Navigating a debut album release from level four lockdown in Melbourne was not the journey former North Queensland artist Elle Graham, aka Woodes, expected to take, but it is one she managed with aplomb.
Elle is now preparing to bring Brisbane audiences into the world she created with said debut, 'Crystal Ball', for the first time in an immersive sit-down dinner and show at The Tivoli's Seasoned Supper Club.It will be the first time Woodes will perform these songs live with a band – and the first time she has let others into the 'Crystal Ball' in real life.
Virtually, it's a slightly different story. "I was in my house for many, many months and I guess in a time when I couldn't celebrate with my community or promote the record in a normal way.
"I had played a little bit of 'Minecraft' a while ago with my housemates, one of whom was an architect who just made really epic builds and is really creative-focused," Elle says.
"Essentially I built my entire album in 'Minecraft'. So every song has a different village, and the idea was I built the central crystal ball – there's a giant crystal ball in the middle of the town, which is kind of like the headquarters – but my fans were able to come in and build those songs with me.
"And in that process, you get to talk about the stories behind it, so we have elephants from Africa, we have rainforests from North Queensland, we have camping spots.
"I had artists like Mallrat, Montaigne, Alice Ivy, Didirri come in and do build challenges. . . It was just an excuse to have a lot of fun.
"Then 'Minecraft' got in touch and they were like, 'We've never had anyone in the world go and build their album song for song in 'Minecraft', so it kind of worked out really well where they pushed it out onto their channels when I was releasing my record.
"I have a lot more people in my YouTube comments being like, 'I’m here from Minecraft!' I didn't have that on my 2020 bingo card."
Woodes says bringing the album to life at The Tivoli is going to be extra special.
"I remember flying down from Townsville – I think the first live show that I ever went to see outside of Townsville was Sufjan Stevens at The Tivoli – and there was like two drum kits and he was all dressed up like a space man and I was like, 'Oh my god! This is live music!'," she says.
"The first time we played The Tivoli was as main support for Client Liaison and City Calm Down, but I've never headlined it before, so this will be really cool. But yeah, the idea of having beautiful food and a comfy seat, and being able to enjoy music – it's such a dream show for us."
This show's theme – autumn – is also allowing Elle's creative brain to go wild. "Well I'm on to costumes, styling is all being sorted. But we're also talking about decorating and having set design pieces, which is a first, it's something I've always wanted to do.
"I know The Tivoli have got some special things planned. It sounds like they're almost bringing the outdoors into the venue.
"So that's really cool in that my music projects always have that fashion focus, but it's also very nature-based; a lot of my film clips are set in remote parts of Australia, so it'll be cool to bring nature in and create this really immersive dynamic performance, rather than it just being the classic show – we get to be a bit more experimental.
"This Tivoli show is a very one of a kind event; it's the only show of its kind we'll be doing in Australia. We will be announcing a new project just before the show and we'll hopefully do some more Woodes shows later in the year, but this is the big one."
Woodes plays Seasoned Supper Club at The Tivoli (Brisbane) 27 May.
