Armed with her critically-acclaimed fourth album 'Titanic Rising', Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) makes waves towards Australia for Farmer & The Owl as well as her own headline shows.
“I love Australia and I've only been there once, but I have a lot of friends from there and a lot of people who have been in the Weyes Blood band are Australian or from New Zealand, so I kind of have a special connection with it,” Natalie says.“Being from southern California, I think it's a similar climate and I feel a mutual resonance. We've had a lot of fires too and you guys are having fires, and it feels like the culture is similar to California and I feel so grateful that I get to travel that far to play for people.”
Natalie says she strives to inject the same dreamy essence of her studio work into her live performances. “I have a five-piece band, and we take the arrangements that are on the record and condense them into our set-up and they become something different,” she explains.
“Luckily the songs have legs and sound really good stripped down. . . but it's still pretty big and dreamy.”
Natalie goes on to discuss the 'Titanic Rising' album more in-depth, revealing the emotional investment she gives her work and how it has been received by the listening public.
“I felt really blessed that people understood where I was coming from and it's made me feel less alone in the world, that something I really was passionate about resonated with other people,” she says.
“It's been great meeting people that like the music and the lyrics; it feels good to have completed my mission.
“I try to be really honest and really transmit information in a way that people can understand, and I don't like things that are too vague so I try to be straightforward while still being dreamy about it.”
Looking towards 2020 with renewed vigour as she prepares for touring once more, Natalie says the next album is already on her mind as the writing process for her never really stops.
“I've been home writing and getting ready, writing the next record, coming up with the concepts and the ideas; I already got it kind of cooking,” she says.
“I'm doing a lot of shows and touring so there's going to be a little bit more of a push before I actually go back into the studio and record it, but yeah, I've been writing a lot. I love being in the studio so I can't wait to get back in there.”
Natalie adds that this year she'd like to build on the concepts behind 'Titanic Rising', which re-imagined the Titanic disaster as a metaphor for climate change – and incorporate them into her own political activism.
“Luckily, because I have an easier touring schedule this year, I can focus more on my political activism,” she says.
“Just to take a second, because when you do music it's so hard to do everything, but the message of 'Titanic Rising' was to raise awareness about what's going on, so I want to do some of that stuff, on top of writing and playing shows and all that good stuff.”
Weyes Blood 2020 Tour Dates
Sun 23 Feb - Perth FestivalTue 25 Feb - The Zoo (Brisbane)
Wed 26 Feb - Melbourne Recital Centre
Fri 28 Feb - Zoo Twilights (Melbourne)
Sat 29 Feb - Farmer & The Owl (Wollongong)
Tue 3 Mar - The Factory Theatre (Sydney)
Wed 4 Mar - Odeon Theatre (Hobart)
Thu 5 Mar - Adelaide Festival
Sat 7 Mar - Theatre Royal (Castlemaine)
Sun 8 Mar - Golden Plains Festival (VIC)
Mon 9 Mar - The Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
