Now, she’s back home on a pop-up garden tour through Victoria.
Smyrk said she wanted to step outside the box to promote her new music, rather than play at the same venues, in the same places and at night time like usual, and that’s how the idea to perform afternoon gigs in small-town gardens came about.
“I wanted a chance to really connect with people; to go to places I wouldn’t normally get to play,” she told The News.
“The song is really about the sort of things that get you through hard times, and, for me, that’s community, music, and nature, so I was like, how can I bring together all of these things?”
Smyrk wrote Garden-Variety Grief after her dad suddenly died.
She said the song was both a personal story and a universal reflection on loss and healing.
“Writing songs is how I process the world, so it really makes sense to me to be writing songs and just trying to figure out how I feel about things,” she said.
Taking inspiration from bands including Garbage and Blondie to write the tracks on the album slated for release early next year, Smyrk said all of them were quite personal.
“That was sometimes a difficult experience in the recording studio,” she said.
“It was like a very emotional time ... but super cathartic as well.
“And especially this song, I think, because there’s a big moment towards the end ... where it gets a little bit hectic, and there’s a bit of shouting, and that can feel really, really good to do.”
A mix of energetic indie rock and folk music that is full of hooks, Smyrk describes her songs as “anthemic bangers of songs” with lyrics and stories that are “quite vulnerable and personal”.
You can hear a selection of them this Sunday, October 26, in Euroa’s Yiiro Community Garden in Brock St, behind the town’s swimming pool, from 2pm.
Pack a picnic and chair.
Listen to Garden-Variety Grief here.
