Today marks the culmination of an exciting new era for Wollongong’s Tyne-James Organ, who has just released his new album, The Other Side.

Featuring singles such as One Way Ticket, All On Me, Comedown, and Blue, the album is a collection of heartfelt songs about life, exploring its trials, delights and heartbreaks, as well as acting as a cheeky sequel to Necessary Evil. Teaming up with ARIA Award-winning producer Chris Collins (Gretta Ray, Budjerah, Royel Otis), Tyne-James Organ was pushed to be his most creative yet.

To celebrate the release of The Other Side, Organ has broken down the dense album, track by track, for The Music. You can check his thoughts on the album journey below.

TYNE-JAMES ORGAN - THE OTHER SIDE TRACK BY TRACK 

One Way Ticket


This is such a fun song, and the creation process was just a whole mood. On the first day of putting ‘One Way Ticket’ together, we’d only fleshed out the bed of the arrangement and instrumentation. A few melodies and lyrics were swirling, but nothing was popping.

I knew it had an energy, and I felt a stubbornness in myself when figuring the melodic side out. After a few Guinnesses at the pub, I went back to my accommodation for the night, rolled a joint and put my headphones on. Then, as I usually do, I just played the instrumental track over and over whilst dancing away until the melodies you hear now came to life. I recorded some voice memos and took them back to the studio the next day, spent some time workshopping lyrics, and it was all there. It’s a happy cheesy love song and I’m actually so stoked and excited to finally share this side of me within my music.
 

All On Me

This one came to life in February 2023. Chris and I were deep into creating this album and had a bunch of songs we were working on, but then, as always, we started jamming and found something very quickly. Lyrically, nothing came at all on the first day.

It wasn’t until Chris and I were driving home and listening back to the instrumental whilst conversing over some different concepts and general life chats that the concept became apparent. No-brainer in the space of seconds. This one is all about my mum, as if she is singing every single word. Everything is always on my mum. Everything. She picks every piece up and carries on.

The first verse addresses the loss of my father and navigating life after his death. It explores the challenges of being alone, making crucial decisions alone, and being a mother alone. We kids couldn’t handle it, and even though I’m not sure my mum could handle it, she did. All of the weight left from dad’s passing was on my mum. We’re dealing with severe cancer within the family again, and this time it’s her mother. My beautiful nan.

Comedown 

Chris worked out of this tiny cabin in Coorabell for a few months in early 2021, and I was lucky enough to spend some time with him there. We actually created a few songs from the album here. Comedown definitely was a standout in that time, mainly due to how it came to life.

The drums were all created from Chris and I hitting different spots of my guitar case along with tapping cups and glasses. I had a rough chord progression I’d found, and it sat in with the rest of what we were doing nicely.

At the time, I’d been hanging out and talking with a friend of mine who was going through some ups and downs. Drugs were at the forefront, and the enemy was the comedown. So, chasing the high was the only way through. I’ve had my fair share of this myself, but being on the outside in this given situation was a whole new experience for me.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve been around this stuff to this extent in the past, but when you’re also on it and amongst the chaos, it just goes unnoticed. The song has moments where I am talking about my friend, but I also brought it into my own world of personal experiences, as I have a deeper understanding there. 
 

Worth My Time
 

I cannot wait to play this one live. It’s such a different feel to anything I’ve previously put out. Surprisingly, the whole feel of the song was unintentional. I’d initially had it in a more typical TJO sound, but when we were putting it together, Chris chucked up a more disco drum loop, and it fell into exactly where it now sits.

This was one of the last songs we made at Chris’ studio in Stokers Siding (where we made the first album). It’s about the push and pull of a relationship and trying to figure out whether it’s actually worth it. The relationship isn’t always about love. It can come in many different aspects/ forms of our lives, and navigating through can be such a weird and testing challenge. For me, this one just felt right for me to voice my feelings, put them into the universe and let them be.

Love Me Back

This one follows along the lines of Worth My Time. It explores a similar conversation and hones in more on the love angle. We’ve all been in that weird relationship where we aren’t quite sure if it’s as serious as we perceive, nevertheless, our feelings are running bloody rapid.

If you know me, you’ll get the chorus on first listen. I remember sitting there in that moment, knowing full well I shouldn’t say the words, yet I did. You never imagine telling someone something like that, and it would be the defining part of ruining the relationship. Shit happens. It’s all funny to look back on now, but if only I bit my tongue, ha-ha.

I love that this song has some major 7ths throughout. They are my favourite chords, and I never use them in my music unless I’m mucking around in my own time. Maybe this will spark the next album being only major 7ths. Jokes. I just love the simple structure and feel Love Me Back carries.
 

The Other Side 

The Other Side was another special one from our time working in the cabin in Coorabell. It was a rainy day with low light, and we really channelled that energy. It’s wild how easy it was to write. It’s so brutal, but honest in every regard. I have such a weird and deep curiosity around death and mental health. Strange, I know, but that’s me.

As soon as Chris chucked the vocoder effect on my chorus vocals, the song really found its direction, and we both had the idea of it being one with a feature. The team and I had discussed in the album’s early days that a feature could be a really cool thing to do, but it was only a conversation until this point.

Given the sound of the song, Chris and I randomly both said to each other how sick it would be to have someone like Gordi on it. That was more of a dream type situation, I never imagined we’d be here now with her on the song. She did all her parts and recording remotely, yet to me it feels like we were in the same room the whole time. Her lyrics align with everything that I imagined them to be. I’m so grateful that this song happened and to Gordi for being a part of it. I think it’s definitely a special moment of this album.
 

