What are your names?
My name is Bryn Soden, my band Sturt Avenue features my dad John Soden, my sister Tarn Soden, my dear friends Isaac Kerr, Dave Thompson, Ollie Patterson, and Bryce Lehmann, and features occasional vocal contributions from our other dear friend Katie Pomery.
How did you come up with the band’s name?
Sturt Avenue is named after the street that our childhood home was located on, a beautiful leafy suburban road in the Adelaide Hills, notable for the two gum trees growing square in the middle of it near the end that our house was on.
What is your genre of music?
We span a few genres, but gravitate towards folk (being a band formed of largely self-taught musicians), indie-Americana, alt-country and blues rock.
Give us a little bio about you.
Sturt Avenue is an Adelaide-based collective led by SCALA award-winning singer/songwriter Bryn Soden and supported by a cast of family and friends, built from a strong foundation of community.
What made you go into music?
Pretentious as it might sound, I started writing songs to try and pick apart my own thoughts and feelings, and to better understand my own heart. I have a messy head and my feelings don’t offer themselves up to me easily, but by recording not just my thoughts but also the emotion surrounding them, I can begin to process them. It is the ultimate act of catharsis to take the troubles in my head and turn them into something beautiful with the help of my wonderful friends.
Who are your influences?
The work of American singer-songwriter Conor Oberst was probably the biggest influence on the project – both myself and Isaac are huge fans, and the wall-of-sound approach that Bright Eyes took to recording during the mid-2000s was a model we used on the production of most of the tracks on the album. We’re also big fans of the Mountain Goats, Elliott Smith, Big Thief, Jason Molina, and the War on Drugs.
Your new single ‘Lions’ is out now , tell us more about the single.
This song was responsible for bringing the band into existence, after winning the SCALA songwriters award gave me the kick I needed to finally round up some friends and take a proper crack at this music thing. I’m still vaguely paranoid that I’ll never write another set of lyrics as good as these again.
What is the meaning behind the song?
This song contrasts the idea of clinging to the glory days with the sometimes quite alien concept that the best part of our lives could still be yet to come.
Who did you work with on the single?
Lions was recorded in my home studio setup, with the drums recorded at the now defunct Holy Roller Studios in Prospect. It was mixed by myself and Patrick Lockwood from Electric Ant Records, and it was mastered by Matt Schultz.
Describe the track in two words.
Hopeful nostalgia.
Will we see a music video for the single?
There is a music video for Lions! It catalogues a beautiful late spring day we spent wandering through the National park near our home, searching for a rumoured abandoned train station. Check our YouTube page for that one – if it’s not up yet, it will be soon.
You are also set to release your debut album ‘How Do You Think It Should Be?’ in June, tell us more about the creative process of recording and writing the album.
‘How Do You Think It Should Be?’ was a labour of love. The first piece of the puzzle was put in place back in February 2019, when myself and our drummer Bryce Lehmann headed into the now defunct Holy Roller Studios in Prospect, SA, to record drum takes with Patrick Lockwood for most of the tracks that appear on this album. At this point, many of the songs were a couple years old already (the oldest I believe being Bell Curve Blues, originally written back in 2015), but had only been performed by the band a handful of times. We recorded the rest of the band’s contributions over the course of the next few months in the home recording space that I had set up in my bedroom, then spent the next year or so mixing and tweaking them in this space and in Pat’s new studio, Electric Ant Records
Describe each album track in two words.
Cannery Row – drunken memories.
Bell Curve Blues – common trauma.
Over Everything – hardship consolation.
A Few Simple Lines – weak apology.
Waiting – missing misery.
Lions – hopeful nostalgia.
Sirens – temporary solace.
Nowhere Town – isolated heartache.
Flowers on the Sill – maternal gratitude.
Falling – troubled romance.
Stay – valued support.
What else can we expect from Sturt Avenue in 2021?
We have a second album worth of songs already written, we might make a push to get one or two of the tracks from this out as singles before the year is out.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
Hopefully with enough attention to have us on the bill for a few folk festivals every year, and the support of enough people to keep making our silly little songs as we all age gracefully into the kind of maturity that allows us to continue creating beautiful things, while dispelling the feeling that we’ve wasted our precious short time on this earth on frivolous pursuits.
Do you have a quote or a saying that you always stick by?
Don’t take it personally.
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
- Don’t drink too much beforehand.
- Drink water between songs so your throat doesn’t dry out.
- Don’t prattle on about stupid shit between songs, people came out to hear your music, not your bad confessional stand-up.
- Thank the venue and the sound tech.
- Soak up the moment, it’s an incredible privilege to get to share your music with an audience.
Do you have social media accounts so that new fans can follow you?
Our Instagram and our Facebook.
All our links can be found HERE
