It’s not often you have the chance to change the story you’ve found yourself in. And it’s not easy to snatch up the pen and begin writing a new one for yourself. But Eve Karydas isn’t scared of what’s hard.
Chatting to the singer-songwriter from her home city of Brisbane/Meanjin, Hannah Karydas (AKA Eves Karydas) is just coming off a bout of bronchitis. As if that’s not already challenging enough, in the lead-up to her upcoming album release, the artist has been juggling a schedule of press commitments, interviews and filmed performances, as well as moving house. “So,” she laughs, “things have been a bit crazy.”
Although ‘crazy’ is somewhat of an understatement, the whole situation doesn’t seem to falter Hannah. And why should it? She’s already made one of the hardest moves in her career thus far. On her sophomore album Burnt Tapes, to be released July 5, the artist is doing it all on her own.
Eves Karydas
- Burnt Tapes to be released July 5
- Album launch at the Howler, July 5
- Tickets here
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“It’s this idea of shedding the past and burning all that stuff that doesn’t serve you and just moving forward,” Hannah says of the album, “which is very much my journey over the last few years.”
She’s been writing music since she was 11 years old, having released her previous work under major labels and spent some time internationally recording music. If all of that meant that the Eves Karydas legacy was assuredly heading along one particular storyline, Hannah’s about to start writing a new one: her own.
It’s a story of reclamation, of finding her voice again and of figuring out who she is, as a person and as an artist. “I think I came to the realisation of the kind of artist that I want to be,” she says.
“I just needed to take a chance on myself and allow myself to be in an environment where I pulled all the shots.” Hannah hasn’t just written, created and sung all of Burnt Tapes – that would be too easy. She’s also made all the artwork and videos herself, taking back her power and autonomy as a fully independent and self-managed artist.
“I started writing the album in secret,” she says, laughing. “I didn’t want anyone else involved.” After taking a break from releasing music and turning her back on the major labels that had been steering her career, image and sound, Hannah had to reconsider it all. Who was she? Who was Eves? She started writing music again to try to figure it out.
“This act of creating in secret without telling anyone just allowed me to be really free and explore sounds that I’d never really allowed myself to explore before,” she says. “I was just trying to have fun more than anything. People that I know [who] listen to it [are] like, ‘Ah, this sounds like Hannah, this sounds like you, it’s like you’re right in my ear.’”
And they’re right, because Hannah, with all her soaring vocals and controlled intimacies of lyrical secrets, is more stripped down than we’ve ever heard before. It’s apt that as the musician is finding her voice and her empowerment in her career, we’re also hearing her voice in her songs more clearly than ever. “Vocally, I wanted it to sound super organic,” she says. “I haven’t really allowed myself to be that stripped back, ever, but that was kind of the point of the record.”
Being an independent artist now means she gets to control significant angles of her release, like the album cover artwork, something that for so long was someone else’s vision of Eves Karydas. “It’s been great being able to call all the shots,” she says. “I felt like I was in an environment where it was drilled into me that I had [to], as with a lot of female artists, use my appearance as a way to gain interest.”
“I’m moving into this space now independently and being like, ‘You know, I’m not putting my face on my album cover.’ I want [listeners] to like my vision and my music and what I have to say as an artist and as a songwriter. I’m able to express myself in this kind of more 360 way and I’m honestly really sad that I let that slip for so long,” Hannah says.
“I was pretty much ready to quit and pack up shop and never make music again, because it was so depressing,” she says about those first few chapters of her career. “But I felt I owed it to myself to push through.”
Since reclaiming her own identity, Hannah is completely bulldozing her way back into the industry. The first few singles from the upcoming album, Sunday Drive, Girlboss and Take 2, have already achieved a whirlwind of fever around them. If that’s anything to go by, Burnt Tapes, to be released July 5 with a Melbourne/Naarm show at Howler in Brunswick that night, is poised to be nothing short of a storm.
You can find tickets to Eves Karydas’ show at Howler here.
