Sally Seltmann
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Sally Seltmann

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Sally Seltmann has spent the last few years forging an endearing path on the Australian singer/songwriter landscape, firstly under her New Buffalo moniker, and now under her own name, with the joyously catchy album Heart That’s Pounding.

Sally Seltmann has spent the last few years forging an endearing path on the Australian singer/songwriter landscape, firstly under her New Buffalo moniker, and now under her own name, with the joyously catchy album Heart That’s Pounding . Both the name change and the album itself suggest a more confident, self-assured artist, but over the phone, the talented songstress is as reserved and gentle as ever.

About to embark on tour for Heart That’s Pounding with a full band, Seltmann admits it felt like the right time in her career to change a few things up, not least of which would be the lighter-than air delivery and sparse arrangements of past New Buffalo records.

Not that that breezy, breathy air isn’t still there, mind you, but it’s evoked with more assurance, which helps suggest a lucid timidity, as a more obviously intentional sentiment, rather than a byproduct of the process. Seltmann gives part of the credit for such strong-sounding tracks to Australian film composer Frank Tetaz (maybe you know his work from the Wolf Creek soundtrack).

“We wanted to make a really full-sounding album, so yeah, it was quite intentional,” Seltmann starts, divulging that Tetaz helped out on arrangements for “much of the album”. The results are notably present in tracks like Book Song, which wafts along on waves of strings; and in the bouncing jaunt of Set Me Free, its horns, flutes and xylophones offering an expanse to a song with a sort of sense of isolation at its core. The juxtaposition works, though, and if anything, Seltmann’s little ditties are magnified in their fragility.

“I usually just write songs, and when I’ve got a collection of songs, that’s when I start to think about how to treat those songs,” she continues. “It wasn’t really until I sat down with Frank and we talked about what sorts of instrumentation, what sorts of sounds and what sort of production references we wanted to portray… that kind of shaped the real uplifting pop style that the album is.”

While you wouldn’t call Seltmann’s transition to performing under her own name a groundbreaking leap, it is does mark a milestone in her career; another signal that she is intent on forging her own path as an artist and performer, and taking her time to mark that path properly. There really is a lot of emphasis on the idea of change on Heart That’s Pounding; an emphasis she claims she had a more retrospective realisation of. “It’s funny when you put together a collection of songs for an album,” she ponders, “and it’s not really until towards the end that you realise what have been the kind of themes in your life over a period of time.

“I guess I was feeling like… yeah, changing!” she quips cheekily. “I guess I don’t feel as scared about going by my real name… It was basically just a suggestion from my label in North America, Arts & Crafts. It was something that I’d kind of been thinking about anyway. I was definitely a lot shyer when I was younger, and I called myself New Buffalo in a way to kind of hide behind a stage name.

“When they [Arts & Crafts] suggested that I go under my real name, I kind of felt like, with this album it definitely felt like the right time, and, I like to change, so yeah, I just changed.” She laughs at her own matter-of-factness in explaining all this. Like anybody can come to such conclusions so succinctly.

This feeling of change extends itself to her desire to present these songs on tour in an extended band format. While Seltmann’s performances don’t particularly suffer from being played solo, the singer seems to feel she may have exhausted that avenue. Or, at least, now feels like the right time for some instrumental expansion.

“I went through a long phase of playing a lot of solo shows, and that was good at the time, but I’m really enjoying playing with a big band now, and having a lot of parts, and sharing the experience with the others, it’s been really good.

“I think it was just a reaction from my last New Buffalo album; I did a lot of shows in America performing solo for that album, and then some in Australia where I played with a couple of other people. But I felt that was a really solitary kind of album, and I wanted to make an album as a reaction to that album… having songs that were more singalong [which] we play as a whole band. I didn’t really want to play solo.

“I tend to work like that,” she admits, “where I’ll make an album, and then make an album that’s kind of a reaction to the last album I made.”

This attitude of Seltmann’s, of seeing her past work as building blocks for her future work, means her New Buffalo catalogue is not out of bounds on tour, and the change in titles should not be considered a career schism. In the exploration of shifting personas, though, the song On The Borderline, with its refrain of “I’m gonna change, but there must be an easier way to start the day,” brings about an interesting take on the whole deal. “I’m really drawn to women like Princess Diana,” Seltmann explains, “who had this beautiful persona, but were actually very complicated an

d troubled.

“She apparently had borderline personality disorder, and so I wrote On The Borderline wanting it to kind of, just sound like an everyday break-up song, but it’s more about fear of rejection, and the sort of things that people with borderline personality have to deal with.”

Another hero of hers is Petula Clark: “That Downtown song I really love… when you’re feeling really down, you go into the city, and it makes you feel amazing. I think I’m just naturally drawn to liking songs like that myself, so I have written a lot of songs with that sort of message.”

Sporting a talented band for her upcoming outings, Mrs Seltmann is bringing along hubby Darren (ex-Avalanches) on drums, as well as a gifted performer in her own right, Jessica Venables, a pianist, cellist and singer who will also be performing as her opening act, Jessica Says.

“She’s got a really special kind of thing going on. She’s going to be playing in my band, but also doing the first-on support, so I’d be encouraging people to come along and see her.”

SALLY SELTMANN will also be playing tons of shows with the absolutely angelic Oh Mercy, one of which will be at The Hi-Fi this Friday November 12. Tickets from the venue, the website (thehifi.com.au), or Polyester Records. She also plays the Meredith Music Festival (alongside Dirty Three, The Fall, Neil Finn, Little Red, Girls, Clipse, Sharon Jones and heaps more) from December 10-12 and The Falls Festival in Lorne (along with Public Enemy, Joan Jett, Interpol, Klaxons and more) from December 29-January 1. Heart That’s Pounding is out now.