Notes App is a Sh*t Show ft. Lottie McLeod

Maxwell. What the what is going on there, my guy? Sounded deep. That did sound deep, didn't it? That was um, yeah, not a bit of a strange way to start the show. How are you?

Not bad. Better than you, by the sounds of it. What's uh what's going on?

Well, we know that I love some sad shit, Maxwell. You're on your sad girl things. Oh, just nothing breaks your heart like a sad girl. Um and we're talking to one of Brisbane's best. Yeah. That was a handball. Oh, sorry. No, it's alright. I've missed the target open. Max is on field two, and I'm on the main oval.

Yeah, we're chatting with uh Lottie McLeod, a singer-songwriter here out of Brizzy, and um we're chatting about her latest EP, The Boat House. I bought some songs from this EP to the show a few weeks ago, uh, and I think I showed you and I showed, I was like, look, this is when you're in your Phoebe Bridges phase, and I was like, I think you might get around some of these.

Yep. Um, and then obviously so that actually comes up in in the F. We chatted about um actually giving you some homework.

She did, and I did the homework. The Phoebe Bridges ones were good. The side project wasn't as into, but that's okay. I've actually realized, I was like, Lonnie McLeod, Lottie McLeod, it feels so familiar. And then I went back into my library since the chat to now. Ruin a good thing on uh bug was the the previous EP.

The previous EP. I had that saved. Wow, you know Lottie, if you're listening, been there since the beginning. There's an OG since the bug EP, anyway. I don't know if you released music before then. I should really know that. But please do not judge me.

Well, uh, listen, as you can judge our conversation with Lottie McLeod starting now.

Hi Uh, Maxwell, joining us on the show today is a singer-songwriter from right here in Brizzy. Lottie McLeod, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me, guys. I can't wait.

It's a pleasure to have you on. Max has been going on and on non-stop about the EP, so we're very keen to dive into it. But before we do, we start the show the same way with every single guest we have, and that is to get an idea of what's spinning in your playlists.

Ooh. That's a great question. Um, there's always Samia in my playlist. She's like my favorite of all time. Um my best friend Grace, who goes by the name Maya, is also releasing some music right now that which I've been rinsing. It's um, she's a song called Starving that she just put out, which is really, really good.

Um Haley Blaze is someone I love. Charlie Hickey, Christian Lee Hudson. Um, it's always when I get asked this question that I forget like every song that I've ever heard in my life.

It's always how it goes, right?

Um, I think that's a pretty good that's pretty accurate for what I'm listening to at the moment, though. Yeah.

I like it. The um Pool by Samuel is one of the best songs I've ever heard. Like it's incredible.

It's heart wrenching, it's great.

unknown Yeah.

Oh, it's insane. Maxwell, I'll play it to you later. Thanks. We can we can all cry together, that'd be beautiful. Um, as Sam mentioned up the top, your new EP, the Boat House, is out now. So congratulations. Uh, it's it's fantastic. We we wanted to kind of start talking about it by going to the teacher location, the the boat house, which for anyone in Brisbane, they'll know it is the Manley Boat House.

What about it is so what about that as a location is so impactful to you that it just had to be like the the central theme of this release.

Well, I've had like lots of interactions there. I've like I've almost broke up with someone on Valentine's Day there once.

Um that's brutal.

Like nice view if you need to, but it just happened to fall on that day. Um I've had, you know, some you know, I had my listening party there the other day, and I like I have sometimes it's not at the mainly brook house, sometimes it's just next to it by the water, just having a talk in the car or something.

So it's always just around that area, and I just I've always been a water baby. I've so I think that area just kind of grounds me when I need to have some sort of heavy conversation with someone. I've always just been friends with people who live around that area as well, so it's just kind of like the meeting point as well.

Um, but yeah, it's just weird. It's never been intentional, it just has always happened to fall there, and it wasn't until I was writing the CP that I really realized that it's crazy you mentioned the breakup on Valentine's Day.

We're not gonna dive into the lore of it all, but hearing that I was like, holy shit, I've had two breakups on the water at Winnham, and I'm like, there's something about Winham and like the Manly Boathouse area. I'm like, these heavy conversations just happen to take place around there.

