Thelma Plum: 'I Like To Think Of This Record As Better In Blak's Big Sister'

Thelma Plum is rolling out a "pop-heavy" new album, I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back, complete with merchandise bundles – and the Gamilaraay star is already eyeing her own hoodies.

"I wear my merch all the time and I also gift all the time – but just mainly 'cause I have so much of it," she chuckles, pausing. "I mean, no, I don't. It's all sold out!

"But I do wear my merch – often when we are on tour, and I'm freezing cold, and I don't have my own hoodie, or I don't have any clean clothes or something, I will 'cause they're really comfortable." Plum's merch is equally popular with family; her mum even wears it during outings together.

It's a few weeks before the album's release, and Plum is Zooming from Warner Music Australia's headquarters in Sydney mid-morning—the fashion fave exuding glamour. "I'd like to say I woke up like this, but I did not," she quips.

I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back is the hotly anticipated follow-up to Plum's classic debut, Better In Blak. The singer/songwriter aired the tuneful lead single, We Don't Talk About It, in November prior to supporting Coldplay on their exclusive Boorloo/Perth dates (the song premiered on The Zane Lowe Show, and she filmed a video in London). But recently Plum has mounted a media takeover.

Plum returned to Like A Version, covering Meredith Brooks' '90s Lilith Fair-era Bitch (she first guested back in 2014, performing Chet Faker's Gold) and joined triple j's One Night Stand in Warrnambool. "I looked on triple j's feed and I thought, 'Gosh, I'm in a few of these posts. I hope people don't get sick of me.'" Next, she's hitting the road to promote her album. 

In 2024, Plum is marking three milestones. It’s been 12 years since the musician's break-out single Father Said, and Better In Blak has turned five, but she will also celebrate her 30th birthday.

Growing up between Meanjin/Brisbane and the tiny farming town of Delungra in New South Wales, Plum was penning songs on acoustic guitar as a teen, winning the triple j Unearthed National Indigenous prize.

A confessional and socio-political artist, Plum would find an unexpected kindred spirit in Alexander Burnett – best-known as Sparkadia's former frontman and half of the deep house combo Antony & Cleopatra, but now an in-demand producer. "We have a great writing relationship," she says. "I've never felt that with anyone else before that I've written with, so it's very special and something I will always, always cherish."

Developing a fuller band sound, Plum came into her own with Better In Blak – ruminating on love, life and First Nations identity. The song Made For You featured Paul McCartney on guitar after a fluke studio encounter. Plum's debut was certified gold, and she received several ARIA nominations. Notably, the indelible title track won 2020's Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition and was voted #9 in the Hottest 100 – historic for an Indigenous act.

I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back had a long gestation. Plum worked alongside Burnett on material in London as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted her career plans—the singer observing archly, "Something happened in the world, I can't remember what happened then…" She took a "little break" to cut 2022's nostalgic lockdown side project Meanjin, which scored 'Album Of The Year' at the National Indigenous Music Awards.

For Plum, making Better In Blak was an education – but, in the interval, she gained perspective on her art. "There was a whole lot of lessons learnt after the first record, but I also love to learn a lesson but then not learn anything and just keep repeating the same thing again and hoping for the best next time.

"But I guess I learned a bit more about not worrying. I still worry a lot; I'm quite a nervous Nellie, but I’m not getting too in my head about the release.

"So maybe something that I have learnt is to enjoy it – just 'cause often I really struggle to be in the moment and to kind of be present and enjoy something."

Though intuitive, Plum usually strives to be intentional. But I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back is an album of feelings – its arc less narrative than emotional as she reflects on coming of age. Ask Plum about her headspace, and she cheerfully demurs. "Oh, God… I should get better at answering this question. I've gotta bloody do some bloody media training!"

In fact, I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back is a break-up album, explaining Plum's coyness. "I was in a relationship at the start of that," she says. "I was single, I was collaborating with someone I loved very much, so it was a very intimate thing – writing the record, anyway.

