Where are you based?
Perth, Western Australia.
Where do you work? What do you do?
We are Feels – two dynamic women; one four octave, electronic marimba / xylophone, 11 different drum pads, up-to-six-sticks-hitting triggers-at-any-one-time duo. We are boundary-pushing, award-winning artists, producers, label founders and gender equality ground breakers.
We also run Women of Music Production Perth (WOMPP) and our accompanying, yearly Writers Camp. WOMPP is a female-run label, booking agency and Ableton user group community that provides opportunity for female, transgender and non-binary music makers to share, discuss and showcase their music production within the broader Australian community. Alongside the record label and booking agency, WOMPP curates monthly community meetings and showcases.
We’ve also established the yearly WOMPP Writers Camp – a synergetic, songwriting experience for artists to flex their creativity with other like-minded individuals and build working relationships with professional songwriters, producers and industry personnel. The camp is open to all women, non-binary and transgender music makers (aged 18+) with experience in songwriting, music production and/or composition. Held across three days on the 12th – 14th July 2023 (from 9am-5pm) at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), the WOMPP Writers Camp will provide the opportunity for 9 artists across Australia to participate, working in collaborative groups to write and produce new music.
This year, we are thrilled to announce that our artist mentors include Stella Donnelly, Jaguar Jonze and Sparrows. We are also full time musicians, so when we aren’t writing/producing music or facilitating WOMPP events, we work in tertiary and school music education.
What are you listening to?
At the moment, we are both loving Skrillex’s new album Quest for Fire and Peach PRC’s debut EP Manic Dream Pixie. Both are incredible feats of electronic production and skill. We love listening to electronic music as fans but also to sort-of analyze the creative choices that artists make. It’s such an interesting way to listen, and we feel so lucky to be able to ingest and understand music in that way.
How do you discover new music?
Elise: Rosie and I love to share music between ourselves and we always have a dedicated Feels Favourites playlist going on Spotify which we are constantly adding to. I get lots of great tips from my uni students (who are studying electronic music). They all have such diverse listening tastes, so I am often saving and listening to a huge range of electronic music that span eras and different genres.
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?
We like to listen to albums from start to finish but also love a single when our favourite artists release them too! We mainly listen to music on Spotify, SoundCloud and Bandcamp.
“Our friends often send us works in progress or unmixed demos. We also host track sharing at our WOMPP events, so are very lucky to hear lots of incredible music by women and non-binary producers before it drops!”
Where do you do most of your music listening?
We both do a fair amount of driving for our work, so often we listen to music in the car. If we are doing critical / active listening though, we listen to music in the studio with proper studio monitors or headphones!
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?
Our friends often send us works in progress or unmixed demos. We also host track sharing at our WOMPP events, so are very lucky to hear lots of incredible music by women and non-binary producers before it drops!
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
All music streaming services are designed for the consumer and not the artist, so honestly we aren’t thrilled about any of them. From a consumer perspective, we always find that the streaming services we use are great to listen to music we already know and love, but not so great for expanding your listening taste to find new great independent music. It is often geared towards people already making it. We do like to purchase music on bandcamp and we love to hear unreleased music via private share on SoundCloud.
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
Like this: Save, like, favourite, add to playlist, purchase.
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
We often share new music with our WOMPP community via socials and also to our students face to face.
Anything you want to “promote”?
Our upcoming WOMPP Writers Camp. We’re so proud to be creating this opportunity and experience for nine artists across Australia – the first time we have opened this up country-wide. 2 artists will be selected from a pool of applicants residing in NSW, VIC, ACT, NT, QLD and TAS and their travel, accomodation and camp will be fully funded. We are also opening up the remaining 7 spots to applicants across WA – their camp will also be fully funded. The camp will be held across 3 days, 12th – 14th July 2023 from 9am to 5pm, at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). This year, we are thrilled to announce that our artist mentors include Stella Donnelly, Jaguar Jonze and Sparrows.
On a Feels front, we have recently released Crestfallen ft. jnr and we’d love everyone to check it out. Crestfallen is lead by a stacked vocal and driving bassline that is equal parts futuristic, AI ballad and thumping club-inspired attention grab.
