In this conversation, I caught up with Bryn, lead singer and frontman of Adelaide indie-band Sturt Avenue. The band released their debut album on the 4th June, a collection of 11 emotive folk songs that were written over the course of six years. Bryn shares the meaning behind each of the songs on the album and the importance of making meaningful music.
Hi Sturt Avenue, tell us a bit about yourself!
Hi, my name is Bryn, my band Sturt Avenue are an indie-Americana/folk/alt-country band from the Adelaide hills. I sing and play acoustic guitar and harmonica, the other members of the band are my dad John, who sings harmonies and plays lead and slide guitars, my sister Tarn who sings harmonies, and my dear friends Dave on keys and accordion, Bryce on drums, Ollie on violin and Isaac on bass.
Why did you decide to form the band and start making music?
I had been writing songs and recording demos for years, but it wasn’t until I received a SCALA songwriters award for our track ‘Lions’ that I found the courage to ask some friends if they wanted to help breathe some life into the little old tunes I’d been putting together.
You’ve just released your debut album ‘How Do You Think It Should Be?’, a collection of 11 songs that explores community and growth. Could you tell us a bit about how you came to write this album and the recording process?
The first piece of the puzzle was put in place back in February 2019, when myself and our drummer Bryce headed into the now defunct Holy Roller Studios in Prospect, SA, to record drum takes with Patrick Lockwood from Electric Ant for most of the tracks that appear on this album. The intention behind this session was to have the ground-work laid to overdub the rest of the band’s contributions over the course of the next few months in the home recording space that I had set up in my bedroom.
This space consisted of a single hard-working old laptop, a large sound-absorbing booth built from dumpster-dived carpet and hessian with the assistance of my godfather Bradley (a big shout out should go to the carpet store employee who let me jump into a dumpster full of rusty razor blades to retrieve the carpet scraps I used to line this), and a 4-input USB audio interface. As can possibly be surmised from the details of this exceedingly DIY setup, the overdub process was fraught with difficulties. Latency issues cropped up all over the shop, and many takes needed to be comped to achieve the versions that were landed on in the end. While I am very proud of what we have put together here, I have personally sworn off the process for future Sturt Avenue releases, as at this stage it has consumed far too much of my life to subject myself to again.
Some of the tracks on the album were written as far back as 2015, how has your writing/approach to music changed since then and did that influence the album?
I had spent so long playing all the instruments in the demos I had been putting together, and had mostly shied away from drums of any kind in these, so a big part of the process of putting the album together was learning to let go of control and trust the judgement of my bandmates. While we would all sometimes make suggestions and give vague direction, I wanted each member of the band to have creative control over their own parts. This was such an integral part of the process for me that it led to the choice of title for the album, “How Do You Think It Should Be?” This was a suggestion of Isaacs (previously the name of one of his Spotify playlists) and it really spoke to me about the process of putting the album together. In short, working with other people on the creative process had a huge influence on my approach. Music sounds better when we’re making it together.
Could you tell us a bit about the meaning behind each of the tracks featured on the album?
‘Cannery Row’ is inspired by the Steinbeck novel of the same name, and is a song about the morning after a big celebration - when you’re still soaking in the afterglow of a beautiful evening, but already feeling it begin to melt away in the warm light of the new day.
‘Bell Curve Blues’ is the oldest song on the album, originally written way back in 2015. It’s a tongue-in-cheek song about the incredible agony of being ordinary. Coming to terms with the mundanity of adulthood is something that I have legitimately struggled with over the years, and as a result is definitely a key theme of the album.
‘Over Everything’ is a song about feeling crushed under the weight of the modern world, drawing from both lived experiences and the struggles of cherished friends. The overall message is a rare positive one, encouraging a focus on the better days; “Let the good times roll/Until the fire’s burned to coals/May its light shine on/Long after the years take their toll”.
‘A Few Simple Lines’ was written for my first real love. I’ve always found it difficult to write about happy emotions, especially love, and this was a point of contention in our relationship. In an effort to thread the needle on this issue, I made the eye-rollingly meta move of writing a song about how I find it hard to write love songs. She got the last laugh though, by eventually dumping me, presumably for my poor songwriting skills.
