The Go-Betweens Multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown Announces New Album

Multi-instrumentalist and composer from The Go-Betweens, Amanda Brown, has announced the release of her debut solo album Eight Guitars, alongside new single, Freedom Song.  

Set to arrive on Friday, March 3rd, this new record sees Brown team up with some of the most prolific songwriters of this century, including performer and songwriter Kirin J Callinan (Mark Ronson and Genesis Owusu), multi-instrumentalist Damien Lane, Brisbane songwriter Danny Widdicombe, Brendan Gallagher, Bruce Reid, Shane O'Mara and Nashville-based artist Daniel Champagne.

Combining the immense talent of everyone involved, Eight Guitars is the culmination of more than two decades of work and features each contributor as a guest guitarist on separate tracks, seeing Brown's prolific turn to rock and roll after producing music for screen. 

"The songs on Eight Guitars were written over a long period of time - some are from films while others were composed during periods between screen commissions," said Brown. 

In 2020, facing the prospect of both the music and film industries shutting down due to the pandemic, the time seemed right to bring Eight Guitars to fruition.

“Ironically I wouldn’t have had the self confidence to release a solo album back when I first started recording these tracks. But now I’m a postmenopausal woman. I don’t over-analyse and just get on with it!"

Alongside the announcement, Brown has released the first track, Freedom Song. 

Co-written with director Miro Bilbrough, ‘Freedom Song’ was originally created in 2003 for Floodhouse, an Australian independent film detailing the life of a Mara, who leaves a dysfunctional bohemian family behind for a future yet to be determined. The oldest song on the record, Freedom Song, is about the universal desire to be free.

"The original recording of Freedom Song was just piano and voice, but this album version features Kirin J Callinan on guitar. I met Kirin in Brisbane almost ten years ago. He was at the airport baggage carousel dressed in a kimono and a pair of complimentary hotel slippers.

"He was clearly a flamboyant showman with scant regard for convention and this was confirmed when I heard him play later that night. He coaxes otherworldly sounds from his guitar via an impressive array of pedals and is truly like no one else. I knew Kirin would bring his idiosyncratic genius to the track and I adore him.”

Stream Freedom Song, the first track from Eight Guitars, below.