Interview: Allday

I am graduating high school in about 6 weeks (?) I think...I could figure that out for you properly, but it's hardly important. All you need to know is that I am about to (finally, thank God) finish high school.

The thought of this excites me beyond belief because high school is like an island that is only okay when the atmosphere is right, and I don't think about it too much. But the majority of the time we are all just trapped knowing that we can't escape until the boat is ready to come take us away into the real world. Thankfully, that boat is super close.

To tell the truth I am a little bit stressed about graduating. I've always had this really clear image in my head of what my life is going to be like, and it has just hit me that there is a good chance it might not turn out that way. A lot of people I have spoken to tell me that I'll be fine, and as long as I work hard it will all work in my favour. But I can't help but think that people are telling me this purely because they care about me, because they are my family and friends, therefore obligated to sugarcoat it all for my emotional benefit.


Stresses about the future and stresses about success are higher when graduating I guess, with every teacher telling us to get our life sorted and to know what we want to do (many scoffing at my hope of a career in online journalism, telling me that a blog is a risky, and unlikely future...) but I know for sure that these worries can impact people at many stages of life.

In my mind, Australian musician, Allday is succeeding. Currently in New York to meet with major record labels, he seems to have it all sorted. So I found it extremely interesting and beneficial when I was able to spend some online time with him to speak about his thoughts on the whole 'success' matter:

What’s your idea of success? Do you feel like you have succeeded? My idea of success is being the person you want to be, Setting goals and hitting them. I've hit a bunch of my targets, but I'm not at my overall career or personal goals yet. What’s your biggest fear? Probably myself; my own laziness, or fear, or whatever, taking over and leading me in the wrong direction. You manage to have such a good relationship with your audience/fans, is this important to you? Why? Hugely important. I really value the fact that people care enough to keep listening or coming to shows, and I really do my best to show that to them. I'm really lucky to have such a good relationship with my supporters and I feel like we have a little love connection. What’s the most important thing you have learnt since joining the music industry? I've learned so much, but the most important lesson I've learned is to be a perfectionist. Who do you admire? David Bowie and Bob Dylan, Those are two people who have reinvented themselves and maintained relevance and respect across every generation. Finally, tea or coffee? Coffee is my vice, but I do love green tea.

Although I wouldn't wish worries and stresses on other people, there is something comforting about being able to speak with someone I respect a lot, and know that they feel similar emotions to me. The things Allday said in the interview really resonated with me, knowing that even he, with all his current success, still had goals he wants to reach and worries of not reaching them. I guess all I'm trying to say is the classic 'you're not alone' shit, but even though it's clichéd and lame...it's true, we aren't alone.

Big big thanks to Allday for spending the time with me on this interview, and best of luck to him in the States.

- Stella xxx

Can I call a post 'Untitled'?

Disclaimer: This isn't interesting and upbeat, it has taken me 3 minutes and 26 seconds to write. I just needed to get this out, and my diary isn't enough anymore.

I wrote a really shitty blog post last night. I was going to publish it anyway, and perhaps I will sometime, but not right now.

It basically was talking about how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm not going to get too personal, but all you have to know is that the one thing in my life that I loved the most 3 days ago is slipping through my fingers. As I watch this happen, and forget to cup my hands to stop it from disappearing, I have been listening to this:

Sorry this is different from usual and perhaps sounds a bit melodramatic. I will be back in (normal upbeat) action soon. 

- Stella xxx

Belated Valley Fiesta

I really do apologise for how late this blog post is. Valley Fiesta was a good 3 and a half weeks ago, but I held off the post for a little while because I had an exciting collaboration that was going to be part of it. Unfortunately this all fell through pretty last minute :--( so you're stuck with just me reminiscing on the event. Which hopefully isn't that bad.

So Valley Fiesta is a free annual event that takes place in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia. As I only live 1 hour away from Brisbane, this was reasonably local and easy to attend. It was coincidentally on the date of my boyfriend, Harrison's birthday, so a bunch of my friends and I rented a couple of rooms at The Miro Apartments. I very highly recommend these apartments if you are looking for an affordable stay in the centre of Fortitude Valley. I don't want my words to be misinterpreted there, although these apartments were affordable, they were in no way dingy or scary, to tell the truth, they were one of the nicest apartments I have ever stayed in. I really really enjoyed our time there.

Our apartments were just around the corner from the main stage, perhaps a 300 metre walk which was brilliant as it meant we could go back to the apartment between acts.

Map of fiesta. Very exact.

Before any of the acts we wanted to see came on we went and ate lunch at this really shmancy Japanese restaurant which was expensive but super lovely. I'm sorry I cannot remember the name of it, nor where abouts it was....brilliant blogging skills.

