Tilly VW tells us about her new single, Criteria Killed the Creative
Melbourne artist Tilly VW has just dropped her new single, Criteria Killed the Creative. Our Editor Bobby had a chat with her:
Hey Tilly. How’s your day going?
Hey Bobby! Today has felt like a fade-in. I woke up feeling exhausted and anti-social so I took my dog for walk and kept walking until I felt alive again.
It’s been a while since we spoke. Indeed, it was November 2020, when you had just dropped your debut single, Young Lovers Do, and we were in the midst of the global pandemic. What’s been happening in your world over the last couple of years?
Wow, that feels like a lifetime ago! Around the time I put out Young Lovers Do, I met the producer Dean Tuza I’m working with now. The first time we chatted we immediately realised a shared love of the bands doing downtempo electronica in the 90s like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Groove Armada. They felt like an intersection of so many genres, sounds, and textures I loved. I was at a crossroads with my writing and the sonic direction of my project and having that epiphany kind of knocked everything into place.
For most of the 2021 Melbourne lockdowns, I was finishing my studies at university and writing and producing these formative songs with Dean. Last year I spent about 8 months overseas backpacking, 4 of which I spent in Los Angeles. I went there out of curiosity at the beginning, not specifically for music. I was surprised about how much I loved that city; how much creativity is there still. Any night of the week you can walk into a bar and find music that will knock your socks off. After every night I would say “that’s the best shit I’ve ever seen”. And then the next night I’d say it again. It was insanely inspiring for my writing. There is a real reverence for music – and I often felt that the crowds were just as inspiring as the music.
Last year I accidentally wrote a whole record and I’m already writing the second one. I wrote so much that it stresses me out. It’s all because I bought a guitar for 20 euros in Berlin and lugged it to every hostel. If I didn’t have that guitar, the songs would’ve never happened!
Your new single, Criteria Killed the Creative, is described as an anti-establishment anthem. Tell us more…
I wrote Criteria Killed the Creative as a little finger to the ‘establishment’. At the time, it was particularly directed towards what I felt was a narrow, archaic education system that curbed creative expression. Over time the song has become a little mantra to myself, my friends and people who feel a drawing to creativity to stay with it, to keep holding that flame.
I think it also captures the self-belief you must have as young woman in an industry that still feels like a male dominated space. The song undoubtedly begins with the narrator teasingly entertaining some mansplaining. You can explain it to me all you like, but you couldn’t tell me what it feels like to play it. That line sustains me. Your creativity is yours and it’s untouchable.
Is the new single part of an EP you’re working on?
Yes, Criteria is the first single from an EP. But it’s also beginning of a grander project …
Will you be touring at all this year? Where can we see you live?
I’m currently planning an event for mid-April in Melbourne, which will be an EP launch. The vision we have for it is a really immersive, artistic experience and will be alongside some insanely cool bands, musicians, DJs and visual artists. I will be playing live as much as possible and hopefully will get up to Sydney for a show in the next couple of months too! Stay tuned on my insta/spotify.
This Saturday I’m playing at the Pt Lonsdale Board riders Lighthouse Party, where I’m debuting Criteria Killed the Creative and the EP for the first time with my band.
Are you still listening to Jeff Buckley’s album Grace as much as you were when we last spoke, or is there a new record you’re obsessing over?
Jeff Buckley’s music is still a big part of my life. I recently played the album to my cousin on a long drive. The catharsis of that record … I swear the A-side is made to strip you down until you arrive in a deep and tender exhaustion, when the lilting chords of Lover You Should’ve Come Over begin and you collapse.
The latest record I’ve really obsessed over is I Need to Start a Garden by Haley Hendrickx. That was the soundtrack to my travels, and it was just a beautiful unravelling. My favourite records are those that I’ve lived and breathed with, it almost feels like a relationship with them. There is the moment of meeting, the drawing towards, the falling in love, the unfolding, the endless surprises.
And what else are you listening to/reading/watching now? Any hot tips for us?
I’ve been listening to Melbourne singer/instrumentalist Carla Dal Forno’s 2016 album ‘You Know What it’s Like’. I can’t place why I love it so much … it feels so thoughtfully produced and has a lot of weird sound design elements. I LOVE IT!!! I’ve also been reading Tuesdays with Morro, a true story about a philosophy professor in the last few weeks of his life, and his student. I’ve had to have a lot of breaks whilst reading it because it makes you feel so tender.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Tilly. What are you going to do now that you’ve finished this interview?
The only thing on my agenda for the afternoon is to rehearse for my show this weekend. I can’t wait to get my little tasks done so I can soak into it. Then I might go for a swim at the sunset, because it’s a beautiful night.
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Keep up to date with Tilly VW on Insta.
Interview by Bobby Townsend.
