "I've worked there before recording a song for the charity group Make The Homeless Smile. The drums were tracked by my friend Dustin." Recording was far from smooth: "The recording process was a mess, interrupted by discovering I had vocal fold polyps last year," she reveals. The track closest to her heart is "The title track Poppies. I wrote it for my brother who went to serve in Afghanistan. It's funny 'cause we haven't always see eye to eye, but when he went away it made me feel grateful for our relationship and has brought us closer."