A hidden secret of Australia's underground alternative rock scene for more than a decade, the journey of Brisbane musician Sabrina Lawrie has had more twists than a Hitchcock thriller.
An artist who has earned her stripes behind the scenes running venues, booking events, even driving rock stars, Lawrie overcame a near-fatal accident that left her with a broken back in 2016 to release her debut album, 'Hush The Mountain', in 2017.A number of singles followed before COVID and lockdowns shook things up, with Sabrina's world further rocked when she cared for her terminally ill partner who she lost in 2021.
Time for regrowth and rejuvenation finally led Lawrie to form a new three-piece rock band who hit stages for a stack of live performances in 2023; 2024 sees Sabrina focused on her sophomore album (due in 2025) with a number of singles in the pipeline.
First song off the cab-rank is 'System Collapse', a track Sabrina first wrote and tracked during the tour for her 2017 album. A song voicing injustices and calling on people power, given the current uncertain times it naturally came to the fore as the lead track to propel Sabrina's 2024.
Provocative, compassionate yet solemn vocals harness the song's foreboding alt-rock energy, a lingering presence of pessimism fostered.
The song's intensity builds before a mid-song call and response that leads into a crunchy, searing guitar solo building into a frenzied attack of distortion and flailing fingers before one, last salvo from Sabrina's pipes imploring us to stand up.
Ahead of the song's release tomorrow (8 March), scenestr is stoked to premiere 'System Collapse' today. Enjoy.
"I wrote 'System Collapse' in 2017 during my debut album release tour," Sabrina explains. "We had tracked the instrumental beds and then I found myself on an unintended hiatus until 2022.
"So once I was back performing again last year, we pulled the tracks up and decided it was the right time to get them out!"
Recorded with Jeff Lovejoy, co-produced and co-mixed by Sabrina and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Prince, Bjork) in the US, the song took a colourful journey to its completion.
"These are uncertain times within society post-COVID and I was personally rocked by extreme division and events close to home," Sabrina says, "so I dove back into music as a way to begin to heal.
"I formed a three-piece rock band and spent 2023 playing loads of shows and meeting a lot of other people with similar frustrations who seemed to want to deepen their connection to nature and like-minded community."
Later this month Sabrina will launch 'System Collapse' with a hometown show at Stranded Bar (23 March in Brisbane) with guests, free-thinking power rock duo Salt & Steel and Brisbane's own moody synth queen Sarah Stockholm (with her band).