"There's so many different parts of me – and I don't wanna say different versions of me, 'cause it's always still been me – but just so many new discoveries that I made along the way.

"It really wasn't that I sat down in two weeks or in over a month and just wrote specifically for this record. It was something that happened over time that I wanted to kind of tell – like one big story."

In We Don't Talk About It, Plum sings of nearly crashing her car when she spots an ex with his new girlfriend – only apparently, it's figurative. "This is so silly, but I don't drive – like I can't drive," Plum bashfully confides. "I do have really bad anxiety, and I am so fearful… I mean, I can drive, I know how to drive, but I can't do it because I fear for other people on the road. It's like almost as a community service; I shouldn't drive."

Plum expresses vulnerability on the dramatic ballad Golden Touch – a cautionary tale about loving someone too intensely. She recollects writing it with Burnett. "We've been through many things over the years and I love him so much and I love collaborating with him. We just have had many different relationships in our time working together. It's changed very much and always kind of looks different – and I feel so grateful for him.

"[But] I remember writing that song, and I remember going, 'I have to leave the studio now.' I think I cried, and then I just went, 'I'm going home now, and I don't know if I'll come back tomorrow.' And, then, I did – and we have this great song that we got to write together about some of our time together."

Late last year, Plum previewed Golden Touch live at Harvest Rock in Tarndanya/Adelaide. "Your girl was sobbing," she reveals. I couldn't finish the song. Something must have happened—but I was so sad." Mind, Plum was touched by the crowd's compassion.

Initially, Plum was described as a folkie. She used to be resolute that her music be "organic," using "only acoustic instruments." Yet Plum now pursues sonic experimentation. "I'm more willing to take risks production-wise." Besides, she's "a lot more open" to collaborating.

If Better In Blak encompassed everything from heartland rock to vintage soul, then I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back is similarly stylistically diverse – with road trip anthems and cry ballads. "I like to think of this record as Better In Blak's big sister, but maybe moving a little bit further away from that sort of indie [influence]," Plum ponders.

Over summer, Plum played the Tamworth Country Music Festival – and she's a fan of both Shania Twain and Taylor Swift (the Swiftie attended The Eras Tour). And, on I'm Sorry, Now Say It Back, songs such as Cowboy In The Rain and All The Pretty Little Horses carry a country twang. Most surprisingly, the album's pinnacle, The Love I Want, evokes The Seekers' melancholy – Plum's vibrato ever-soulful. Indeed, she's embraced "lush" arrangements.

Ultimately, Plum believes that her sophomore is "a little bit more pop," citing the rhythmic second single Nobody's Baby and Hurricane (a G Flip co-write).

In early 2025, Plum will appear at Golden Plains – PJ Harvey headlining. Today she aspires to tour more internationally following a memorable gig at Camden's feted Jazz Cafe late in 2023. "In the last couple of years I've been overseas to play and it's been really fun," Plum enthuses. "It's nice as well playing overseas and then having people come to your show and know your songs – like that's crazy! I sold out a show in London, and I thought, 'Surely, you're all Australian,' and half of them were, but half of them weren't."

However, Plum likewise intends to create abroad "not so intentionally," she says. "I really wanna go spend some time in London and be there and live your life and then write music because you want to write music, not because you have to write it for a record."

Plum is "grateful" to have been a 17-year-old sensation, but she missed out on the ritual of having a gap year and travelling around Europe. As such, she craves adventures.

The star had an 'aha' moment about tour life watching the I Am: Celine Dion documentary. "[Dion] was talking about how she has been to so many places and travelled, but she's never 'been' anywhere," Plum relates. "I mean, I'm obviously not as busy as Celine Dion. But it is sometimes really in and out." She laughs again. "I wanna go to Stonehenge! I wanna go to those cool tourist places." Rock on, Thelma.

I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back is out now via Warner Music Australia.