Get To Know Ayla With A Track-By-Track Rundown Of Her Debut EP

Sunshine Coast-bred singer-songwriter Ayla has been keeping busy lately in the wake of the release of her debut EP, When The World Ends, having spent most of this month on the road between gigs in support of the work.

Now, with one show remaining on her EP tour — a performance in Brisbane tomorrow night — and a slot at this week's Jungle Love Festival on the horizon, the talented songstress has very kindly let The Music in a little to take us through the songs of When The World Ends with an exclusive track-by-track rundown.

Ayla wraps her EP tour at Brisbane's Milk Factory & Bar tomorrow, 26 November, and will contribute this week's Like A Version for triple j on Friday. Jungle Love Festival runs from 27-28 November; Ayla is also appearing at Woodford Folk Festival at the end of the year.

For more information about her Milk Factory gig, see theGuide or check The Music App; for either festival spot, see the relevant event page under the Festivals tab.

Have a listen to the EP, and read what Ayla has to say about the stories behind the songs, below.

When the World Ends

When The World Ends is a pretty dramatic kind of name, but it wasn’t written with any specific emotion or situation in mind. Hopefully, though, it’s relatable to different kinds of situations. This one was written two years ago when I was looking after my mum and dad’s farm while they were away. I was playing around with the chords and then just started writing this dark, cynical sort of song. As I went I was sort of mindfully trying to make the imagery darker and darker. Its not serious though. Its actually kind of funny, really…

Waiting

Waiting is the oldest song on the EP, written in 2009. This one was written when I was with a group from school at an ice-skating rink in Brisbane. There were lots of people around, and I still felt alone. The first lyric, ‘never seen so many people, never felt so alone’, was inspired by that feeling and the rest of the song followed from there. I wrote it that night when I was at the rink.

Heaven

Someone gave me a little songbook with guitars and musical notes on the front for a birthday gift years ago and I write most of my songs in there. I was flipping back through it earlier this year and found this song, Heaven, which I had started in 2012. I kept the first and second verses mostly the same and wrote a new chorus and third verse. Beginning with the line, ‘I got to Heaven, but I didn’t fit in’, the chorus lyrics are an observation of the exclusive and exact nature in aspects of some religious practises and their beliefs, which is where the line, ‘They told me the rules, I couldn’t keep them all’, was derived.

House on a Hill

This one was initially called When You Get Home, but this EP was already pretty overloaded with songs that start with ‘W’. This is the most freshly penned song on the EP. I wrote the chorus to this song first, and from the perspective of a poor man (emotionally or financially) who can only promise to 'always be there when you get home'. The chorus is in 6/8 timing and when I wrote the verse, it ended up being in 4/4. The verse had a different take in that it was written from the perspective of someone who loves and would do anything for someone, but that person probably won’t love them back. I had someone tell me after a show that they thought the song was from the viewpoint of a father however, so its great that people can take different meanings and relate in different ways. The songs and their meanings change for me as well sometimes, the more I play them.

Wish I Was

This was the first single I released. Wish I Was started as a poem that I wrote when I was off on a walk on my parents’ property. I was sitting down at the edge of a gully in amongst the trees listening to the bellbirds and the silence in between their calls. About a year later I took the poem out again and turned it into a song, using the last stanza as a chorus and adding melody and chords. It’s a pretty dark song reflecting anxiety, negative thoughts, and trying to escape those things. The chorus lyrics, ‘I am ready to fall, to break free of these walls’, are intended to bring an uplifting spin, and a hopeful quality.

When The World Ends is available now.