A Quick Chat With Terra Rouge

Melbourne’s Rock Princess Terra Rouge is making a fierce comeback with her latest single, ‘Couch Song,’ hitting the airwaves today. Since bursting onto the scene in 2019 with her high school crew, Terra has captivated audiences across Melbourne and embarked on her first Australia-wide tour earlier this year. Her new track delivers a nostalgic alt-rock experience, blending energetic guitar riffs and metallic drums with her emotionally charged voice and biting lyrics. ‘Couch Song’ is an unapologetic anthem, combining crass language and a repetitive refrain with a powerful message of empowerment and liberation. We caught up with the band to find out more.

Can you tell us what this track means to you and what you want people to take away from it?

‘Couch Song’ is a big “fuck you” anthem to an ex, it’s about realising how much better life is without them. We have all been in those relationships where we feel like a person is our whole entire world, where we have felt like we are so emotionally reliant on them to the point where we would rather die than lead a life without them. It’s such a warped, and truly fucked up, reality to live in, because I don’t care how in love you are with someone, it should never feel like that. This song talks about the aftermath of the heartbreak, where you look back on things and really realise how terrible they were. It’s so funny and ironic to me how you can lead a better life without that person, when you used to think that you couldn’t lead a life without them.

Who are some of your influences, and why?

I have so many different artists that influence different aspects of my music. Maneskin influence my live performance heavily. I saw them when they came to Melbourne last year, and they really made me challenge myself to get more creative with my live performances. I am also constantly inspired by local bands in the Melbourne scene to spice up my live shows, such as Dole Manchild and Select All just to name a few. Tiktokers like Peach PRC, Ava Screams, Swagatron forever have also inspired me. It sounds so dumb to list tiktokers, but they have really inspired me to open up with my audience a lot more, and challenged me to talk about things going on in my life other than music, whether that be other hobbies I have, events, or common knowledge I should have already know about; like how Canberra is the capital of Australia (I thought it was Perth).

When it comes to my influences in music, there is so many different ones I would not be able to list them all. When listening to music, I will constantly become fixated on little elements of tracks which I will save to inspire a track later on. I don’t necessarily have certain artists that I wish to replicate my music to, I have so many different songs with different elements I like (like a guitar solo, certain bass line) that I want to experiment with. 

When it comes to the brand and portrayal that I wish to show people as Terra Rouge, I am heavily influences by legends Amy Winehouse, Joan Jett, and Avril Lavigne. I strive to resemble their confidence within my musical and personal life.

What's the creative process for you, from writing through to recording?

The writing process is different for every song for me. Sometimes I come up with the song name and write multiple different drafts of songs until I find the one that best fits, and sometimes I’ll have every single thing figured out for the song except the name. “Couch Song” had no name for months, I would play it at gigs and get people to give me their suggestions for the song name. I had the song labelled in my notes as “Couch Song” the whole time, and then finally decided, fuck it, its the best name I’ve got.

 Most of the time with song writing I really struggle and procrastinate, because I am a major perfectionist and am so hard on myself in the writing process. I will constantly make the time to have a songwriting session and decide 10 minutes in that I am the worst musician to exist and give up. I can’t say I’ve found a great solution to this issue right yet, but I try my best to turn my mind off during my writing sessions, as the best ideas come along when I’m just not thinking about it.

As for recording, I personally find the process quite draining for the same sort of issues. It is so true that a musicians worst enemy is themselves, as the main issue I find myself struggling with during the recording process is self criticism. It is hard whilst working your own song to not give up half way, you are constantly having to critique yourself, as well as the orchestration of the whole piece, which can be really overwhelming sometimes. It is really hard to make what your song sounds like in your head come to life when you are working with someone else. I am always so relieved when a song is finally done, because so so so much work goes into critiquing the piece and working with your producer to get it to sound exactly how you wanted it to.

What do you think makes a great song?

I feel like there is no right answer to this question, and everyone finds different things to love in different songs. But to me, it is the portrayal of raw emotion that really allows me to connect with a song. Whether its anger, happiness, sadness, thats what particularly stands out in a track for me. So I always try my best to portray this in all the music I write and record. 

If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?

There is sooooo many artists I would love to collaborate with. Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, Chappel Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Stand Atlantic, Billie Eilish. I would love to collaborate with a guy emo band as well, someone like Pierce the Veil or Fall Out Boy (or who is a similar vibe of music).

When not working on music, what other creative outlet/s do you have?

 I loveeee to yap away and overshare on the internet. I post on tiktok daily, which is great to promote my music, but majority of the time I am talking about stupid things like learning what amish people are. I’ve found that I not only have heaps of fun creating different kinds of content through this, but I also get to connect with my audience. I feel like this is such a great outlet for me personally, as it feels so ingenuine constantly promoting new gigs and upcoming gigs.  

Who are some local bands we should check out?

My favourite local artists/bands in Melbourne would have to be Chloe Booth, Maizie, Select All, Mathilde Anne, Peach Fuzz. Theres so many more but I would be going on and on and on if I mentioned them all. I think there is barely any female representation in rock music in Melbourne, so please give these artists the attention they deserve and lets change this issue!

Winter or summer and why?

I am such a winter baby, I fucking hate the summer heat haha. 

What else do you have planned for 2024?

“Couch Song” has been a massive project for me this year as I’ve truly wanted to put my whole heart into giving this project the justice it deserves. I’ve been working so hard this whole year on the track, music video, launch party, promotion and visual content. The launch party in itself is going to be so super duper special, with a live theatrical performance of my set, as well as free showbags to everyone upon entry, and activities like a free photobooth and free make up stand. 

This has taken up so much time and energy, honestly for the rest of the year my main goal is to work on expanding my creative team so that I can continue creating projects just like this, but with the support of a team. I think it’s so important for an independent artist to not only give themselves a bit of a break after a single release (because burn out is real and horrid), but to get assistance from multiple people for such a large project like this. I’ve learnt the hard way that you can’t do everything yourself.

I will however be continuing to record new songs for the rest of the year, as well as write and brainstorm more and more creative works for the future.

Follow Terra Rouge

Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Triple J Unearthed

Facebook | Insta @terrarougemusic | YouTube | TikTok