Autumn Sage ponders the big questions with heartfelt new single, Why?

Emerging indie folk singer-songwriter, Autumn Sage, has released her highly anticipated single, Why?, an evocative track that confronts the emotional weight of life’s biggest regrets. She will celebrate the release with a launch show at Four5Nine on Thursday, November 14 with special guests Midnight Francine and Jamie Hall, with tickets on sale now. ANTHONY JACKSON caught up with Autumn Sage to find out the story behind the new song and how it feels to be releasing it into the world.

How would you describe yourself as an individual, an artist, and the music and art that you create?

Hey, thank you for having me! You don’t start with the easy questions, do you? Okay, so as an individual, I would describe myself as an insecure hippie! I’m different and have always felt and been different from what people around me thought was ‘normal’, but am only just beginning to discover that perhaps those differences might maybe make me a little bit awesome. Wow, that got real deep, real quick!

As an artist, I think ’emotional’ is possibly the word that would best describe me as an artist. As a neurodivergent person who has struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life, my emotions have always been very close to the surface, and music has been my rudder to guide me through the very choppy waters of my emotions.

My music, as an extension of myself, is ‘different’, just like me! I find it difficult to place myself in a genre because I can’t really find anyone else out there that is making music like me, but it’s somewhere in the realm of indie/folk/alternative/rock!

Congrats on the creation of your single Why? How does it feel to have it completed and ready to share with the world?

It feels wonderful and terrifying! I’m so proud of this song and what it has become through collaboration with other musicians, and I’m so excited and eagerly anticipating releasing my song out into the world, but it’s pretty scary putting something that is essentially a piece of my soul out for public consumption and opinion. But I believe that it’s a good song, with a story that is worthy to be told, so I’m hoping that there are others that will connect with it and that it will help them to feel something or understand something about themselves, because that’s what music does for me.

Why? has some deep lyrics attached to loss and regret; can you tell us about the story behind the song?

So the idea of this song came from something I heard a psychologist say about regrets and how the question, “Why?” is an essentially unhelpful question, and how it is much more helpful to turn the question into a statement: “I don’t like it.” I don’t like the fact that I lost my job, or I don’t like the way I look, etc. “Why?” rarely has a definitive answer, so we can never move on, whereas I can say “I don’t like this fact” and then move on and either choose to make peace with it or do something about it.

So this song is me making peace with three of the biggest regrets of my life. Each verse is one of those regrets. The first verse is about how I didn’t get help for one of my children because I listened to the voices of those around me saying that they didn’t need help instead of listening to my own voice, and they have suffered for years as a result of this.

The second verse is about how when my husband and I met it was at the happiest time in my life, and he didn’t see how I am when I get very depressed until after we got married, and I have always felt guilty that he didn’t really know what he was getting into.

And the third verse is about my sister-in-law, who died from the exact same type of breast cancer that I had, and I lived. So, this song is me stopping my constant rumination on the question, “Why?” and making peace with the past and moving on. So when I ‘release’ this song, I feel like I’m really ‘releasing’ it! Like, I feel like I need to release doves or something to mark the occasion! But I guess putting it out there for the world to listen to will just have to do!

You are originally from Melbourne. How did you end up in sunny ole Perth?

Interesting question, because I am one of those weirdos that hates summer and loves the cold, so this definitely doesn’t seem like the right place for me! But this is where my husband lived, and we decided that it would be the better place for us to live together and raise our family, and after 19 years, Perth is definitely the place I call home.

How does the live music scene in Perth compare with Melbourne?

It’s a pretty different culture here in Perth. We have a thriving live music scene here, but it is quite insular compared to Melbourne. In Melbourne, live music is part of the general culture. Most people go to watch live music because it’s just something that people do. Whereas in Perth it is a much smaller scene, as a proportion of the population. There is quite a small proportion of people that would even think of going to see live music here in Perth, because it’s just not as ingrained in the culture here.

What is the significance of the live music scene here in Perth? What role do you think it plays in today’s society?

The live music scene in Perth has such an impact on the people that experience it. It’s very difficult to come away from a live show of someone putting all of their experience and feeling into a performance unmoved. It’s unfortunate that more people don’t consider this as an inexpensive, effective form of entertainment.

I believe that live music plays the same role in today’s society as it always has throughout history—to physically connect people to an expression of beauty that we are meant to experience. Listening to recorded music is a wonderful consequence of technological advancement, but being in the room with a person creating that music is something that can’t be replaced by technology.