Anyway, sometimes you win them, sometimes you lose them, Sam. You do. But I relate, is what I'm saying.

You and me both.

Yeah, damn. The the the other the other thing about the the EP is you are kind of going super local with it. Like another shout-out you make is Wednesdays at the Waterloo, which actually first we ought to check, is this Waterloo Fortitude Valley or is this uh Waterloo near Winham? Because that's a key differentiator, I feel.

Actually, there was one in Winnham. Um no, it's the it's Fortitude Valley.

The original one, the best. You know, an excellent shout.

Well, it's a song that is about losing it trivia because you have a crush on one of your teammates, but we want to know exactly what expert topics you'll bring into a trivia team in case you know, Max and I we we dabble in trivia, but if we were to make like a trivia team, what what's your area of expertise?

I'm actually not good at trivia at all. I I feel like I I'm so excited for trivia, and then I get there, and then the novelty wears off in like 10 minutes, and I'm like, oh I actually I was kind of here for the pub scene and now I want to go home. Um but I really like what's that trivia section called?

It's like where they play the the songs with the four-bit um like Cynthia, you know. Do you know what I'm talking about?

They're like the they're like the the weird kind of like video game covers of song kind of things. Yeah, yeah, yep, yep.

I'm pretty great at that. That's my strong suit.

Okay. An important, you know what? That covers an important gap. I think we'll you're on the team, you're recruited.

Yeah. Lottie can do like the eight-bit music covers. Max does Max has the biggest information recall I've ever seen in a human being, and I can do geography and flag. So I think we're pretty we're pretty well versed here. I think we're gonna do alright. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Waterloo trivia, you're going down. You got nothing. One of the things that we loved uh about the EP so much is how it feels like each song. I mean, the the songs feel so intimate and close together, and it feels like each kind of started life, uh, you know, written in a bedroom or something like that on an acoustic guitar, but then the way that you've elevated each song with these other textures and you know, like a surprising instrumental twist is is amazing.

So, for example, on Boathouse, you have these little synth runs. In Sunburnt, you have the the horns and the woodwind section, and Wednesdays has that really ear-catching little blue note on the guitar riff. How far into like the songwriting process did you kind of figure, okay, these are the flourishes I need to add to each song to give it that, you know, that specific identity within the track, and how do they kind of fit together on the EP, on the on the EP as a whole to make sure that they all had their own identity um within the bigger piece?

Yeah, I feel like that's actually something I've struggled with in the past. I've always like written something and then gone to the studio and have a really specific idea of what I want it to sound like, and then I just end up being disappointed because it's not it's never gonna be like exactly how you hear it.

Well, sometimes it is, but sometimes it's also not in my experience. So with a CP, I really tried to just go into the studio and just kind of do whatever happens and not have this clear picture of what the end project was gonna sound like. Um, like Burt House was a really good example of that. I went to North Carolina um to a call with a producer called Caleb Wright, and we were only planned to do Important to You.

That was just we only had two days, so we just knocked out Important to You, and then we had the whole day to do Burt House. And I didn't expect that, so I played him this song. I was like, I don't really know what I want to do with it, and we just kind of added stuff as the recording process went along, and I think that was kind of the beauty of those little moments that elevated the song was just spur of the moment and um yeah, Burhouse being one of the first songs created for it, I think that really kind of made a domino kind of effect with the other songs as well.

Um Winds of the Waterloo was an interesting one because it was a co-write. I co-writing is something that I've really had to learn how to open myself to this these last couple of years, it's been really scary for me. Um but yeah, Josh did that little roof on the guitar like the first 10 minutes, and I'm like, keep that.

Don't don't um and yeah, I'm I've just work with really amazing people in the studio too who they they really give me the freedom to just throw anything at a wall and see what sticks, and I they don't judge me for you know weird ideas that I have, and yeah, sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't, and I just yeah, had the freedom to do whatever I wanted and see what that happened with that, if that makes sense.

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, we were gonna jump into the production side of things anyway, so now's as good a time as any, but you spoke on the I guess co-writing being quite daunting. We've spoken to musicians in the past who have said very similar when they have this clear-cut vision of where they want their song and you know, EP to go.

