EMILY ULMAN RETURNS WITH SPARKLING NEW SINGLE ‘SEVERE CLEAR’ THE TITLE TRACK FROM HER FORTHCOMING ALBUM, ‘SEVERE CLEAR’, OUT OCTOBER 10
A bright and dulcet addition to her ever-growing repertoire, Melbourne/Narrm singer-songwriter, and music industry legend, Emily Ulman today returns with Severe Clear, the sparkling title track from her forthcoming album of the same name set for release on Friday, October 10.
Blending her buoyant charm with acoustic, folk and pop elements, Severe Clear channels a poignant optimism, with Emily nodding to Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now to evoke “the hope after the heavy.” As Emily explains, “Severe clear is an aviation term describing skies so clear and cloudless that the endless visibility is too much to take in. I have always loved the phrase. Severe clear weather often follows a storm, and that resonates with me too. A furious, cloudy pocket of weather giving way to something calm and bright and still. Pilots say these conditions are dazzling,almost too perfect.”
“Severe Clear is a song about the moments that arrive after everything has settled,” Emily adds. “It’s about clarity that is so beautiful it is almost unbearable. That strange kind of beauty: perfect, but piercing. I think about weather a lot. I lean right in because it is intrinsic. And magical. This song lives in that space between forecast and feeling. It is about the quiet, everyday moments that suddenly become enormous in their clarity. Like standing in the middle of something spectacular and letting yourself be swept up by it. It is about love, about letting yourself be soft and fall, it’s about buying matching towels because you want to be one and the same. Johnny Nash wrote ‘I Can See Clearly Now’. And I’m borrowing the idea that after the clouds and hard times pass, something brighter takes their place. Sometimes clarity isn’t sharp or sudden or cold. Sometimes it is soft and patient and a little bit dizzying. And perfect.”
With Severe Clear – both the single and broader album – Emily worked alongside a stellar team to realise her creative vision. Produced and mixed by Bonnie Knight (Amyl and the Sniffers, Angie McMahon, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers) at The Aviary, with Every Hillside recorded at Soundpark, the album was mastered by Simon Berckelman (Courtney Barnett, Passenger, Lime Cordiale, Cate Le Bon). Drawing inspiration from the likes of Julia Jacklin, Adrienne Lenker, Big Thief, Pinegrove and Bill Callahan the album’s songwriting, structure and emotional weight are further enriched by contributions from Gab Strum (Japanese Wallpaper, Mallrat, Gretta Ray), Alex Lashlie (Closet Straights, Loose Tooth), and Soren Maryasin (Stella Bridie, Chitra).
Beginning with its glowing title track, Severe Clear opens on a serene and stirring note, offering an optimistic warm embrace drawing listeners into Emily’s inner world. From there, the album moves through intimate acoustic beauty and soothing harmonies (Every Hillside), wistful melodies over ethereal backdrops (Fans in the Stands), and a folksy yet cinematic ode to life’s highs and lows (Mountains Mountains Mountains). It balances polished introspection (Trundle), stripped-back glimmers that swirl through your bones (Lake Mistake), and gentle flourishes of empowerment (Planned Burn). At the midpoint of Severe Clear, is an exquisite, vulnerable modern love ballad (Liminal Spaces) that gives way to brooding melancholia (Toughest Tourniquet), before the raw, rousing penultimate track If It Isn’t True, where Emily shifts between vocal serenity and spoken word over sparse, moody instrumentation. Closing with Repeat Things, Severe Clear ends in resounding clarity and vulnerability, carrying inescapable undertones of optimism through heartache, change, and renewal – a perfect embodiment of Emily’s potent songwriting and performance, as well as the broader album’s themes.
“Severe Clear is about change,” shares Emily, “and renewal. About being brave enough to step back into something you love, even after a long absence. It is an album full of mountains and hillsides and clouds and clarity. It is about duality. The ability to hold two conflicting and coexisting truths at the same time. Severe Clear is deciduous. A letting go and a returning. A way to make peace with the cycles that keep pulling me back to songwriting, and back to myself.”
A defining force in the Australian music industry for over two decades, both on stage and behind the scenes, Emily Ulman’s lengthy tenure championing artists has seen her curate and program lineups at some of Melbourne’s most iconic venues, including The Prince Bandroom, The Gasometer Hotel, and The Toff In Town. Additionally, Emily has programmed some of the country’s most significant music events, including Brunswick Music Festival, White Night Melbourne, the CHANGES summit, and her own award-winning online festival Isol-Aid, which received the 2020 triple j J Award for “Done Good” and was named Best Festival at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards. Recently, Emily served as Executive Program Director for ALWAYS LIVE, a Victorian state-wide celebration of contemporary music, inclusive of emerging artists through to international icons, from sell-out stadiums through to intimate venues all playing home to these one-off, exclusive and community-focused events.
