Interview: Stella Donnelly
March 6, 2019
Kalporz interviews Stella Donnelly
As we announced earlier this week the Monolith Cocktail and Italian publication Kalporz will be sharing and exchanging reviews, interviews and articles. The inaugural post from our Italian penpals is an insightful interview with the Australian musician Stella Donnelly, who’s debut album Beware Of The Dogs is being re-released this month ahead of a second LP later in the year.
Stella Donnelly is a revelation, a lightning bolt in the clear sky and her second album, coming in a few months for Secretly Canadian is already one of the most anticipated works of this season.
Due to her incredible frankness and disruption in her lyrics, we chose to interview her to get us to talk about the genesis of “Beware of the dogs”.
The image that came out is that of a record born in a universe extremely homemade and personal, but that manages to be very suitable to photographing reality, even in its darkest and most violent part.
– Hi, Stella. In the last year you have experienced a huge leap, you have finally
reached a much wider and international audience. How are you experiencing
this change? When such a thing happens, how do the priorities of an artist
change?
I’m taking every day as it comes and constantly pinching myself that I get to travel the world, meet amazing people and eat amazing food! My priorities haven’t changed, to me music is first and foremost about the writing, no matter how many people do or don’t hear that writing, it has to be honest and authentic to me.
– How has your approach to work changed since your first EP?
Other than having the resources to playing with a band, there hasn’t been any changes to how I write and do my work. In fact it’s even more important to me that I work with integrity and awareness of others around me in everything I do.
– You wrote and recorded the album ( if I’m not mistaken ) near home. How
does your city influence your work? Would you like to work in a foreign studio
in the future or do you need your local?
It was so nice to be able to record at home, the things that I was writing about felt so real because I was surrounded by the place where those experiences had or were currently taking place. It was magical. I would be open to recording somewhere far away in the future but for the purpose of this record, it was perfect to stay in Fremantle.
-What song in the record makes you think a lot about your city? Why?
The song Lunch is about the strange feeling when you’re trying to adjust your body to being away from home and then readjusting again when I return. I shot and edited the music video for this song myself because it really is such a personal and ‘home’ song for me.
– What signal do you see behind the choice of some festivals, such as
Primavera Sound, to completely fill the gender gap?
I think it’s amazing that massive festivals are stepping up their game when it comes to gender diversity, it has to be done now so that in the future it can be something we don’t even have to think about.
– Which song on the record did you write with the most anger and urgency?
Why?
Beware of the Dogs was written very quickly and I recorded it the next day.
– Important themes such as violence and discrimination, how do you prefer to
deal with them? How is the music changing from this point of view in these
years?
I deal with them by opening up a conversation in the songs, providing my point of view and hoping that people can learn from it. Music like this changes depending on what is happening in the world, when our governments don’t do anything about it, people need to find a way to speak out.
– What is the social responsibility of an artist today?
There are so many artists who live such different lives. My own personal social responsibility is to use my platform to help others but it cannot be expected of all artists to do the same, art would become very one-dimensional.
– You are very explicit in your lyrics. Which artist do you admire for their
sincerity in telling their stories?
I admire Billy Bragg, Janelle Monae, Courtney Barnett, Jenny Hval, Julia Jacklin, Solange.
-I read in an interview that you like very much to read. What readings have
accompanied you in writing the record?
I was reading Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Machado
Flights by Olga Torkarczuk
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
and Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
– One project that fascinated me last year was definitely BoyGenius Would
you like to do, sooner or later, such a project? Do you already have some
artists with whom you often feel like collaborating?
There are so many artists I would collaborate with in heartbeat but I don’t want to say them in case the read this and laugh at me!!!!
– Stella, Im very afraid of dogs. How do you overcome this fear? (and fears in
general?)
There are so many people that should not own dogs so I understand your fear but my experience with dogs is that they just need love and care! I have a fear of flying that I overcome by getting on lots of planes all the time! Maybe find a sweet dog and spend some time with it!
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