It's been a very vulnerable moment opening up those ideas and allowing other people to have a say. You know, now that you've had that experience, do you I guess how do you view the songs? Is it different? Have they come out differently to how you went in expecting them to sound, or has it been, you know, a refreshing, like, oh I feel like the song has been elevated now that I've had the ability to co-write?

Like, where do you sit on that?

Yeah, I definitely feel like the songs have been elevated because of it. I just I think like opening yourself for help is never a bad thing, and I think musicians can get really in their head about needing to do everything on their own, and there's lots of pride in you know creating something completely on your own.

And I just don't really as as cool as it is, I just I don't think that's what makes someone a good artist necessarily. I think it's really beautiful when there's a bunch of musicians in a room all creating a a piece, and I think that's what what I love about my EP so much is that I had all of my friends on this on this body of work.

Um but yeah, I have really grown to love co-writing because Wednesday Wednesdays at the Waterloo was a co-writer and it's like my favourite song on the EP. And I think I used to be one of those people that thought maybe it's not like completely me if it's written with someone else. Like I could how could I really fully take ownership of something that I didn't create all on my own?

But I don't think like that anymore. And I love writing with other people, and I think it's a beautiful thing and not something that needs to be yeah. I don't know the word, but you guys know what I mean.

Yeah, no way, don't worry. You mentioned it before uh that you're working with Caleb Wright over in North Carolina. Obviously, we mentioned we talked about how you know very localized these songs feel, like in a in a in a general way, anyone can experience them, obviously, but you know, they have these shout-outs to parts of Brisbane and parts of your life.

To take that to all the way to North Carolina to to Caleb, who probably has never seen or knows of these places. How was that process feeling? Like, how did that feel like to sit with him and say, okay, I need this to still feel like it's a a Lottie McLeod story, but I need your help to help interpret that uh from the other side of the planet?

Yeah. I actually think that's kind of what was so cool about going to America to like work with someone who had no idea who I am, like he had only heard my music, and um I I kind of liked that he got to have this own interpretation in in his head of like kind of who he sees me as an artist. Um, don't get me wrong, I gave him all the inspo and all the rundown.

And I think before we recorded Boat House, I gave him all of the lore of everything. And yeah, I think just him knowing how I, you know, figured him out in the first place and him listening to some of my discography, I just think we understood each other. We also just had a lot of like in our personal life, had a lot to relate to as well.

And I think we just connected in that way as well. It's really funny. I told him I was from Brisbane, I remember him googling Brisbane and he just looked up photos of Brisbane, he was like, whoa, there's a river. And he thought Brisbane was so cool because he just saw photos of like the big Brisbane river with like the city around it.

It was hilarious. Like, you have no idea.

Brisbane is a yeah, it's a foreign concept to people overseas, I feel.

I don't know. It's just cool to me to see how other people see where I live when they've never seen it before. I love Brisbane, but it's just yeah, that was a really funny concept to me, like an American just looking at photos of the Brisbane River.

The mighty brown snake just looking fantastic on the tourism ads.

I was gonna say, like, from a songwriting perspective, what did you what did you feel like you learnt from having someone like Caleb work on the release with you? Did you learn anything from you know from him that you didn't know on the on the way in?

That's a great question.

Well sorry, we've hit you with the big one straight out of the split up.

I think writing with Caleb, I didn't write a whole lot with him. I pretty much came with finished songs, but Burt House was a song that wasn't fully done. Um and I was kind of I was really nervous to play him that song because I hadn't shown it to anyone before. Um and I I think working with Caleb was my first kind of realization that I don't need to be this really knowledgeable, like a music theory, know everything about that comes with music artists.

I've always been really self-conscious about that. All of my friends, you know, went to the con and are really like they just I feel I feel like I've always been someone that knows just less. I I've always said that I'm a songwriter before anything else. I love lyrics and that's how I see myself. Um but working with Caleb, I felt really confident in the fact that I didn't know all of that, and he really kind of made me feel comfortable, and like I mean he taught me how to use the key so he could um record drums and everything in the live room, and I was like kind of controlling it on the laptop in the other room, and I kind of felt like I was learning things as I went, and there wasn't any like

embarrassment that came with that that I didn't know something. Um and just for him to understand me as a songwriter and understand that that's who I am was really, really comforting.