Later on we all went and watched The Creases play which was brilliant. They had a pretty relaxed yet fun crowd and the guys performed amazingly. After their set ended I went off with a couple of my friends to this restaurant bar, where, after perhaps 15 minutes another of my friends bounded in excitedly with a photo of her and the guys from The Creases >:---( I, like many, was extremely jealous.

I then listened to The Preatures play their set from the New York Pizza directly next door (aka #1 pizzeria on map). As usual, The Preatures killed it. They were amazing live and had the entire audience in awe and in fits of excitement.

I'm not going to lie, I did watch a few songs of the amazing Dan Sultan, but I don't remember what time of the night it was. I do, however, remember that he had a really unique stage present that really captured the audience. I would really love to see Dan Sultan live in a gig of his own, so I might keep my eyes out for that.

After a quick stop back at the apartment we all made it back to the main stage in time to see Allday perform. Allday (my long lost twin) was the main act that I wanted to see, and he really lived up to my expectations. He had a brilliant on stage persona, and seems very natural and comfortable in front of the audience.
After his performance was over I was impressed to see him stand out the back of the stage an meet fan after fan, not only taking photos but also stopping and having a genuine conversation with them. Very impressive. He was lovely in person, super down to earth and didn't come across as cocky or anything.

I think a few of my friends wanted to kill me when Allday followed me on Instagram and Twitter as we are all big fans. But after seeing him perform live, meeting him, and chatting a bit on twitter, I can tell you first hand that he is a lovely, down to earth, talented musician. Obviously I do not know him well, and I am not claiming to, I am just saying that from my minuscule experience, he appeared to be a really genuine guy and talent.

All in all, Valley Fiesta was a messy, exciting, tiresome, pizza filled, blast. My friends and I had a brilliant time, and I highly recommend that if you are in the area you tag along as it's a brilliant, cheap way to watch some amazing live acts.

- Stella xxx

Originals Festival

So a couple of days ago was the Originals Festival in Noosa. I turned up at about mid-afternoon in time to see The Delta Riggs.
Honestly, when I got there it was a bit confusing. There was an 18+ only section (which had all the good food venues in it...) and walking in, it looked like only 18+ would be able to see the main stage. Thankfully this wasn't the case. Phew.

My friends and I went and saw The Delta Riggs, it was pretty chill. There was a mosh at the stage, but then a lot of people were just sitting on the grass a bit further away (this is what I did as I ate pizza). I was extremely excited to hear The Delta Riggs guys play their cover of Gooey by Glass Animals, which you can listen to through Triple J here:

I met these guys a bit later in the evening and cannot praise them enough. They were out in the crowd listening to the other bands, taking photos with fans, chatting to people, and just being super lovely. I really really cannot talk them up enough, they are brilliant guys. 

The two main bands I wanted to see play were The Delta Riggs and Sticky Fingers. I had a lot of time between these two acts so I just caught up with some friends and hung out for a couple of hours. I'm going to be honest, it was pretty boring. My boyfriend disappeared off with some of our friends into the 18+ area which meant I didn't spend much time with them, which was actually alright because I caught up with some other friends who I don't hang out with as often. Unfortunately there was not a lot to do as it was a small festival and therefore didn't have many stalls or anything to look at. 

As I sat there just doing not much at all, I couldn't help but notice that everyone there was super young, and seemed to all know each other, and all seemed scarily familiar. I guess that's what you get at a pretty local festival. Although I couldn't really expect anything different, it was kind of annoying, because that's what I love about festivals, meeting new people, and seeing people connect purely through the music and bands playing. But on the other hand, it was still nice to see familiar people from around this part of the world having a good time. 

Kingswood played which was rad, but to tell the truth I really do not know much of their music, I still very much enjoyed experiencing them live as they had a really fun crowd. I really enjoyed myself. 

Their stage was directly next to where Sticky Fingers were going to be playing, so I made my way through the bitchy crowd of elbows who must have thought I was pushing my way to the front, despite my obvious sideways movement. 

I managed to place myself reasonably close to the Sticky Fingers stage (perhaps about 3 rows from the front), right behind the 4 tallest men on earth. No joke, they were extremely tall, and they knew it, one of them let me in front of him, bless. When the Sticky Fingers guys came on stage to prepare their set, the crowd went off, and the section I was in became amazingly squished. It was at this point that the friends I was with decided to move to the back. The back is 100% not where I wanted to be, so I told them I would meet them after. Bold move by Stella.

Sticky Fingers began playing their set, and although I have seen them perform a couple of times already, I continue to be blown away by their performance, and their on stage aura. 

