Australian singer-songwriter, Alana Wikinson's newest release 'Square One' spotlights life's cringey adolescent moments with a heartfelt swagger that'll transport you back to your own childhood.
2024 has already been busy for Alana, who started the year performing at Woodford Folk Festival before completing an extensive Festival of Small Halls tour with Scottish fiddler Ryan Young, then touring theatres with Aussie rock legend Ross Wilson. She then headed to the US to showcase at Folk Alliance International.A sample of her upcoming LP that's due for release the second half of 2024, 'Square One' features old-timey country tones with a jaunty indie folk beat as Alana details her own embarrassing moments growing up (from softball teams to punk-rock performances and first dates), her vocals a mixture of tender awkwardness and innocent honesty.
Co-written with Paul Dyason from The Northern Folk, the song's rhythm flows with a playful ease that's also drenched in nostalgia adding to the song's charming freshness.
"It's about a bunch of times I got busted trying to be cooler than I am, stepping into those awkward moments and owning them as part of my story," Alana says.
"In this song, 'Square One' is my sense of self – it's who we really are at our core and where I feel we have to come home to when we get busted in the middle of a fib."
Ahead of the song's release on Friday (5 April), scenestr is delighted to premiere the 'Square One' music video today. Enjoy.
"Some songs start on one planet and end up on another and that's kind of what happened with 'Square One'," adds Alana. "I originally started to tell this story through the lens of creating my own video game avatar.
"You know when you get to build your character and you make them as awesome as possible? That's kind of how I imagined my younger self trying to interact with the world around her. 'Down a tunnel, back to grade three' is a Mario Bros reference.
"I sat with it for a long time, played with verses and invited my dear friend (and most favourite lyrical genius) Paul Dyason to pop his brain on it and see what we could do to tie things together.
"When I got to the end of the first verse I said 'I'd like the chorus to show I've been busted, like 'oh, you got me!'', and he was like, 'well, use that as the lyric!'. Paul also encouraged me to share the last verse, even though it still makes me a bit tender to share.
"I co-produced 'Square One' with Paul Ruske and we had a ball amplifying the essence of it. As a kid with asthma who tried to hide it for years, my favourite part of the recording process was yelling 'while we're at it, I'm asthmatic!' over the last chorus.
"It felt like I was really showing up for my younger self in a way I never felt like I could. We also used an asthma puffa in the recording of the last chorus and a huge shoutout to Terepai Richmond for playing the spoons!"
For the music video, Alana was intent on showcasing the awkwardness of adolescent in a fun way. "Filming this clip and getting it right was a big deal for me.
"It's one from the heart, one of self love and owning the awkwardness of growing up. I was a phases kid and I went hard. I did the hippy phase, pop-punk phase, marine biologist phase, hectic make-up and hair early 2000s phase.
"I was a sk8r grl who couldn't get the hang of a skateboard (although, I accidentally ollied once – I have no idea how it happened but I talked about it for years) but I could sing at school assembly with my whole heart.
"Rick (RC Stills) showed up with so much room for this weirdness and we had such a limited timeframe to pull it all together. Here I was reliving all my adolescent trauma in these outfits and he just knew exactly how to tie it all together. As many people already know, Rick is a true wizard."
Alana will celebrate the single with a headline show at Naarm/ Melbourne's Wesley Anne on Friday 12 April, and Sofar Sounds (Geelong) performance with Angus Robb on Sunday 14 April.
