- I played in school jazz bands and tried to start rock bands, but nobody was interested.
- I like reading biographies because most of them are slightly similar, and it's voyeuristic, looking into someone's life.
- I'm self-deprecating - I spend a lot of time telling myself that things are OK, as opposed to having to tell myself to get over things.
- I started writing songs when I started learning guitar.
- I'm just not very comfortable talking about my emotions on a normal, day-to-day basis.
- What's funny about the slacker thing, people project an image of what they think a musician is: young, slack, unemployed - like a really romantic idea of a poet, writer or musician - which isn't really true a lot of the time. I don't reckon you would know anything about me if I wasn't moderately hard-working.
- We're a very success-driven culture, which is such a downer at times. Even if you don't think that way, you're forced to think that way. Everyone is trying to subconsciously out-do everyone else.
- You can't read when you're traveling with other people; it always feels a bit rude.
- I hate going anywhere. I'm really excited to travel and play all these different places, but if I had it my way, I would stay inside, maybe go to the back garden or walk around the corner to the shops. That's it.
- Leaving the house is a big enough occasion for me, so getting on a plane and flying across the world and playing to a room full of people is just out of this world.
- I don't like to overcook songs.
- I grew up listening to Nirvana and then went through some bad '90s pop stuff - a lot of Australian one-hit wonders.
- I just get bored really quickly and want to push myself to the next level.
- An album is a thing you take time out and go work on.
- I have a normal life; I don't do anything crazy.
- If I make a wrong decision, I worry what might have been. I stress out over very insignificant things.
- I liked the idea of being a photographer, just that you take this one picture of this one thing that'll never happen again - it's a bit weird when you think about it.
- I really want a Christmas in New York one year, when it's snowing. Like, it's Christmas morning, and you have a fight with someone, and you run down the street, and it's snowing, and you can't find them.
- Dad sometimes sends me texts saying, 'Just heard you on the radio, thumbs up', or whatever. So that's pretty cute.
- Artists thrive off each other, and when you see other people doing cool stuff, it inspires you to do cool stuff.
- The first song I wrote was called 'You,' and it was a love song about somebody who didn't even exist.
- I'm very hands on with my music - I do all the artwork and everything myself - and the songs I write aren't necessarily the most commercial.
- Obviously, the more you tour, the more comfortable you get.
- If I write something down, it's normally just a sharp one-liner.
- When I started Milk! Records, it was a pretty non-profit making venture.
- I keep a journal and just kind of take notes. I don't really so much sit down and write songs - I just take a lot of notes, and sometimes I sit down and put them all together.
- When I was on the road with Billy Bragg, it was cool because I was doing the whole thing solo and travel a lot by myself, which I quite like. I mean, I love being with friends, but it's kind of nice having that alone time.
- Everyone writes in whatever way feels comfortable to them. People write songs because maybe they don't feel so comfortable talking about whatever matters.
- I grew up listening to hipster jazz and classical records... we went and watched ballet and orchestras - lots of cool stuff. Which I'm really grateful for - it's pretty nice being introduced to that when you're little.
- I just want to be self-sustainable so that I can continue to just do what I like to do and not make a million dollars. Nobody needs a million dollars.
- People are like, 'Wow you started your own record label,' and treat me like I'm some sort of innovative genius, when I'm not at all. You've got the Internet and music - you put them together, and people hear your music.
- I never planned to be a professional artist - I just want to be a sustainable artist. I guess they're the same thing if you look at them from a different angle.
- I've always shied away from verbalising things, and apologising almost for even having an opinion. I've realised that's a weird way to be.
- Jen [Cloher] was saying to me that I never tell her how I really feel, and I have close friends that I keep quite an emotional distance from. It's feeling that disconnect, and how it's not very helpful.
- Even now I'm like: 'Aw, I suck!' [she laughs uncomfortably] It's ingrained.
- When I've done shows and interviews, I've noticed myself doing that female thing, of trying to please people even when they say rude things, not speaking up for myself. Small things, which add up and manifest as a bigger self-hatred.
- I really ummed and ahhed about it, but I did that [Australian iPhone X campaign advert] because it's such a mainstream company, just to shove it in people's faces, and then I saw the most fucking homophobic comments on it.
- [At what age did you have the anaphylactic attack?] It was 2015, so late 20s. [What went through your mind at the time?] It was so dramatic but so comical. I didn't know what to do; I didn't know who to call. I was living in a share house, so my friend was in another room, but I almost didn't want to bother them. [Laughs] I remember texting Jen [Cloher, her partner], sending her photos of my skin rashing up, asking, "Should I go to hospital? Call a doctor? Or is that too dramatic?" I was looking at myself in the mirror, struggling to breathe. At the time I was a huge smoker, and I remember in that moment looking at myself in the mirror, like, "Why do you smoke?" I quit smoking after that. So it was kind of great. I've never had a cigarette since.
- [Tell us about your relationship with the natural world.] It's about those moments of clarity, and respecting the kind of world we're living on, and a guest on. When you're around nature, you understand we're so small in this much grander scheme, and all the worries we cling on to - all the tiny things we spend our time and energy wasting away on - are so insignificant. It's not pessimistic; it's just putting it into perspective.
- [Your 2013 breakout single, Avant Gardener, references a real anaphylactic attack you experienced while gardening. Did you know before that moment that you had potentially fatal allergies?] No, I didn't. That was one of my biggest near-death experiences. I had one other one when I was really young, when I got stuck under a boat... [Oh my god. How old were you and how did you get stuck under a boat?] Maybe... 10-ish? Little. [What happened?] It sounds a lot more dramatic than it was. I was mucking around with my brother and our friends. I was swimming under this blow-up dinghy, came up for air, but I came up too early. This rubber boat was stuck on top of me with people in it, and I just had this moment of not being able to move. [That's terrifying.] They are the two moments in my life of being like, "Oh! This is it! Catch you later!"
- [What qualities do you find sexy in people?] Humour. And some level of self-assuredness. They're a good starting point.
- [Did you grow up religious?] No, not a religious family. [For non-religious people, other labels sometimes apply. Atheist. Agnostic. Spiritual. Do any apply to you?] I would maybe say, on some level, spiritual. I wouldn't say atheist. What's agnostic? [When you're not religious, but haven't discounted the idea there might be something beyond you.] See, I don't know if I'm that, either. I think I believe in humans and nature. [Laughs]
- [Was there anything you wish you knew about sex when you were younger that you do now?] That there is no solid answer or rule. I'd struggle and be like, "Oh, I'm a lesbian, but hang on, I'm attracted to this guy now." A lot of really intense emotions manifest from that rigid framework. Knowing that then would have alleviated a lot of pain.
- [on the Kinsey Scale, where zero is exclusively heterosexual and six is exclusively homosexual, where do you sit?] Oh, six. Actually, I veer towards six, but I'm not a straight six, you know. My general rule is to take people as they come. [Laughs] It's about connection, and a lot of that is beyond sexuality, gender or whatever. I don't really care that much. But you know, I'd say I'm definitely - and severely - more in the queer area. [Laughs] I don't really stress about it that much. [Is this attitude different to when you were growing up?] As a kid, I always got weirdly stereotypical versions of things. Lesbians were apparently man-haters. There were silly stereotypes about feminists. It felt like, by joining either of those parties, you'd be outcast in some way. Then I started to gather my own knowledge, recognise my own feelings and make up my own mind. [How did you do that? What were the reference points?] Art, literature, reading other people's experiences and connecting with them. That was the first step. Then it was about finding like-minded people.
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