Favourite track on your new album? It’s a bit like comparing your favourite children, but let’s say “Room For Everybody (Never Let Go Of The Joy)” – just don’t tell the other songs! I think it encapsulates the essence and soul of the album – the need for human connection, the desire to love and be loved, wanting to belong, to help one another. It’s a love letter to kindness and letting people in.

Favourite place to hang out in Germany? My parents’ garden in Dansweiler near Cologne. I never realised this as a child and just took it for granted but it’s kind of paradise – a swimming pond with croaking frogs, trees occupied by Eurasian jays feeding their babies, and hedgehogs hiding in the bushes. Among a meadow of wild flowers and self-seeding raspberries, there’s me in a hammock reading a book and listening to the gentle laughter of neighbouring children having the summer of their lives.

Favourite thing about the music scene in Melbourne/Naarm? It’s a welcoming, inclusive and loyal community. Everyone is friends with one another and we help each other out.

Favourite gig you’ve played? Supporting Courtney Barnett in 2022 in my hometown, Cologne. My 90-year-old grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, sister and high-school friends all attended (felt like 25 per cent of the audience was related to me) and I loved sharing this with them. It felt like a full circle moment after moving from Germany across the world to “do music” – I brought the music back home to my people. 

Favourite song to dance to? If I could confess to my sometimes frowned-upon music taste, it would be the song version of YouTube sensation eHarmony’s video, “Can’t Hug Every Cat”. It brings me so much joy and I’m desperately waiting to be on a dance floor one day when a DJ puts it on in seriousness (at the moment it only gets played at my bedroom disco). In reality I get quite excited by Icona Pop’s “I Love It”. 

Favourite place to write music? I can’t really pin it down to one particular place because I don’t think I’ve ever written more than one song in any one place – I’m constantly on the move, wherever life has taken me in any given moment. So maybe it’s THE WORLD, or maybe a train or plane? Modes of transport are kind of inspiring and you get time to think, detached from time and space, in motion from one place to another.

Favourite thing to do with friends? It used to be sitting in a room and hanging out, but now it’s sitting in a room and having deep, meaningful conversations because they are sort of addictive and offer glimpses into other people’s experiences of the world? I wonder if being vulnerable with others is in fact a drug because once you start sharing in relationships, it’s hard to go back to a life without.

Favourite way to find creative inspiration? I love learning from other people. Tapping into someone else’s brain and the ways they hone their craft is really inspiring. I regularly try and do songwriting workshops (School of Song has really good ones by Adrianne Lenker and Brian Eno), read books on songwriting, watch YouTube tutorials on mixing and production techniques, or watch beautiful gut-wrenching movies. Consume art to create. 

This chat comes straight from frankie issue 124. To nab a copy, swing past the frankie shop or visit one of our lovely stockists. For future issues, subscribe here.