“Sometimes my own body, doesn’t feel like my body/ But definitely don’t kiss me…”
Lead single Don’t Kiss Me, a song about consent “and the experience of being predated on by older men as a girl/young woman”, sets the harrowing tone for Maple Glider’s unflinching new record.
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The second single to be lifted from I Get Into Trouble, Dinah references a modern ‘child-friendly’ Bible Story that Tori Zietsch, who releases music as Maple Glider, was told aged just eight. Within this loose retelling of a cautionary tale about a woman who is sexually assaulted and victim blamed, Zietsch publically processes her own trauma: “She said no, but he did not listen… The same thing happened to me when I was only 17/ Do you think I got what I deserved?” Here Zietsch uses art as an empowerment tool while her perky vocal performance and hummable melodies juxtapose distressing themes.
But optimism ultimately prevails. After finding out she was going to be an aunty for the first time, Zietsch penned companion pieces You At The Top Of The Driveway (which features vocal trills like melodic birdsong) and You’re Gonna Be A Daddy, her niece acting as “songwriting muse” while still in the womb. “We’ll go for walks/ Collect tadpoles in the rain/ Just like we did when we were the same age/ And mum was selling Avon…” – lyrics burst with nostalgic detail. At the heart of it all, Zietsch is a generous storyteller who searches for light within the darkness.
