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
MAMA KIN SPENDER RELEASE SPELL-BINDING NEW ALBUM ‘PROMISES’
A mesmerising journey through soul folk, hypnotic harmonies and open-veined lyricism, the new album Promises out today from ARIA-nominated and WAM award-winning duo Mama Kin Spender is one of those truly rare creative entities that transfixes mind, body and soul; a seismic concept album that explores every facet of love, from optimism through to decay, rage and transformation.
The opening track, Arrows is immediately captivating, and so Promises kicks off with a nod to the likes of Alabama Shakes and Pat Benetar.Swaggering melodics and resoundingly relatable lyricism: “You and me / What a team / Then something started creepin’ in / A lazy blamin’ kinda thing / Just when I, I thought that you, could be my everything”. Steeped in real-world experience, Arrows also pierces memorably with its bewitching vocal interplay between Mama Kin Spender’s Danielle Caruana and Dingo Spender, voicing universal themes of drifting apart offering an intoxicating catharsis. Next up, Bleeding Out instantly charms with a juxtaposition of melody and sentiment. With openly raunchy yet honest lyricism, unpacking passion and frustration. Love continues to thread its way through Promises in its raw title track, channeling regret and romantic despair. The otherworldly Desert Rain is effortlessly draped in humid instrumentals, oscillating melodies and swooning vocals.And finally the relief that is the sumptuous ruminations of We Are The Water.
The album’s glimmering focus track Dance With Me offers a more upbeat fare, with Danielle and Dingo both capturing a fearless and cathartic energy that powerfully pulses through the instrumentation and driving rhythms. “Dance With Me is the wild, fleeting magic of the honeymoon period—those heady moments when love surges like a tidal wave, fueled by dopamine, and oxytocin,” shares Mama Kin Spender. “It’s the hugs AND the drugs and the song that lingers in your heart after the first sleepover, a melody that tugs at your soul years later, weaving together the shimmering highs of young, optimistic love in its opening chapters. Euphoria, rapture and joyful freedom.”
Love That Will Not Die, captivates, a soulful ballad punctuated by poignant guitar lines and dreamy vocal back-and-forth between Danielle and Dingo. Promises then dives deeper into heartfelt rumination on the smoky yet serene What’s Wrong With Me. Mama Kin Spender continue to re-imagine the soul and roots space with their own brand of magic, Promises’ penultimate track Blue Belle slithers with sensual melodies and whiskey-soaked soundscapes, channelling vivid heartbreak. Danielle and Dingo deliver a final note of surrender and acceptance, with the timeless track, The Road. A cinematic end point to Promises, and one that also yet again showcases the flawless balance between Danielle and Dingo, and the broader magic wielded by this collaboration under the Mama Kin Spender moniker. The Road would happily find its place at the end of a heart-rending indie romance as it softly rolls away with the lines: “Don’t ask me any questions / I don’t need reminding / Of the road we leave behind…”
An album that captures a galaxy of vignettes of the relational experience and ultimately in the space of 10 tracks, Promises is achingly personal yet easily relatable, ultimately a diary entry about the rise, fall and transformation of love. An album that details with pure honesty every facet of matters of the heart with a compelling array of soul, folk, pop, rock and more, Promises will capture your heart, make you feel seen, and maybe – just maybe – inspire you to take great care of love.
Renowned for their raw, percussive energy and beguiling harmonies, Mama Kin Spender is the collaborative creative project from long-time friends and creative partners Mama Kin (Danielle Caruana) and Spender (Dingo Spender). With a stalwart reputation for songwriting that grips at your core, as well as their unforgettable live performances, Mama Kin Spender released their debut full-length album in 2018, with Golden Magnetic scoring an ARIA Award nomination for Best Blues and Roots Album. The pair have previously won Best Folk Act (2013) and Best Blues / Roots Act (2018) at the West Australian Music Industry Awards, and have also performed at the likes of WOMADelaide and Woodford Festival, Perth, Darwin and Vivid Festival, and toured across North America and Ireland and across Australia; with plenty more to come.
