“If I get in, where would I go?”.. The evolution of Greta Stanley.

I recently had the opportunity to have a chat with local singer- songwriter, Greta Stanley about her newest album,”If I get in, where would I go?”

Greta emerged from the Cairns TAFE music programme around 2013, with a distinctive and digestible style of indy /pop that had something to say, but didn’t need to shout . The intelligence and emotion wrapped up in her lyrics showed a maturity beyond her years, and it didn’t take long for her to get attention. I asked her about the evolution of Greta Stanley since that time.

“I didn’t go through high school thinking I would be a musician. I always loved music, and playing guitar , but it wasn’t until I left school that I found myself a little bit lost in terms of my future. I didn’t want to go to uni, and I didn’t have a specific career in mind that I wanted to pursue. I had a friend from school who had enrolled in the TAFE music program, and he really enjoyed it, and it was a lot of fun, so I thought I would give it a go. Being around so many creative people was really inspiring.”

“ Once a week, we would perform to the class. That really helped with my confidence as a performer. I met some guys at TAFE , Neil and James from ‘In the element’ that really supported me and encouraged my writing, and it all led on from there.”

“I feel like it was more fun back then. I didn’t know the ins and outs of the industry , and everything was new. I was more fully involved in music. Nowadays I have to work 2 jobs just to be able to afford to keep doing it”

“ I think over the last 10 or 12 years, my style has changed a bit, but I have stayed true to my songwriting style, writing about personal experience and my life. I may have ‘genre hopped’ a little bit , (laughs), but its still me.”

“I was lucky enough to get a grant through Cairns regional council for this album, which was awesome.It really helped a lot. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.”

The new album has a harder edge than much of Greta’s previous work. It has a more approachable feel, which may be attributed to the different approach to production as well as the shift in approach to songwriting. All in all, it speaks of someone who has had some challenges to face .

“The last album was more pop, with a country song at the end. This one has more rock style songs . It’s definitely a little heavier than anything I have done before. The last album was more electronic, and more heavily produced, I guess.”

We all face challenges in life, and the great thing about being a musician, is being able to channel that into music and expressing our deeper feelings

“The world is a crazy place right now. It’s hard to come to terms with it. I think I was just sick of feeling that way all the time, and I was struggling with ways to navigate that and I wanted to confront it instead of taking the easy route of pushing it aside and avoiding it all”

“I guess the album was made out of, or inspired by the theme of mental health, and my journey with trying to manage that. It’s something that will probably never go away, but I’ve been trying to explore that a little bit more in an effort to come to terms with it all.”

“I was working on going to therapy, and dealing with chronic pain issues. I have been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease that manifests as arthritis of the spine, which makes it hard to walk some days, so I had to dial back on performing and look after my health. I ended up in hospital and couldn’t walk for a week, so that really put things in perspective. It was very confronting.”

“Then the flood happened. It put the album in jeopardy for a while. I had no home , my instruments were in storage; it was chaos. Then we had the added expense of travelling to Townsville to record, accommodation, and all of those added expenses that the grant doesn’t cover, and I wasn’t working , so that was even more stressful.”

“I just decided to commit and push through anyway. I went to Townsville to do some recording , and just as I got there, there was a cyclone warning and flash flooding there as well. There was a power outage, and that delayed the recording process by 2 days. The end result was that the title track of the album was written from scratch in the studio.”

“At the time, I didn’t feel like I had done as much work on some of the songs as I wanted to. I think this led to the more ‘stripped back’ sound on a lot of the songs, which, looking back, was probably more of a blessing than I was aware of at the time. I’m really proud of how this album turned out. I love my previous albums, and I’m proud of them too, but I feel like these songs really give what I wanted them to give, and there was really not much ‘back and forth’ with the producers this time. Everything went relatively smoothly. Everything just felt really good, despite how stressed I was and how much pressure I felt in the lead up to recording. The songs are exactly what I want them to be, and they sound exactly how I want them to sound.”

“We are locked into a headline show at The Tanks the same day that the album drops, so I’m really excited about that. My health has been an issue with planning a tour, but Cairns is the one place that I said I absolutely had to play.

“We will have the whole band with us, so I’m really excited about that, and we have emerging artist, Grace Jones and the amazing Tessa Devine opening the show, so It’ll be a great show. It’s been a while since I’ve done a show with a band, so I’m so excited . Cairns is always a great audience.”

This is the only show on the agenda at the moment, so if you miss this one, you miss out. If you are familiar with Greta’s work, you know what a treat you’re in for. If you aren’t , then I highly recommend that you make the time and spend the money to catch a local performer who has made an impact on the music scene in her own quiet, unassuming way, and developed into a world class act.

Tickets are available through Ticket Link, or at the venue on the night of they haven’t sold out.

If I get in, where would I go? is out on all streaming and download services on 27th September

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