With his debut full-length album 'Ghost Heroin' on its way, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Fenn Wilson will certainly be one to watch at this year's Australian Music Week (AMW).
'Ghost Heroin' features current single 'Eye On You', a song Fenn wrote for his girlfriend before they got together. So you could say it worked. “It certainly did, man,” Fenn laughs.
'Ghost Heroin' is only Fenn's second release, his first being 2014 EP 'Tales Of The Black Dog', and sees him exploring ideas around unshackling yourself from your past. “['Ghost Heroin'] has been a sort of idea I've had in my head as a title for probably a few years now,” Fenn says.
“It's referring to the destructive nature of memories and attachment to painful memories, how they can end up being more tormentful [sic] than anything.”
On 'Tales Of The Black Dog', the songs were set around themes of love, heartbreak and redemption. Fenn says that although 'Ghost Heroin' started as a continuation of the EP, over time it evolved into a type of catharsis.
“Because of there being quite a gap in between that first EP and now, when I first started writing the album the link was closer but my relationship to the concept of the album has changed over time as well, and as much as it may have started out as acknowledgement of painful attachment to memories, it has now also become an exercise in letting go,” he says.
With the passing of some five years between the EP and album, Fenn says he can see significant changes in his approach to songwriting. “I'm far more mindful of my writing and performing now,” he says.
“I think I demand something of myself now that I didn't even comprehend back then. It's become less of about getting it all out in one hit in terms of writing and it's become a far more mindful practice.”
Fenn will be in Sydney this November for Australian Music Week where he'll perform as part of the showcase. “Primarily I'm really excited to be playing with the band that I have behind me,” he says.
“I'm really excited to get in front of some people that I usually wouldn't, and get to see some people I usually wouldn't as well.”
The biggest change for Fenn though is the addition of a band, which will accompany him during his AMW performances. “Up until earlier this year I've always performed as a solo artist and I felt quite comfortable in doing that,” Fenn says.
“One of my biggest worries about playing with other people was whether they would understand the music and what I'm trying to say well enough so that it wouldn't take away from the songs, but . . . within the first practice it was an incredibly homogenous thing, it just fit so perfectly and what the band has done is amplify all the things I was trying to do as a solo artist.”