Blue 

This song is almost part two of my song Watch You Go. While Watch You Go tells the story of losing my father in 2016, Blue explores the challenges and perspectives of myself and my mum a year on. In 2017, I experienced probably the lowest point mentally of my life. My mum was my rock throughout everything, as she always is, and the reason I got through it all. Lyrically, this one is heavy but purely conversational between my mum and me. It’s raw and honest.
 

Sometimes
 


It was pretty surreal when Chris invited Matt Corby into the studio for the day. Matt’s been a massive influence since I was quite young so it’s safe to say I was shitting the bed upon his arrival, ha-ha. The first few hours, I was a bit quieter in the studio than I usually would be, but we had some beers and started jamming. The idea started coming to life, and it felt like it was in a really nice pocket.

Definitely a newer territory for me, but another one that feels fresh and exciting. Matt ended up playing the bass, piano and drums on this one, which is another massive honour for me. I spent some time back in Wollongong workshopping the lyrics a few months later and had a great day with my mate Cameron Little finishing the lyrics. 
 

Everybody Wants To Fly 

I made this song in Melbourne with my mates Elliot and Alex from the Delta Riggs. I’ve always admired their music, and their sound, so I was super stoked to finally get in a studio with them. Many substances were in full flow whilst making this one, and I think it only helped shape it to be what it is. Being in the state we were that night, I don’t think this song was going to take any other direction. It’s carefree and calls out some weirdness we exist in. Everyone is just fighting to be the coolest cat on the block. It’s all a bit of a laugh and has a ‘I don't give a fuck’ mentality. Again, a new world, but an exciting one to explore and flesh out. It has a lot of swagger, and I think it will be super fun to play live. 

Sunny Side Up
 

Sunny Side Up explores the chaos of me and my ADHD. I’m a very chaotic person in general. I can be super calm at times, but mostly I’m either bouncing off walls or bashing my head against them. This one is inspired by my partner and her ability to keep me in line. She lets me do my thing, but she also knows how to reel me back in and understand I need to be chill sometimes.

I wrote this one with Alexander Burnett back in 2022. We’d spent a few days working out of his studio in Glebe and just had such a fun time together. We’d never worked together prior, but I felt super comfortable opening up about my weird traits and persona. He helped me laugh and be courageous about it all, whilst letting me embrace my true inner self. 
 

Means To An End


Every lyric of this song is just me imagining being an infant in front of a mirror and talking to myself. The whole thing is a conversation with me. A brutal conversation, but sometimes this is exactly the type of song I need to write to help me heal.

In early 2022, my mum had a piano put in her house, and because I’m in an apartment and can’t have one at mine, I ended up spending a heap of time over there fiddling around. One day, in particular, I was playing, and my mum and nan were sitting and watching. I’m not that good at piano (I’m getting better lol), so a lot of what I do is quite simplified.

In this moment, I was just bashing a low C note over and over and trying to do something more moving with my right hand. I wasn’t intending to write anything, I was just having some fun and mucking around with it. But then I hit the C, E and F single notes with that right hand and the beginning of Means To An End was born.

I have a beautiful voice memo of my nan laughing along to me playing it for the first time, which is super special to me. The song pretty much stayed as that for some time. Just a nice little voice memo. It wasn’t until I was down in Melbourne a few months later for a writing trip that it was opened up again. I’d been working with Gab Strum and Demi Louise for a few days, and we’d made some really cool stuff. One morning, Demi had to do her own stuff for a few hours, so Gab and I went for brekky and then jumped in the studio.

We only had a few hours to kill, and I ended up showing him the voice memo, and we got to work. It was fleshed out and kept in the simple structure it still exists in. The lyrics just poured out, and it was done in no time. When taking it to Chris to record it for the album, we kept a lot of it similar to the demo, but I loved where we took the middle 8 / bridge section and had Andrew Banovich drum. I love this song a lot.
 

Better Times

Chris invited Georgia Potter into the studio for a day, and what a day it was. Georgia is an amazing songwriter and musician, so I was super excited. It’s the first song I’ve ever made where we’ve gone full method acting in the creation. If you’ve seen the film ‘Get Back’, you see the Beatles having tea and marmalade on toast. So, Georgia rocks up, tea, bread, and marmalade all in hand and says, “Let’s get into character.”

Next minute we’re sitting in a circle on the floor drinking tea and having marmalade on toast whilst talking through ideas on the song that was to become Better. She entered the room with such a positive and happy energy that it truly shaped the energy of the song. We sat bouncing lyrics, tipping over tea, crumbs everywhere, and just enjoying the process. It’s such a fun and easy song. It shows hope and feels fun.

Georgia laid down the backing vocals throughout the chorus, which I love so much. We ended up finishing the recording side of the song months later. From the amazing experience of writing this song, I didn’t think another moment of such excitement could come. That was until Chris, Andrew, and I entered the vocal booth, all very deep into the beers, and just let loose.

You can hear throughout the whole track the three of us just having fun, taking the piss, drinking the piss and singing along to Better Times. It’s a special experience having two such intense and memorable moments occur in the creation of one song. Means To An End probably was expected to close the record, but I wanted to leave with one last note of hope. 

The Other Side is out now via Dew Process/Universal Music Australia. You can listen to the album here. You can catch Tyne-James Organ live on the following dates:

TYNE-JAMES ORGAN

THE OTHER SIDE TOUR

with special guests The Velvet Club*, Mitch Santiago**, Jacob Fitzgerald & The Electric City

Friday 23 May - The Triffid – Brisbane*

Saturday 24 May - The Factory Theatre – Sydney*

Friday 30 May - Rosemount Hotel – Perth**

Friday 6 June - 170 Russell – Melbourne*

Saturday 7 June - Lion Arts Factory – Adelaide*

Tickets: https://www.tynejamesorgan.com/tour