Mama Kin Spender will be taking their incredible show on the road starting next month for their Promises Tour, heading to Pomona, Murwillumbah, Brisbane, Brunswick, Archie’s Creek, Belgrave, Sydney, Milton and Dashville don’t miss your chance to catch this incredible pair and their spectacular new album live in action.
Promises is out today.
MAMA KIN SPENDER – UPCOMING SHOWS:
Tickets available from mamakinspender.love
FRI 05 SEP | MAJESTIC THEATRE, POMONA/GUBBI GUBBI QLD
SAT 06 SEP | THE CITADEL, MURWILLUMBAH/BUNDJALUNG NSW
SUN 07 SEP | LEFTY’S MUSIC HALL, BRISBANE/MEANJIN QLD
FRI 12 SEP | BRUNSWICK BALLROOM, BRUNSWICK/BULLEKE-BEK VIC
SAT 13 SEP | ARCHIE’S CREEK HALL, ARCHIE’S CREEK/BUNURONG VIC
SUN 14 SEP | SOOKI LOUNGE, BELGRAVE/WURUNDJERI VIC
FRI 03 OCT | PADDINGTON UNITING CHURCH, SYDNEY/GADIGAL NSW
SAT 04 OCT | MILTON THEATRE, MILTON/BUDAWANG NSW
SUN 05 OCT | DASHVILLE SKYLINE, DASHVILLE/WONNARUA NSW
Pete Murray unveils dreamy new single ‘Amy’ and announces upcoming album ‘Longing’ out October 3, alongside album launch shows in October
Decades into his career but more compelling than ever, beloved Australian singer-songwriter Pete Murray arrives today armed with one of his most potent releases to date, releasing the blissfully hypnotic new single Amy, alongside the announcement of his eighth studio album Longing set for release on October 3. Nearing the end of his epic 56 date solo tour of Australia, Pete has announced three special album launch shows for New South Wales in October, tickets are available now from https://petemurray.com/.
Glistening with propulsive rhythms, sparkling acoustic guitar and Pete Murray’s ever-captivating vocal, the latest single Amy finds Pete Murray in new sonic terrain, embracing a shift in creative direction, while also coated in idyllic melodies and dreamy instrumentals. “Amy is about someone really special,” Pete reveals. “I feel Amy has a different flavour to what I have recorded before. The backbeat rhythm on the acoustic guitar is what really makes it different. I also don’t use a 4 on the floor beat under any of my songs but this works with Amy. It’s kind of hypnotic with the acoustic, snare and beat working together and when the keys solo hits in the breakdown, it’s the best!”
Teaming up with Luke Palmer (Boo Seeka, Dead Letter Circus) to bring Amy to life, with Luke engineering the track as well as lending his skills playing keys and synth bass, Pete’s new sonic chapter begins today alongside his lush new single, with Amy offering a deeper glimpse into the upcoming new album Longing due out later this year. And while it acts as a follow up to his 2017 acclaimed album Camacho, Longing will also mark the first time in two decades that Pete has released a record independently.
Via its title track, Longing opens with a hazy gleam, weaving oscillating textures and swooning warmth, before Amy kicks in next with all of her compelling beauty. From here, Longing transfixes with a journey through blues-soaked summery charm (Place Your Bets), stripped-back gems primed to tug at the heartstrings (Home To Me), effortlessly upbeat moments perfectly crafted for crowd singalongs (Higher) and powerful lyricism balanced alongside tranquil tones (I Am Fire). And from swaggering fare (Long Way To Go) through to affable odes that feel simultaneously nostalgic and fresh (Wouldn’t It Be Good), Longing also dazzles with tranquil toe-tappers (Heaven Calls) and a buoyant closing track (Shakes) that straddles relatability and hope, like a glimmering warm light waving you in from a storm and welcoming you home.
