Airling Interview; debut album 'Hard To Sleep, Easy To Dream' out tomorrow

With her debut album releasing this Friday, Airling is everywhere. With Hard to Sleep, Easy to Dream taking the feature album spot on Triple J this week, the Brisbane-based singer and songwriter is captivating listeners and getting Splendour in Grass punters ready for her second time at the festival as July approaches. We sat down with Airling to chat about how the album came about, what’s changed since her last time at Splendour, and what’s planned after the national tour.

Hey, how are you doing?

Yeah good thanks! Sorry I’ve been really busy with uni lately.

Oh, don’t worry, me too, but how is it all going? How is it juggling performing, the album release and uni as well?

It’s pretty crazy! I mean, I’ve always been a pretty busy person. So, it’s not really a new thing for me, it’s hectic though with work and uni and the album coming out on Friday. We’re doing a secret-ish listening gig at Jet Black Hat – the record store in Brisbane – so I’m really looking forward to that. We’ll get to play the album, and it’ll be an enforced break to celebrate it all. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind with interviews and the radio playing it. It’ll be like everyone can have a beer and there’ll be friends there, which’ll make it seem a bit more real. It’s kind of been a bit of a dream at the moment!

So, I’ve been listening to the album over the past couple of days and it’s wonderful, and it’s a really emotional piece of work as well. Was that informed by a lot of personal experience?

Yeah, I think my writing tends to be pretty personal, I really only get inspired by things that move me, whether that’s in a negative or positive way. Lust and love is in there, and I explore death and loss and that kind of thing. I feel like it’s basically me getting to know myself and trying to understand all these things that are happening around me. I wanted it to be emotional, and I can’t help but write emotional songs. Even if I try to write a silly song, it just doesn’t work.

You just mentioned before that you’ve got the launch party as well as Triple J playing your album all week, so how are the nerves treating you as you get closer to Friday?

Pretty good, but it’s actually worse now. I think I’ll be better once it’s out. While it’s awesome to have that feature album, I feel like people are hearing it in drips and drabs. People like yourself and others who’ve heard it through can experience as a body of work. I think I’ll feel more relieved after that, when it’ll make sense. Obviously I’m stoked it’s feature album, I never even thought that’d happen to me. I’ll be in the middle of going to work or uni and hear my voice, and then have a little giggle and just get into a different mood.

That makes a lot of sense, I mean it flows as one piece.

Obviously, each song was written separately and each song stands on their own, but there’s seething special in them being together in their order.

Well not to take away from this Friday, but you’re coming up on another little milestone –

What’s that?

It’s been three years since you won the Unearthed spot at Splendour!

Oh my God, true! And I’m playing Splendour again, that’s so cool! I didn’t even realise, I couldn’t even remember when that was.

So how do you think you’ve developed as an artist in that time?

It’s weird, I remember now thinking about it that we’d just played shows with I think Ásgeir, so we’d gotten off the plane. We went to Splendour, I had pink hair then. I was so little, I remember feeling so small on that main stage. There was a few hundred people there so I was stoked.

I know a lot more about myself now, I hope that I can be a bit more present this time at Splendour. I was in a bit of a flurry, and now I’m a little bit calmer and more centred. As an artist, I think my set is like double the length, so there’s more material, it’s a bit more mature. Hopefully I’m wiser, I mean sometimes I still make the same mistakes like losing all my stuff. But I mean hopefully I’m on time and can do it all!

Well staying on the topic of developing, I read that you’ve kind of warmed up to collaborations in that time too –

Oh yeah that’s true, you know it better than me! You could just answer these questions if you wanted to! What were you going to say though?

How did you find working with Emma Louise, Tom [Iansek], and Fractures? How was it working with them as compared to on your own?

With Em, we’ve been singing together for like four or five years maybe, since we were like twenty. I used to play in her band for a few years, singing with her is like going back home. It’s really easy with us as we’re good friends. That song on the album is special to us, as we haven’t really recorded anything together, it sort of just seemed like seeing a friend. With Fractures, I had only met him the day I went to write that song. We got on really well, and that was my first successful co-writing thing with someone I hadn’t met. I know people do that, but I hadn’t really before. I was really happy and surprised at how it went. But that’s a credit to Mark and how much of a legend he is. Same with Tom, we worked on the EP together so it’s now just really flowing. We’ve got the new studio for our label Pieater. It’s just this beautiful environment down in Collingwood with this nice little courtyard and beautiful instruments, it’s like what could go wrong?

I write with a lot of other mates and jam around now, but I think my favourite way of writing is by myself. You can kind of just do anything, you’re not worried about anything else expect your own judgement. You can do weird stuff and it may never see the light of day, so you get closer to knowing what you’re capable of.

That’s really cool. I actually didn’t know that Tom had a hand in your EP.

Yeah he’s down pretty much all the Airling stuff, he even recorded my vocals for the collaboration with Japanese Wallpaper. He’s been super important along this journey.

Oh wow, I was going to say didn’t he mix the album?

Yeah he did, so did Graham Ritchie who plays in my band. He lives in Brissy, but plays in Holy Holy and Japanese Wallpaper. He’s an incredible multi-instrumentalist. Tom just understands my writing and my music.

Well now you’ve just answered my question before I’d even asked it! So, you’ve got the national tour coming up in a month or so, so are those tours something you look forward to when making a body of work or is it the other way around?

I think it’s more the other way around. I tend not to get too excited about tours until I actually start rehearsing the stuff I’ve already made. For example, we had a rehearsal for the album party, that’s when I started getting excited about the tour. There’s something really beautiful about gelling with other musicians and hearing the songs coming from you and being able to change things. I’ve never done my own headline shows in Adelaide or Fremantle, and I really love those places. So as much as I love touring, I’m really looking forward to travelling to those places. It’s really special you know, a lot of people who live on the East Coast don’t often get to see places like WA, so I feel really lucky that we can take our music there. I’ve been there so many times, but never thought I’d see it while touring. It’s so far, I mean it’s almost cheaper to take an overseas flight somewhere! I feel sorry for them [Western Australia], sometimes they miss out on tours because it’s so far for people to travel.

Well finally, what do you have planned for after the tour? Is it back to the studio, or just wait and see?

I mean obviously there’s Splendour, but I’ve been writing a lot again and trying some new stuff. I was just saying that I can’t wait to start on the next album, I really want to write quite a lot and start recording straight away. It sounds funny, but I’m sort of ready for the next thing. It’s such a personal relief to get this one out and done, so now I’m brimming with new ideas. It’s that adrenaline and confidence you get from doing these things that I’m going through now. I can’t wait for this semester to end to just get back in the studio!

Well thank you for that, it’s been really good and I’ll see you in June!

Thank you, bye!

Airling’s debut album Hard to Sleep, Easy to Dream is available tomorrow via Pieater. You can also catch Airling tonight if you’re in Brisbane at Jet Black Cat from 6:30pm. Otherwise, you can catch her on the national Hard to Sleep, Easy to Dream tour – for more information, check below!

Fri 19 May - Jive - Adelaide

With support from Jack Grace & Auguste

Sat 20 May - Babushka - Perth

With support from Jack Grace & Isabel

Sun 21 May - Mojo’s Bar - Fremantle

With support from Jack Grace & Isabel

Fri 26 May - Civic Underground - Sydney

With support from Jack Grace & Annie Bass

Sat 27 May - Black Bear Lodge - Brisbane (SOLD OUT)

With support from Jack Grace & Ellie

Sun 28 May - Black Bear Lodge - Brisbane

With support from Jack Grace & Ellie