ADALITA - Hit Me
Words by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Wednesday 14th December 2022
Photo by: Lisa Businovski
“I enjoy getting older … It’s a privilege to be able to age well.”
There are three certainties in life – death, taxes, and Adalita Srsen is cooler than you. Sorry, but I don’t make the rules. Having just released her third solo album Inland, the MAGIC DIRT frontwoman spoke to SENSE about growing older, gender, and role models in the Australian scene.
I got to see you for the first time ever at the Spring Loaded Festival in Brisbane at Eaton’s Hill at the start of this year … What was it like being on a bill with everyone from that specific time period?
Oh, it was great. It’s been great, you know, connecting with everyone again and playing shows again together, and people wanting to see us play. I didn’t think I’d be a middle-aged rocker, you know? [Laughs] Rocking out and playing the old songs. But it’s been great. It’s been so great. We have so much fun, like you wouldn’t believe. It’s just like the old days, but we’re all a bit older, wiser, sorer, tired … [laughs] but still loving playing music. So many bands are still going from back in the day, yeah. It’s amazing. It’s a testament to the music that it holds up so well.
It's funny. People always talk so drearily about getting older. I just turned thirty-seven, and I actually quite like it. I’m happier at thirty-seven than I ever was at twenty-seven. I miss the energy … I miss having energy, but I don’t miss my twenties. How do you feel about it?
Yeah, I’m the same. I enjoy getting older. I think there are aspects of aging and maturing that you don’t get when you’re young, and you know, you just don’t give as much of a shit, and you’re a bit wiser … I don’t mind the physical aging as well. Yeah, you do lose a bit of energy, but it’s interesting to watch the body change and stuff like that, and adapting and learning. It’s just growing, but you’re learning about life in a whole other way, yeah. I do enjoy it myself too, I’ve got to say. I guess some people say it’s a privilege to be able to age well.
I thought I was safe to do my end of year list … tallying up songs of the year, thinking “No one’s going to release anything too interesting” … then here comes Adalita with the last-second haymaker with Hit Me. It’s absolutely sublime, mate. It’s beautiful.
Thank you so much!
How did it come about? Because I’m in love.
Funnily, that song was actually a leftover song from the second album All Day Venus, and I had written it very quickly and easily. It sort of just came out of nowhere. I always loved it, and then, when I was making Inland, that song popped into my head again, and I thought, “Well, that’s going to fit really well with the mood of the record.” So I popped it in there, and it just sat really well with everything. Yeah, I just added more guitar parts over the top – those spooky reverb guitars which really added an extra flavour – and then I asked Laura Jean [Englert] to come and do backing vocals, because she had some on the song when I played it live many moons ago in Melbourne at a residency here, and so I thought, I’ll get her back. It all just came together. And then, I made the video clip with Adam Harding here in the outskirts of Melbourne. We found this old heritage-listed house that was completely crumbling, and it just added to the spooky vibe. I get goosebumps talking about it, because it’s the whole world of this song … it’s a real spooky dreamworld, so it’s a very special song for me, yeah.
I’m sure you can see this question coming a mile off, but I feel like the landscape for women is changing, or is at least being paid more attention to … You’ve been in this for the long haul … How has it changed for women in music?
I maintain the same attitude I’ve always had, which is, I just want to do my thing, and if there’s any kind of problem or issues that come in the form of abuse, whether it be verbal or however, I just shut it down. I’ve always been very quick to shut it down, in my workspace. If it happens at my shows, I’ll shut it down. Thankfully it didn’t happen a hell of a lot, but it did happen, and when it happened, the majority of people … it was just a couple of dickheads, you know? And there’s always going to be dickheads, you know? Whatever they’re doing, it’s like, dude, shut the hell up. I maintain that attitude. I just shut it down. And then everyone has their own way of dealing with it, and I know a lot of my peers, female musician peers, are the same – we just shut it down. Pretty strong women, you know? But it’s definitely changed with the awareness of sexism and misogyny and even men who have to deal with toxic masculinity and stuff like that. So it’s come to the fore a lot more. I think the awareness and the education, and the younger generation coming through … they’re just so much more aware, and there’s a lot more discussion. So that’s great. I think that’s really great. But, you know, myself … I won’t waffle on, but gender’s always been very … I see myself as a musician or as a person, I've never really stuck closely to my gender. I always feel a little perplexed when I’m asked about being a woman in music or my gender or how it relates. I know I probably could talk about it – I probably should – but I can’t. My brain doesn’t compute on that level. I just write music from a human point of view. I feel quite androgynous, I guess, if we’re going to talk about gender. I think, with music, there’s a lot of very tough women in music. They just don’t take any shit. I’ve got the tatts and I look tough or whatever, but you can be very feminine and still be really tough, and that goes for men as well. They can be very soft, but they still have a toughness. You don’t have to be like this [gestures to herself]. Everyone expresses their gender in a different way, and everyone reacts to sexism in a different way, but it’s all working together to make life better for everyone, and not have to be tied down to anything negative associated with your gender.
I remember thinking when I was watching you perform … I have an eight-year-old daughter, and I’m hoping that she has role models like you growing up … Who were some of yours growing up?
Oh god, I had so many role models, and not just women, men in music. I had a lot of really great, nurturant males around me growing up in Geelong at the Bowen Club. There weren’t many girls, so I had a lot of friends that were men in music, but they weren’t, I guess, that sort of macho man. They were a bit more in touch with their feminine side. So I had a lot of nurturant males around that I totally vibed with … I was inspired by people like Kate Bush. She was a musician that I felt very aligned with, because she was sort of kooky, and a bit sort of outside the box, and her songs were really amazing and different, and I felt different, and a bit outside of the box as well, so she was really inspiring, because she was doing stuff that was just her stuff – very unique. So that was like, yeah, I felt that she was a kindred spirit, even though I didn’t know her – she wasn’t a mate – and people like Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde and all those classic, awesome, iconic female musicians. And then female musicians in our industry, like Janet from SPIDERBAIT, Kellie from SCREAMFEEDER, Sarah from SUPERJESUS … We were all sort of hanging out and playing festivals and everyone inspiring everyone. There’s a whole group of people who inspired me and didn’t do it alone. There’s been a hell of a lot, yeah.
Sarah McLeod … I’ve seen two Spring Loaded festivals in the last year. That woman is unstoppable. She literally, while playing, got up on the barricade and was walking down the barricade and stopped, while playing, to pose for selfies with people. [Laughs]
She’s a classic! She’s so good, yeah. She’s got so much energy. I love that girl! Yeah, she’s amazing. She’s just, like, go-go-go! [Laughs]
Inland is out now.