That's a you know what? That's an excellent thing to learn because I feel like and it's gonna lead into my next question. You it seems, as I said before, that you do a lot of the the writing it's it feels very diaristic in a way. Like it feels like it's it's very, you know, unloading the Lottie Law as you were kind of alluding to before.

Uh where in the process, when you've you've put down this these lyrics that obviously, you know, uh spell out a part of your your life and your story, where do you feel like you start to play around with, okay, this song needs to sound like XYZ? Is it is it an acoustic guitar somewhere quiet that you can just kind of feel out those chords, or is it is it kind of completing the lyrics and then coming around to the to this to the song part later down the track?

Yeah. I think for me it's always lyrics first. My notes app is just a shit show full of just random words. Um but yeah, I I love just sitting where there's some public transport or literally anywhere, just just writing. Sometimes, you know, you it can sound silly, it's it's just it can be embarrassing, and there's just lots of freedom in just writing on a notes app.

I I think sometimes I sit down with my guitar and I like go to write something, and it's just I'm in this thought process of I need to finish a song because I have my guitar in my hand and I'm I'm here right now, but I think there's also some pressure on that, and I always finish with not being completely proud of some lyrics because I've just wanted to finish a song rather than just sitting with the lyrics and thinking about what I actually want to say.

Sometimes it just comes out when I have my guitar and that's really beautiful too. But I think I started with just yeah, writing down what I'm feeling and lyrics or just words that sound cool in general, um, and just seeing where that goes and then taking it to music later.

Love that. I mean, as a musician who you know focuses primarily on lyrics first, and I guess the power of word and I guess how you can make that work within a song, who do you look for for inspiration? Like what artists scream out to you from a lyrical perspective? I'd love to know.

Yeah, um, Samia, obviously. Um Phoebe Bridges will always be a massive influence on me. Um I've mentioned Christian Lee Hudson before. He uh has this really amazing way of making lyrics sound funny, but also like really just devastating as well. Um but he says something and you're like, how did like how did he think of that?

But it's like so like, oh of course, of course he would say that, but how did you think of that? Um Sidney Ross Mitchell is someone I love, she's amazing. Oh, there's so many. Hayley Blaze. I've I'm just repeating all of the artists I said at the beginning, but it's good. Yeah, these are definitely massive inspiration for me.

Um Hannah Cole is awesome. I love her. I definitely get a lot of inspiration for her too.

Uh you're saying artists that in my head I'm like, oh, they're so tortured. I love it. Like The Edge by Sidney Ross Mitchell. Oh my god. I know. She's Maxwell Be Ready.

Yeah. I don't know if I don't know if I'm in an emotional state for this yet.

I need to like really take a moment and just it's just like that song in particular, and Lottie, I'm sure you can um agree. It's just like devastatingly relatable almost.

Definitely. Yeah.

Yeah.

100%. She has this EP called Cynthia that she put out earlier in the year. Um it's I listened to it all the time since since it came out. It's just been on repeat. And I yeah, I couldn't recommend her enough.

I'm gonna deep dive into that later. That's my that's my day sorted. But you've just finished up your launch to it for the EP as well, with shows in Sydney, Melbourne, and here in Brisbane. How have you found the songs have been, you know? Perceived life. Like, how have you enjoyed the experience of bringing these to life on stage?

Yeah, I have loved it. I think, especially Wednesdays at the Waterloo. I I close with that song and it goes it goes off every time. And it's so fun to just enjoy it as much as everyone else's. And I feel like we're all just seeing it together, and it's it's yeah, it feels great. I love that song, and I love playing it live.

And the band loves playing it live too. Like we all take out one of our ears just to like just hear everyone singing it back to us, and it's it's so much fun. Um, but also when I open the show, I open it with this Rocoda version of my song The Line. Um Little Image in Heap Um moment. Well, I'm trying, I'm trying to do that.

Um and that's that's become one of my favorite parts of the show because I've always wanted to do something like that. So um yeah, it's been really cool to see how people respond to the songs live. And yeah, I can't wait to do it again. Yeah.

