tunesday – babyccino’s playlist

Melbourne/Naarm quartet Babyccino hit earholes with an asteroid of good stuff last month when their debut album Green Light Turned Red made its way to our earthly soundwaves. Led by one-of-a-kind artist Alannah Sawyer, Babyccino’s Harry Green, Jezabel Furlong and Cecilia Carrasco got together to tell us about the songs they were listening to as they made their album. Add these tunes – and all eight from Green Light Turned Red – to your own playlists, pronto.

ALANNAH
RID OF ME BY PJ HARVEY PJ Harvey is one of my biggest idols – I think that she is so clever and cool. I will eat up anything she releases… I love this song because she switches between softer sounds and louder edgier moments as the song progresses. 

SO HAPPY BY LAURA JEAN I listened to soooo much Laura Jean around the time I wrote the songs for Green Light Turned Red. I just think she’s such a good storyteller and her lyrics cut deep. I feel like she really helped me feel my way through what I was going through at the time. I also love the lingering saxophone that weaves in and out through the song – it's something that I think that Babyccino has mimicked.

I WANNA LOVE YOU BY JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD This song is from Jessica’s album Make My Head Sing – one of my favourite albums. The instrumentation is very minimal, I think just drums, bass guitar and vocals. It's simple but it's punchy and clever. Again, I feel very inspired by her lyrics – I feel like I’m friends with her because she’s so intimate. 

JEZ
MAURA BY WEDNESDAY I remember listening to a lot of Wednesday’s first album I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone during the time we recorded our album. I always loved the way the vocals and story-driven lyrics sat in the mix in this track, kinda fighting against the dirty guitars and drum – which feels similar to the mix and concept of our album. In a full-circle moment, the band walked on stage to one of our songs when she played in Melbourne…

JUNO BY LIFE WITHOUT BUILDINGS This song is from one of my all-time favourite albums, and for me was definitely part of the soundtrack of the time in which we recorded our album. I love how the drums continuously push the song forward, with the cascading, tumbling fills bouncing around against Tompkins’ vocals, creating a kind of chaotic playfulness that I really feel is captured in aspects of our album too. I love that they only put out one album, as if they were like, “Here, have this absolute masterclass in creating post-punk-rock-indie-whatever music, but we’re not gonna indulge ourselves anymore.” We could all take a leaf out of their book sometimes.

CC
IN APRIL BY ANXIOUS This song is so catchy and I just fell in love with this whole album as soon as I listened to it. The vocal melody combined with rougher backings is chef's kiss. I love the pacing in the songs, the vocal mixing, the guitar riffs, and the raw emotion on all of the tracks. Little Green House will always be an all-time favourite.

HAND OF GOD BY NICK CAVE, WARREN ELLIS I love when the beat kicks in, it feels like a heartbeat and it gets me energised, and the strings gives me a kind of majestic feeling haha. It’s a solemn feeling, but also exciting. Whenever I listen to this song, I remember seeing this at The Palais and how the crowd were in such a trance – it was like a ritual was being performed and we were part of a cult. I’ll never forget it.

DEATH OF AN EXECUTIONER BY PIERCE THE VEIL This song is from PTV’s The Jaws of Life album, which came out the same year we started recording our album. I must’ve listened to this a thousand times. I just love Vic’s voice, the low bass and composition of Pierce The Veil’s work. This song is the perfect album intro because it sets the energy and mood perfectly. It hypes me up to go out and see friends, go to gigs and have fun. Emo was absolutely not just a phase.

HARRY
COWBOY BOOTS BY CAROLINE NO The guitar work by Mick Turner on this album really informed how I approached arranging guitar parts for Alannah’s songs. It’s also nice to hear a band very clearly playing to one another, which is a big element of our sound too. 

THE GLORY OF MAN BY MINUTEMEN D. Boon’s guitar playing was front of mind for me while recording this album. Minutemen approach punk music with a precision that is somewhat atypical of the genre – they are always making interesting rhythmic and melodic decisions. 

This ripper chinwag comes straight from the pages of issue 134. To get your mitts on a copy, swing past the frankie shop, subscribe or visit one of our lovely stockists.