Dedicated to shaping a more progressive, inclusive and artist-first Australian music scene, Emily’s creative output is as acclaimed as her work behind the scenes, with her earlier 2025 single Every Hillside marking her first new solo material in over a decade. Now with her stunning and hotly-anticipated new album Severe Clear set for release this October, Emily has channelled her passions and creative core into a collection that is honest, intimate and destined to captivate.
“I’m a words and feelings to the front type of writer,” Emily reveals. “I have described my songwriting as emotional archaeology; digging through my memories to see what might still be living underneath. To sift and sort and better myself as a creator and as a person. I’m constantly taken by the intensity of a moment or phrase and the way a single word can unearth something you thought was long buried. And this is who I realise I am. I write to excavate. I sing to archive and fossilise and remember the mess and magic of it all.”
“It feels really good, really scary, really perfect, really disorienting to be releasing Severe Clear,” Emily concludes. “This is the first time in ten years that I’ve released music and it’s so familiar and wildly foreign. I’ve spent the past decade working behind the scenes in the music industry, but I never stopped writing. I’m glad that Severe Clear is the song and album returning me to my own music and creativity. It’s honest and personal, and I’m proud of it.”
Severe Clear (single) is out today.
Severe Clear (album) is due out Friday October 10.
Pre-order: SEVERE CLEAR (Album)
Pre-save: SEVERE CLEAR (Album)
TRACKLIST:
Side A
- Severe Clear
- Every Hillside
- Fans in the Stands
- Mountains Mountains Mountains
- Trundle
Side B
6. Lake Mistake
- Planned Burn
- Liminal Spaces
- Toughest Tourniquet
- If it Isn’t True
- Repeat Things
“Emily Ulman, you’ve done it again, it’s an exquisite song, ‘Mountains Mountains Mountains’…. it’s so lovely to hear a voice that we know so well as a co-host and a conversationalist, to hear that voice just amplified and there’s an alchemy that takes place that turns the voice we know into lyrical mode, it’s very specially to hear that tune…. what a storyteller, it’s a short song at 2 minutes 12 but she just packs so much in”. – David Astle – ABC Victoria statewide evenings
“Love how organic and natural this track (Mountains Mountains Mountains) feels! Emily Ulman creates a gorgeous atmosphere <3” –
Anika Luna – triple j
“It’s all sweetness when it comes to Emily Ulman. Dulcet yet pointed songwriting makes it the worth the wait after an almost-decade hiatus. Welcome back Emily!” – Sara Glaidous – triple j
Brazen Barbie Unleashes Her Boldest Era Yet with New Mixtape ‘BRAZEN’
Grit, glam, and unfiltered attitude collide as Kenyan-Australian artist Brazen Barbie drops her hotly anticipated mixtape BRAZEN, alongside the standout new single Deep End — out now.
A kaleidoscopic portrait of resilience, sass, and self-awareness, BRAZEN is a genre-bending, 12-track mixtape that walks the line between vulnerability and bravado. It’s not just music — it’s diary entries you can dance to.
Leading the charge is Ain’t No Dummy, the very first track locked in for the project — and the one that set the tone for everything that followed. “I wrote it during a time when I felt like people kept underestimating me,” Brazen Barbie shares. “In relationships, friendships, life. I wanted something bold, bratty, but still smart. There’s a real tension in choosing chaos — but doing it on your terms.”
With BRAZEN, Brazen Barbie brings her boldest self to the surface — showing off not only the bars, but the brains and bruises behind them. It’s her most personal, potent, and playful body of work to date.
Whether it’s the glittering menace of Doomsday, the swagger of Can’t Hang, or the soul-stirring resilience of Anyway, each track is layered with meaning and intention — even when delivered with a wink.
Having already turned heads at BIGSOUND, SXSW, Sydney Fringe Festival, and Promiseland, Brazen Barbie is no stranger to commanding a stage — or a space. Her Acclaim Magazine All Stars Class of ’24 nod and features in VICE, triple j Unearthed, and Life Without Andy to name just a few, only reinforce what’s already clear: she’s not here to follow. She’s here to lead.
