tunesday – seven questions with mega fäuna

Ahead of the release of their debut album softmore, we caught up for a chat with Tess Wilkin and Freyja Fox – two of the five clever folk at the helm of the Sydney indie scene’s loveliest band Mega Fäuna. From building a band of ripper women to discussing the type of megafauna they’d most want to be, spy our chat with the lasses below.

How did the band initially come together? Tess Wilkin: Mega Fäuna began with a desire to build something new, from the edges of the local music scene. Freyja and I set out to connect with women who didn’t already play in bands – or even play instruments at all – and who weren’t already orbiting the same familiar friendship circles that so often shape independent music scenes. Skill level was irrelevant – curiosity and commitment were everything.

Word spread organically through friends, and then through chance. What followed was less a conventional band formation than a slow, deliberate act of world‑building – learning together, becoming friends first, musicians in parallel.

Describe your upcoming album softmore in one sentence. Freyja Fox: A dreamy meditation on the double-edged sword of womanhood, softmore explores the softness and second-ness of femininity as a defiant reimagining of the female experience.

The new track – “heartbeat” – draws on the inner workings of the body while life continues to stream on outside of it. How did the song come together? Freyja: I wanted to write to a beat that came less automatically to me but still felt organic, so I looked inward. I was playing around with trying to make it feel like a heartbeat – something about it felt like it should sound sharp, fleshy and fast, like blood racing through a body. I started contemplating what my own heart might be doing at the time.

And then “heartbeat” emerged. It’s about the fact that time keeps ticking, life keeps cruising and – whether or not we want it to – our bodies just keep doing their secret, magic jobs inside of us without us even thinking about it or trying to control it. It’s a little bit marvelling at the body and a bit about the whirlwind that life can sometimes feel like – day-in, day-out racing yourself to get everything done and teetering between feeling like things are staying on track and almost losing a grip. But it always just comes back to that heartbeat that keeps on keeping rhythm despite it all and quietly wondering at what else might be going on beneath all the skin and muscle and blood. 

What does the music-making process look like when you’re all in the room together? Tess: There were a couple of songs already in the back pocket for this album (“windows down” and “sleep deceit”), but otherwise softmore was mainly written across two weekend trips away together. Our song writing process is really collaborative, building the songs by jamming together. Sometimes the idea starts with rhythm guitar and lyrics (“heartbeat” and “make believe”, for example), others starting with drums and bass (“softmore” and “unheld”). Freyja is our lyrical genius, but we’ve also got a song written by Ellen Fitzgibbon (“lifelike”) and by Lily Keenan (“new skin”) on this album. 

What is something that you wanted to explore in softmore that you didn’t in your debut EP Fibonacci Sequins? Tess: Fibonacci Sequins was an ode to the natural world, and I love this EP because you can really hear us figuring out who we are and how to make music together – it has really captured us in that moment in time. 

The creation of softmore was very different. We received a grant from Sound NSW which really opened up new possibilities – working with producer Guy Fenech, and being able to record across a week rather than squashing it in in a few days. For softmore, we really wanted to explore the concept of womanhood in its contradictions – strength without simplification, vulnerability without apology – and to understand what it means to move through the world slightly offset, always aware of being second, watched or measured. We wanted to trace a language for softness that holds weight, and for ambition that doesn’t harden itself. 

Which local musicians have had the biggest impact on Mega Fäuna’s sound? Freyja: Some of the bands we draw inspiration from are Annie Hamilton, Clea, The Preatures, Julia Jacklin, Snowy Band, Stella Donnelly, Jade Imagine and Bridge Dog, to name a few. Not only are they amazing musicians making interesting music that pushes the boundaries, but they are all female-led outfits. Having female-led musicians to draw inspiration from in our communities is really important because it builds our own confidence in our craft and community.

There's a huge back-catalogue of iconic Aussie outfits that have inspired our songwriting over the years, too. Divinyls, Deadstar, Paul Kelly, INXS, The Church, The Go-Betweens, to name only a few.

If you could be any megafauna, which would it be and why? Tess: The giant sloth – it was immense, powerful and moved at its own pace in a world built for something louder.

Freyja: I really like the giant wombat – if I couldn’t be one, I would be so stoked to tame one and ride her into the sunset!! 

Feast your ears on softmore this-a-way and stay up to date with all things Mega Fäuna here. For more chats with ripper musos, check out our chinwag with Miss Kaninna and Blush, or sign up to our newsletter to stay in the loop.