Born and raised in Melbourne, and currently Gold Coast based, indie artist Archer recently released her debut EP, titled '23'.
A collection of five songs manifesting the creative metamorphosis of Archer's songwriting since the release of her debut single 'Malibu' in 2018, '23' will appeal to fans of BENEE, Billie Eilish and Mallrat.
It features the previous singles 'Bittersweet' (2023) and 'Overgrown' (2021) that bookend the EP, along with 'Whispers', 'Star' and 'Slowly'. Archer has melded a sound bridging alt-pop and electronic tones with hints of hip hop and euphoric pop.
"The whole EP explores themes of nostalgia and reflection," shares Archer, whose music has already achieved a collective three million-plus streams.
"I guess it was just a period of my life where I was feeling really reflective and it kind of came out in my music. It's kind of like standing still and looking at the past and the future and recognising where you've come from and where you see yourself going.
"I've discussed 23 being a significant number. The name of the EP came from the fact that I was 18 when I first started releasing music and now I'm 23. Again, it's just me being nostalgic and thinking about all the time that has passed since dropping 'Malibu' and all the things that have changed since being 18."
Here, Archer shares a few stories behind the songs that feature on '23'.
Bittersweet
'Bittersweet' started off as a rough demo that I had worked on for another artist that they decided not to proceed with. Funny enough, after sending it to Tristan at Studio Ninety1, we ended up changing ALL the original lyrics on the track and completely elevated the original demo's production as well. We recorded it on a series of very hot days in December 2022.
Whispers
The idea of 'Whispers' first came to me late at night and I recorded it and produced it (albeit very badly) in GarageBand. I'd convinced myself that this track had to see the light of day and that's when I sent it to Tristan at Studio Ninety1 to reproduce. I re-recorded the lyrics in early 2022 right before running to a gig to play it for the very first time on the exact day that we finished recording it.
Star
This track we started from scratch and the melody came from a discarded vocal take of me humming a potential melody for the vocals. I find 'Star' very exciting as it takes me back to when I started writing music and my style was very much a combination of pop and rap with fast paced, almost spoken lyrics and pop production.
Slowly
The EP wouldn't have been complete without a track to tug at the heartstrings. Tristan had recorded the first verse and chorus when he sent it to me to work on. In December, I was in the studio to finish the track and that's when we came up with the very cool idea to isolate the vocal harmonies to finish the track. It is one of my favourite moments in the EP.
Overgrown
'Overgrown' was the first track I've ever written completely remote. At the time, I had just moved to the Gold Coast so Tristan had me record the vocals and export them all to a Google Drive. When writing this track, I incorporated some of my favourite lyrics that I had been sitting on for awhile. They suited the track perfectly and I'm so glad that I was able to find somewhere to put them.