“BRAZEN is a self-portrait,” she concludes. “Each track is a snapshot of a different mood or moment in my life, and a different version of the voice in my head. I wanted it to feel like turning up, in your head, and in a diary all at once.”
BRAZEN is out now on all platforms. Play it loud, feel it fully, and don’t say you weren’t warned.
PETE MURRAY SHARES ROUSING NEW SINGLE ‘HOME TO ME’ CURRENTLY TOURING NATIONALLY ON 56 DATE SOLO ACOUSTIC RUN
A warm and rousing new addition to the Pete Murray universe, today the beloved singer-songwriter shares a brand new single Home To Me. Embracing folk and country flavours into Pete’s trademark tranquility, Home To Me also arrives amidst Pete’s extensive 56-date national acoustic solo tour, supported by Rachael Fahim and Brett Wood across the country.
Sparkling with acoustic guitar and honeyed vocals alongside country twangs and soft, shuffling percussion, Home To Me is a sublime meeting point between Pete’s uplifting folk-rock roots and some fresher sonic terrain, as Pete explains, “I don’t know if he has influenced me, but I’ve been listening to a bit of Kenny Rogers over the last few years. He has some classic songs. The country artist I’ve been listening to is Chris Stapleton. Chris has a killer voice and guitar tone.”
Initially penned during time spent in Nashville, Home To Me sprang to life quickly ahead of Pete’s first-ever co-writing session in the ‘Country Music Capital of the World’. And while a strikingly intimate outing that blossomed alongside Phil Barton, producer Garrett Kato and some engineering from Luke Palmer, Home To Me is a universal love letter to finding ‘the one’, with the country flavours that Pete was seeking ultimately expanding via Kato’s contributions, as well as Benny Edger adding some lap steel to proceedings. “I was doing some co-writing for the first time in Nashville,” shares Pete of Home To Me’s origin story, “and I wanted to write some country music for someone else. I was really nervous that I would rock up to the session the next day and have nothing to offer so I started writing the song that night. I pretty much had half of the music and lyrics written before I turned up to the session. I was writing with Aussie songwriter Phil Barton and Phil is a killer writer so it didn’t take long for him to work his magic and before we knew it, the song was done. It wasn’t written about anyone, it was more about what love means to people when you get it right. As the lyrics say, ‘No matter where we are or where we’re going to be, when we’re apart you’re the missing piece – there’s one thing you should know and one thing you gotta believe, honey you’re always home to me’.”
Having sold over 1.2 million albums, and generating hundreds of millions of streams, releasing three ARIA chart-topping albums and scooping up 17 ARIA Award nominations over the years, Pete Murray is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most enduring and endearing success stories. From the release of this debut full-length album, 2001’s The Game, through to his breakout 2003 album Feeler and, most recently, 2017’s Comacho, Pete has maintained his status for blending laidback charisma and magnetic live performances for decades while cultivating airplay, sales, streams and a dedicated fanbase that most could only dream of. Armed with a potent sonic brew that spans acoustic, rock, folk and more, witnessed on his multiple hits like Better Days, Feeler, Opportunity and So Beautiful, Pete’s live show has also been repeatedly praised for his smooth delivery, expert craftsmanship, and his inescapable ability to make you feel right at home in any venue and setting.
With countless headline shows with his band at home and across the world under his belt, and previous performances alongside the likes of Missy Higgins, Icehouse, Rob Thomas, James Blunt and more, 2025 has also found Pete ticking off yet another career first: performing an entirely acoustic headline run around Australia, with a mammoth 56-date tour currently in motion that spans practically every pocket of the country.
“I’m loving it!” enthuses Pete of his current tour. “So many shows have sold out and others are close to selling out on this tour. It’s been a very different tour for me being my first solo tour in Australia. Lots of stories and lots of song-a-longs.”
And while playing the Melbourne Recital Centre in April has been a recent standout for Pete on this current tour (with Lilithia Reviews praising: “Murray is a natural performer, an incredible songwriter, and in a room as large as Melbourne’s Recital Centre, he makes it feel like it’s just the two of us, huddled around a campfire, exchanging life stories.”), Pete’s ultimate favourite thing about touring regionally and so extensively is the chance to dig even deeper on home soil. “Getting to see new places is my favourite thing,” Pete concludes. “Australia is such a massive country, even though I’m doing a massive 60 date tour I haven’t even scratched the surface of places to go in this country.”
Home To Me is out now.
Tickets for Pete Murray’s solo tour are onsale now from www.petemurray.com.