“I spend a lot of time in the studio and have a folder on my computer called ‘Unfinished’” explains Pete. “As the years went by, I kept adding to this folder and I kept slowly working some of my favourites in the folder. I would get an old session up and work on it some more then put it away again (sometimes for years). After a little while, I had a bunch of songs that really sounded like a great, cohesive body of work.”
“I’m all about trying to write an album that people love from start to finish. An album that means something special to someone,” Pete adds. “You can only make an album like this with time. My first album Feeler was written over the same period of time, about 10 years. I feel there are very similar qualities on Longing as there are on Feeler.”
And Pete’s today announced his epic ‘Longing For A Trip To Byron’ album preorder competition, giving any fan that preorders the album the chance to win a trip to Byron Bay with a mate. The winner will score flights, two nights accommodation at the luxurious Elements of Byron Bay resort, and two VIP tickets to Pete’s exclusive album launch show at the Brunswick Heads Hotel. Plus, they’ll get to meet Pete and the band after the show for a special VIP experience. To enter, fans can simply pre-order Pete’s upcoming album Longing from his official Australian webstore in any format (Vinyl, CD, Digital Download, or as part of a merch bundle) and then submit the order number before the promotion period ends at 11.59am on September 4.
Undisputedly one of Australia’s most successful singer-songwriters, Pete Murray has amassed over 1.2 million album sales, hundreds of millions of streams, three ARIA chart-topping albums, and 17 ARIA Award nominations, while also continuously touring and releasing new material for over 20 years. Emerging with his debut full length album The Game in 2001, Murray’s breakout sophomore album Feeler in 2003 cemented his status as one of the all-time greats. With ongoing hits and fan-favourites along the way, including Better Days, Feeler, Opportunity and So Beautiful, Murray’s stirring and enduring blend of positivity with acoustic, rock and folk elements has only amplified his revered reputation, including via his most recent full length album Camacho in 2017.
Now poised to release his eighth studio album in 2025, Pete has also cultivated a stalwart reputation for his live show, from his own headline shows with his band at home and abroad, as well as performances with the likes of Missy Higgins, Icehouse, Rob Thomas and James Blunt along with many more. And Australian fans will be able to catch Pete live in action this October for three very special album launch shows in New South Wales.
“This solo tour has been incredible,” shares Pete. “It was also strange as I had started to release new singles off the Longing album during the solo tour. I just have so much music to release at the moment so I’m just trying to keep things all moving forward. The new tour dates in October are all about the Longing album release and I will be playing with my band. Of course, it will be a mix of new songs and old classics, but definitely a focus on the new songs.”
And speaking of new songs, it’s the upcoming release of Longing that will also feature Pete Murray’s first completely independent album release in over two decades, with both the album and his return to independence a long, but entirely worthwhile, wait.
“It’s a great feeling to be independent again after 20 years,” says Pete. “My last independent album release was The Game in 2001. I think it’s fantastic owning my own masters again. I didn’t realise how important it was to own master 20 years ago, but you live and learn and now it’s all about recording great music that is powerful and means something special to someone and also that I own with music. Creating an album that is great from start to finish has been my goal for this new album Longing. I feel like I have achieved this, but the punters will be the real test to see if they feel the same.
Amy is out today.
Longing is set for release October 3.
Tickets for Pete Murray’s string of album launch shows in October are on sale now from www.petemurray.com.
PETE MURRAY – ALBUM LAUNCH SHOWS:
FRI 03 OCT | HOTEL BRUNSWICK, BRUNSWICK HEADS NSW | 18+
Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au | 1300 GET TIX | All Moshtix Outlets
SAT 04 OCT | DEE WHY SHOWROOM, DEE WHY | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
SUN 05 OCT | DRIFTERS WHARF, GOSFORD | 18+
Tickets available from www.humanitix.com.au | Host Link | All Humanitix Outlets