The Rabbit Interview with Tia Gostelow

28/1/2019

Tia Gostelow had a massive 2018. At 19 years old she released debut album Thick Skin through her own label Lovely Records and celebrated its arrival with a series of parties in Brisbane, Sydney as well as Melbourne. The very same year she was picked by The Rubens to tour with them through Queensland. Gostelow also opened for Ball Park Music and San Cisco. In July she performed for triple j’s Like A Version covering Empire of the Sun’s ‘We Are The People’ before rounding it all out with a series of performances at Falls Festival. But where is she heading in 2019? We caught up with her to find out.

Rabbit Radio: How does it feel to look back on 2018?

Tia Gostelow: A bit surreal to be honest. I didn’t realise how big of a year it was until, well, the past week. I’ve been in Bali, so I’ve just been hanging out and I’ve kind of been like, “Holy shit. That was a massive year!” It was huge. I did a lot of things that I honestly didn’t think I’d be doing until I was maybe 25 so it was pretty cool.

RR: You toured around Australia with Falls Festival and started the new year with a performance in Byron Bay. How did you find that whole experience?

TG: It was the first time I’ve ever been on a touring festival and it was a really big learning curve … I had so much fun. Touring around on a festival of that caliber is insane! It was just the most fun I’ve had in so long and the people were so nice. I think it was an amazing way to bring in the new year for sure.

RR: Who do you tour with?

TG: The boys in my band are from the Gold Coast and they’ve been playing with me for around two years. They tour with me all the time and I’ve just gotten a tour manager as well so he comes along as well now which is really cool. It takes stress off me.

RR: You’ve got a tour coming up along the East of Australia to celebrate the release of your new album Thick Skin. You’re performing in a few different cities but you’re also playing some shows in more regional areas including Mackay, Queensland where you grew up. What’s the difference in vibe between shows in big cities versus ones in smaller regional towns?

TG: I guess it honestly just depends where you’re playing in the regional towns. With cities obviously, there is a lot more going on. People come out a lot more. There’s more of a music scene, but then again when you’re also playing in really small regional towns, they don’t get music like that a lot so they do come out but it’s a different vibe for sure. I think people in regional towns are probably a little bit more excited because they don’t often get to see this music a lot. Like Mackay, people usually skip over Mackay, they go to Rockhampton then go to Airlie Beach then Cairns so it will be really nice to go back. I haven’t played Mackay in probably 2 years, so it’ll be a really nice little homecoming kind of thing.

RR: You moved to Brisbane in 2018…

TG: Yeah! almost a year ago.

RR: How was that for you? Did it change a lot about how you were making music and who you were making music with?

TG: 100 percent. I loved living in Mackay, but I had to move to Brisbane just to keep doing what I’m doing. There’s nothing really there that I could have stuck around for. There’s not enough opportunities in regional areas, networking and all that kind of stuff. So I think it was a necessity for me to move to Brisbane to keep moving my career along.

RR: You started your record label in 2017 and in the past, you’ve mentioned you would love to support up and coming regional artists. Do you feel that will grow in 2019?

TG: I’m not too sure what it’s going to look like this year. I’ve already got a really hectic year planned up until the middle of it so my whole focus has been purely on that. But I would love to start finding artists in regional areas, help give young artists the knowledge that I’ve learned, help them branch out from a regional area into the big cities and help teach them how to do that more than anything because I honestly know how hard it is growing up in a small town and want to be doing this kind of stuff but not having the opportunities. The people around you help you to get there. It’s definitely on the horizon, but I’m not sure when.

RR: What’s your best advice you could give someone growing up in a regional town aspiring to pursue a career as a musician?

TG: Play as much as you can. That’s where I got all of my confidence more than anything. I have been playing in pubs since I was 12, every weekend. That’s where I learnt to be really resilient and just keep going, keep persevering. Do as much as you can more than anything.

RR: Throughout February and the start of March you’ll be performing across Australia then you’ll then be going over to the US for a series of shows. You’re then planning a mid-year tour of Europe and the UK! That’s amazing! How are you feeling about performing internationally?

TG: I’ve never played overseas before so I’m super excited. I’m just so excited to be able to perform overseas finally. It’s something that I didn’t expect to happen this year but I’m so excited that it is. I’m playing in New York first. I have a festival booked there called New Colossus and I think I’ve got a few other things that are booked in New York. Then I’ll be flying to Austin to play South by Southwest and I’ll be going to LA after to do some recording, writing, and all that kind of cool stuff. We have some plans to go to Europe in May-ish so that will be very exciting if that follows through - which I’m hoping it does! Playing in Europe has been a dream as well so that’d be really crazy if that happens as well.

RR: What do you want to happen in 2019?

TG: I guess I just want to be playing live more, grow my audience more than anything and write new music with new people. I’ve been really slack writing by myself lately, but I think I’m going to try and do that, see if I can come up with something really good and get back into the swing of writing. I’ve been having a bit of a break since my album has come out so I’m hoping to get back into that and just playing I guess.

RR: You wrote your debut solo single ‘State of Art’ in 2015 which caught the attention of Konstantin Kersting who you then recorded the single with at Airlock Studios. You then went on to record your debut album with him last year. Will you be working with him again in future?

TG: I definitely think Kon and I will work together again. I love that man. He is amazing at what he does and he’s such a good person to have around. I’ve been recording with him since I was 16 and we have such a good dynamic between us. We kind of know what each other is thinking and wanting. I think he’s a great producer and I’m really hoping that we get to work together again someday soon.

RR: Do you think there’s some new music on the horizon for 2019?

TG: For sure.

RR: To finish things up, what are four things for people to look forward to in your upcoming live shows?

TG: I am almost 100 percent sure that we are going to be playing a brand-new song. This is a song I’m really, really excited about and I think it’s probably going to be the song that I record over in LA. Working on some cool outfits, hopefully. A whole new set, just like a brand-new show which will be really cool. And I’m bringing along Mane, I’m so excited to be honest. I’m such a big fan of her music and I’m so excited that she’s coming on the whole tour with me. It’s going to be so cool. I’m really excited for it.

Words by Alicia Scott

0 Comments

The Rabbit Interview with Tia Gostelow

Leave a Reply.

Support