I experienced lots of crowd surfing by audience members, one of which kicked me in the face, another one of which's arse landed on my face. It was delightful. The girl in front of me got super super mad at him and swore, thinking I was hurt or something, perhaps emotionally...I mean, thank you kind stranger, but really...I don't care at all, it's part of the fun, lets all just listen to Sticky hey?

I'll tell you what, the man next to me was bold to think bringing a glass bong into the mosh was a good idea. I'll let your imagination figure out how that all ended, because honestly I have no fucking clue.

Lot's of alcohol, lots of elbows in my face, lots of sweaty people, lots of sleazy men, lots of beards, and lots of head-banging, sleezy, drunk men whose sweat flicked off their beard onto my face. At one point there was a tug on my hair which I expected to be the not so unusual 'hair stuck in someones armpit' situation, but this time a guy had gathered all my hair and put it into his mouth. Grinning, he hugged me like I was his long lost niece.  

I feel like it really sounds like I didn't have a good time. To tell the truth, that is my idea of a blast. There was something nice about being 'alone' in the mosh pit. By 'alone' I obviously don't mean the only person in the crowd (oh God, I would love to be the only person at a Sticky Fingers gig...actually, nah, might get a bit awkward, who would you look at? Would you dance? Would you have to make weird eye contact with Dylan?) ...I just mean I didn't have any friends with me. Unless you count bumping into this Year 9 kid from my school and wondering how he got so drunk as 'being with my friends'.

I had a great night, it was a super chill festival all in all, with a crazy mosh pit and amazing live acts. I would highly recommend this small local festival in future years, especially if you love live music but cannot handle the anxiety of a huge festival.

- Stella xxx

Ghost - Ella Henderson

Okay, I'm not really a huge 'pop' music fan (by pop music, I mean the generic radio music). Although I was up late finishing an art piece for school the other night and this midnight music show came on that just played lots of pop film clips. Amongst the One Direction, and 5 Seconds of Summer I found a gold mine.

"Ghost" by Ella Henderson. (Yes, I realise I am extremely late to the discovery of this song also).

I have heard this song playing at work a few times but I had never taken the time to listen to the lyrics. It's brilliant. I wish I wrote it. I really do. It's eery and haunting, yet catchy and quite fun. I really do love this song.

I will admit that it is definitely not my usual style of music, but I really think the lyrics just captured me. It was written by Ella Henderson, Kenan Williams, Noel Zancanella, Ryan Tedder (the guy from One Republic....once you know that you can really hear his input, in my opinion) and Michael Daley (who I am guessing is not the Australian politician, despite Wikipedias insistence).

The film clip is also really cool. I find it irritatingly interesting. Irritating in the way that I want to know more, I want to know the story of what's happening; follow it, follow the characters. I want to know more!

I don't know, there's an annoying part of me that screams "this isn't my usual taste, stop liking generic pop music, you're 'cooler' than this". But fuck that inner thought. This isn't generic pop music, this is brilliant, and I like it a hell of a lot.

So I'll shut up, listen for yourselves.

Simone's unseen Battle

It is in great sadness and deep condolences that I write this post.

The theme of this is unlike anything I have written here so far, and I really wish the circumstances leading to this did not happen at all.

Honestly speaking, I have not listened to much of GRL as they differ from my usual taste, but I highly acknowledge their talent and respect how far they have come. Despite not having much to do with this band and not having much knowledge of their music, I, like many others, have been truly rocked by the loss of dearest Simone Battle.

To tell the truth, I am surprised by how much this loss has shaken me. I mean, I did not know the band or their music well before hearing the news, but the situation came with great great sadness to me and I have not been able to shake the thought from my mind; we have lost a true talent.

I really don't have much to say in regards to the loss because I do not believe it is my place to give details. It was unrecognisable that Simone was dealing with anything that might have caused the tragic departure, and perhaps this is yet another factor adding to the shock. I think the GRL girls summed up all of our emotions perfectly on instgram;

source: @grlnatasha official instagram

source: @GRL official instagram

source: @grlnatasha official instagram

You were a talented, beautiful and inspiring woman who left far before your time. All my best wishes go to her family, friends, and the lovely GRL girls during this time.

Love and best wishes always,
- Stella xxx

Stress less

I'm sorry I haven't written in a whole month. I think school and organising what's going to happen after I graduate has all just gotten a bit on top of me.

It's exam time at school at the moment which means everyone is either having an anxiety attack or in tears or just fighting with each other, so in order to de-stress and just take a time out, I have compiled a playlist of songs that are getting me through this shitty time of year:

These are just a few of the songs I have been listening to recently to try and calm myself down from the unnecessary, and ridiculous pressures of Year 12. I highly recommend playing them with the lights out...there's something really calming about hearing them in the dark.

- Stella Grace xxx