PETE MURRAY – UPCOMING SHOWS:
Tickets available from www.petemurray.com
THU 12 JUN | MONCRIEFF ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, BUNDABERG QLD | AA
FRI 13 JUN | GLADSTONE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, GLADSTONE QLD | AA
SAT 14 JUN | TOWNSVILLE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, TOWNSVILLE QLD | AA
SUN 15 JUN | TANKS ARTS CENTRE, CAIRNS QLD | AA *SOLD OUT
WED 18 JUN | MACKAY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, MACKAY QLD | AA
THU 19 JUN | PILBEAM THEATRE, ROCKHAMPTON QLD | AA
FRI 20 JUN | EMPIRE THEATRE, TOOWOOMBA QLD | AA
SAT 21 JUN | QPAC – LYRIC THEATRE, BRISBANE QLD | AA *SELLING FAST
THU 26 JUN | TORQUAY HOTEL, TORQUAY VIC | 18+
FRI 27 JUN | BARWON HEADS HOTEL, BARWON HEADS VIC | 18+ *SOLD OUT
SAT 28 JUN | THE CAPITAL, BENDIGO VIC | AA *SELLING FAST
SUN 29 JUN | HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE, BALLARAT VIC | AA *SELLING FAST
THU 3 JUL | ART HOUSE, WYONG NSW | AA *SELLING FAST
FRI 4 JUL | PANTHERS PORT MACQUARIE, PORT MACQUARIE NSW | AA
SAT 5 JUL | SAWTELL RSL CLUB, SAWTELL NSW | AA
SUN 6 JUL | TAMWORTH TOWN HALL, TAMWORTH NSW | AA
THU 10 JUL | TWIN TOWNS, COOLANGATTA QLD | AA
FRI 11 JUL | REDLANDS PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, CLEVELAND QLD | AA *SELLING FAST
SAT 12 JUL | IPSWICH CIVIC CENTRE, IPSWICH QLD | AA
THU 17 JUL | ANITA’S THEATRE, THIRROUL NSW | AA *SELLING FAST
FRI 18 JUL | ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW | AA *SELLING FAST
SAT 19 JUL | YUIN THEATRE, BATEMANS BAY NSW | AA *SOLD OUT
SUN 20 JUL | CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE, CANBERRA ACT | AA *SELLING FAST
TUE 22 JUL | GOLDFIELDS ART CENTRE, KALGOORLIE WA | AA
WED 23 JUL | CUMMINS THEATRE, MERREDIN WA | AA
THU 24 JUL | QUEENS PARK THEATRE, GERALDTON WA | AA
FRI 25 JUL | RED EARTH ARTS PRECINCT, KARRATHA WA | AA * SOLD OUT
SAT 26 JUL | ROEBUCK BAY HOTEL, BROOME WA | 18+
WED 30 JUL | MANDURAH PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, MANDURAH WA | AA
THU 31 JUL | ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH WA | AA *SELLING FAST
FRI 1 AUG | THE RIVER, MARGARET RIVER WA | AA
SAT 2 AUG | ALBANY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, ALBANY WA | AA
SUN 3 AUG | BUNBURY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, BUNBURY WA | AA
WED 13 AUG | BEER GARDEN BREWING, PORT LINCOLN SA | 18+ *SOLD OUT
THU 14 AUG | BEER GARDEN BREWING, PORT LINCOLN SA | 18+ *SOLD OUT
FRI 15 AUG | NORWOOD CONCERT HALL, ADELAIDE SA | AA *SOLD OUT
SAT 16 AUG | SIR ROBERT HELPMANN THEATRE, MT GAMBIER SA | AA *SELLING FAST
SUN 17 AUG | LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE, WARRNAMBOOL VIC | AA
THU 21 AUG | WEST GIPPSLAND ARTS CENTRE, WARRAGUL VIC | AA
FRI 22 AUG | THE UNION THEATRE, WONTHAGGI VIC | AA *SOLD OUT
SAT 23 AUG | THEATRE ROYAL, CASTLEMAINE VIC | AA
THU 4 SEP | THE QUEANBEYAN PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, QUEANBEYAN ACT | AA
FRI 5 SEP | GARDEN HOTEL, DUBBO NSW | 18+
SAT 6 SEP | REVESBY WORKERS CLUB, REVESBY NSW | AA
SUN 7 SEP | BLUE MOUNTAINS THEATRE, BLUE MOUNTAINS NSW | AA *SELLING FAST