You have made the transition from cover music to writing your own songs; did you find this a natural process? How did you start writing your own music?

I started writing songs when I was about 13, but when I got married, I pretty much stopped for a good 15 or so years while I was having and raising our six children. Coming back, I don’t think I was immediately ready, after so long out of music, to use my own voice initially.

So I started back singing other people’s songs. I love other people’s songs! And after spending a couple of years learning hundreds of other people’s songs, I started to find parts of myself in all of those songs, and it helped me to really understand what I like in a song. Emotionally, it took me a bit longer to be ready to say the things that my heart had been storing away for all of those years, but once I was ready, the floodgates opened! And because of all of that preparation I had done playing other people’s songs, when it came time to start writing my songs again, it came pretty easily.

How does the songwriting process begin for you? Do you start with a vision or theme? Do you write the lyrics or music first? Are there any rituals you go through to find inspiration?

For me, it starts when there is something that my heart needs to say. I can feel a song sort of bubbling inside of me, waiting to come out, and it just needs the right conditions. Unfortunately, because I am a mum of six kids, those conditions don’t come about very easily!

But when I finally manage to find the time, it usually starts by sitting down and mucking around on the piano or guitar and finding the chord progression that matches the emotion of what I’m trying to express, and then the words seem to come fairly easily, I guess because I already have a fair idea of what it is I want to express.

I don’t have any rituals—I wrote Why? sitting with my guitar on the grass at Hyde Park on a beautiful day. But then the last song I wrote, I was sitting and, not terribly effectively, supervising my kids while they were in the bath!

The production on Why? sounds fantastic; where did you record? Can you tell us about the recording process?

It does, doesn’t it?! Josh Dyson produced it at Villa Studios, and I am so immensely grateful to him for guiding me through the recording process for the first time. Well, not actually the first time—the last time I recorded was when I was a bass player in an alternative rock band in my teens, and that was back when it was reel-to-reel! I’m not old! You’re old! So recording this time was significantly different! I knew that I wanted cello on the track, so I reached out and found Alex the Cellist, and he added such depth to the song.

I asked my sister, Monica Wescombe, to play drums on the track, and that was such a wonderful experience, collaborating musically with my sister. Josh played the bass and keys. Josh was so helpful with his understanding of the structure of the song and how we could add layers of backing vocals and double up vocal tracks and stuff that I just had no idea about or experience in, and he was so generous with his knowledge and experience. This track would not have been anywhere near as awesome as it is without him.

Why? is being launched at Rosemount’s Four5Nine on Thursday, November 14. How have you been preparing for the launch?

Frantically!! (laughs). I’m expecting nerves, so I’ve been practicing a lot so that if my brain vacates, the plan is that muscle memory will kick in!

Will you be performing with your cello player and a rhythm section? Can we expect any special surprises?

Yep, Alex is going to be performing with me. His cello and my music are a match made in heaven! And I am going to be my own rhythm section—and backing vocalist(s)! I’ll be live looping percussion and vocals for some of the songs. Live looping is the best fun, being your own one-woman band, but it’s also terrifying because with each loop the margin for error increases! But if I get it right, it’s SO worth it!

Jamie Hall and Midnight Francine will be joining you on the night, who I am both big fans of! How did you go about choosing this line-up?

This was easy. They’re both awesome! I met Jamie through the cover music scene, and we played together about six months ago in the line-up at the Leederville Songwriters Club, and his songs are so good, and man, his voice is epic! And behind the beard, he’s actually a really cool guy.

And I connected with Midnight Francine on the socials quite a few months ago because I’d been following her for ages, really loved her songs and her style, and admired the way that she was doing the whole original music thing, so after a long time of deliberating, I got up the guts to send her a message and introduce myself, and I asked her if I could pick her brains about how to do this whole original music “thing.” For some reason she didn’t get scared off by this random weirdo’s message, and we met up for coffee, and she’s been so wonderful and generous with her knowledge and experience! So, yeah, basically, it was a no-brainer picking my supports!

What’s next for Autumn Sage?

I’ve caught the recording bug! Unfortunately, our bank account hasn’t gotten the memo! So I’m looking to apply for a grant, but I’ve got so many more songs that need to be recorded and stories that need to be told, so you’ll definitely be hearing more from me! I’m not looking to become famous or anything at all like that, but I think that my songs have some things to say that some people might need to hear, so I’m just going to put my music out there and see what happens!

Good luck with the launch!

Thank you!