‘Waiting’ is an aching reflection on a life that I’ll never be able to return to - a time before 9 to 5 jobs, when riding bikes round the suburbs visiting friends after midnight felt like a sensible way to burn down the hours of my youth. It’s an odd feeling, to be able to objectively recognise this period as a low point, and simultaneously yearn for the simple comforts it held.
‘Lions’ contrasts the idea of clinging to the glory days with the sometimes quite alien concept that the best part of our lives could still be yet to come. I’m still vaguely paranoid that I’ll never write another set of lyrics as good as these again.
‘Sirens’ was born from a stream-of-consciousness poem, inspired by nights I spent with my friends not long after highschool, getting drunk in the shed at my parents’ place before wandering the streets after midnight, feeling like the kings and queens of an empty world.
‘Nowhere Town’ was inspired by the haunted-looking houses and silent little country towns dotted endlessly along the highways of this country. The song also addresses the impact of isolation, exploring the strange worlds that can develop in our heads when we’re left on our own for too long.
‘Flowers on the Sill’ is a tribute to the people in my life who worked so hard when I was a kid to care for me and raise me, going through so much at the same time but always keeping a brave face and positive attitude whenever I saw them.
‘Falling’ is simultaneously a eulogy for the perfect vision we hold in our heads entering into a relationship, and a celebration of the strengths of the bonds we form through shared heartache and sacrifice. Dad’s solo in the outro is my personal favourite moment on the whole album.
‘Stay’ is a tribute to a person who helped me immensely in getting through a really difficult part of my life. It felt important to be able to close the album with a more upbeat track - getting to put this collection of songs together with the help of my wonderful friends was an absolute joy, and it wouldn’t have been true to the narrative of the album and what it represents to me for it to have finished on a low note.
Do you write music collectively as a band or do you all have designated roles when it comes to writing new music?
It’s rare that I will ask the band for help with lyrics - the construction and intent of a set of lyrics is so important to me that I’m always concerned about sacrificing the integrity, but in terms of instrumentation and production, every band member provides their input. This was very important to me when constructing these songs - I wanted it to feel like a team effort, and not just a singer-songwriter project.
Are there any artists/musicians who have particularly influenced your sound?
I wouldn’t have started writing music if it wasn’t for the music of John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. His music, especially the early tape albums, are so singularly driven by the construction of beautiful lyrics that focus on such simple yet profound little slices of life, with the music serving to carry the emotion of the piece but not drown out the importance of the words. This really inspired me to start putting my own songs together. I was also hugely influenced by the works of Conor Oberst - both myself and Isaac are huge Conor Oberst fans, and the wall-of-sound approach that Bright Eyes took to recording during the mid-2000s was a model we used on the production of these tracks.
Are there any Australian bands/artists that you can recommend to our readers?
I have been listening to The Middle East a lot lately - their debut (and sadly only) album is a work of true beauty. In terms of local acts, I have a few favourites from the Adelaide scene too - Saint Jacques are making amazing art-folk music, piecing great lyrics together with impeccable instrumentation. Katie Pomery is one of my favourite songwriters in town, she writes beautiful folk songs that are arresting in their simplicity, and she delivers them with a gorgeous voice that is so rich in emotion. I also have been really loving a local anti-folk group called Eli & the Truth, they bring such a lovely boisterous energy to their music and are just a pleasure to see perform live.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a career in music?
Don’t do it for the wrong reasons - if you can’t learn to be happy with the idea of putting out songs that hardly anyone will hear, you won’t have a fun time. It has been a huge release for me to realise that I should just be making music for my own sake, and for it to be the music that I want to hear. If anyone listens along and enjoys it, that’s just an added bonus.
What is the best advice you have received?
Don’t take it personally. If someone is trying to tear you down, it’s probably more of a reflection of who they are than it is of you.
Sturt Avenue's debut album 'How Do You Think It Should Be?' is out now! Listen to the album from the links above or hear the album on my Spotify featured artists playlist (link in bio).