Well, we're gonna get to that in a second, but you you spoke on the vocoder. Can we expect you know the Image in Heap gloves to come out in the next you know, six months or so?

About that yesterday. I feel like I would get confused.

I don't she is so technically like advanced, I don't know how she does it. Like it's insane.

I would love to give it a red foot crack, but yeah, I think I would be too scared to do it. So I feel like those are not cheap.

No, I can't imagine they're they're affordable for the the everyday everyday person. They look custom made.

That's crazy. They're amazing. I I remember once I went through just went in a deep dive of videos of Image and Heat Mew Mew gloves, and I was just hours just watching. It's amazing. She's amazing.

She's incredible. And we spoke, I mean, obviously, you've done the EP launch shows, but you're back on the road a little later this year with um the support slot for the Telemarines. When you approach the set list for potential new crowds, are you gonna change up the set list? Is it all pretty much set and ready to go?

Like, how do you approach, you know, uh I guess an opening slot versus a headline slot?

Yeah, I'm actually really excited to figure that out for the Telemarines. Um, I never do covers. I don't know why. I just have an idea of what I want to do, and then I just like the idea is good enough in my head and that I'm gonna never do it. Um I really want to try to do a cover of this this tour.

I think that would be really fun. Um, me and my band were thinking about doing if I could turn back time.

Bagger, bagger.

Try and lodify that song somehow. Um but I guess I just kind of I don't even know, right? I just I think I cut out the older ones. Um just the ones that I know people will be upset if I don't play. Like I didn't play Happy Birthday this tour, and I think I had I have about five comments about it. Um I might bring that song back.

Um but yeah, I don't know. I think it's just kind of a group decision. I like to know what my band thinks as well. Um, would they like to play? Um yeah, that's a great question. I I I feel like I'm still figuring that out.

You got time, and that's fine. Before we let you go, Sam's had a big year when it comes to to going through the tortured artists department. He's he's come on board, he's just gone on board for Phoebe Bridges off the back of Lost Weekend. And we know that you're a massive Phoebe Bridges fan, so I wanted to tap into your expertise.

As a new fan, as a new Phoebe fan, where should Sam go from there? What's what's the next step? Where does he need to to play his his Phoebe knowledge?

So we've only heard Lost Weekend.

Yeah, it's the art it's the album that got me in. I love Ethel Kane, I love Cyros.

Um I think you need to listen to Stranger in the Alps next. That will always be my favorite Phoebe Bridges album. I love her other stuff, but that yeah, I think that's like one of the best albums in the world. I the writing is just crazy. Um yeah, I think that that's where you should go next for sure.

My favorite song off that is probably Georgia or I've always loved Chelsea. That's always been a favourite of mine too. But I honestly can't even pick. Every every song is just it's a not no-skip album. Yeah, it's amazing.

Well, I can confirm as you've been giving these recommendations, I've pulled my Spotify up and I've been saved. I saved Georgia and Chelsea to send, so I will I'll go away, do my research, and you know, come back come back with results.

I'll also give you one more recommendation if that's okay. Um Phoebe Bridges also has another album with Connor O'Burst and Christian Lee Hudson called Better Oblivion Community Center. Um and I wouldn't say it's a no-skip album, but it's it's also brilliant and it's amazing, so I think you should get on that too.

Okay. Uh Better Oblivion Community Centre, got it. Alright, locked and loaded. Do you have a favorite song on that one?

I love I think it's cool. Is it this city or my city?

Yeah, my city.

And didn't know what I was in for.

Done. So you've got a lot of homework this week, mate. It's four songs. That's light work for me. I'll just walk around with my headphones in, pretend I'm on calls for my full-time job. They don't listen to the show, so I'll be fine.

Well, those are good recommendations. But for listeners, uh, back to Lottie McLeod, obviously. Listen to the Boathouse, your latest EP. Uh, it's out now wherever people get their music. Catch Lottie live in Melbourne on November 6th, in Adelaide on November 7th, in Sydney on November 13th, and in Brisbane on November 14th, supporting the Tibarines.

Lottie, thank you so much for taking the time to have a chat with us today.

Thanks very much, guys. Have a good one.

Notes App is a Sh*t Show ft. Lottie McLeod

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