By the time Selve arrived at Abbey Road, the album was already carrying more weight than most bands face in an entire career.
Loki Liddle, the Jabirr Jabirr songwriter and frontman of Selve, had already been confirmed as the first Aboriginal artist to record a full length album at Abbey Road by the time the writing for Breaking Into Heaven began.
What started as a recording opportunity quickly became part of the album’s creative DNA.
“It was a big journey getting up to that point,” Liddle says. “Soon after it had been confirmed we were going to do it at Abbey Road, it definitely influenced the work that was made, and what I was thinking about in the three months leading up to it.”
The project began with two weeks writing on Jabirr Jabirr Country before a six-week residency in France and finally Abbey Road itself.
Selve
- Fri 10 Jul – TBH Fridays, Dharawal Country, Woolyungah/Wollongong NSW
- Sun 12 Jul – King St Crawl, Gadigal Country, Warrane/Sydney NSW
- Fri 17 Jul – Inner Realm @ Coolangatta Hotel, Yugambeh/Kombumerri Country, Gold Coast QLD
- Fri 14 Aug – Lulies Tavern, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, Naarm/Melbourne VIC
- Sat 22 Aug – Hotel Brunswick, Bundjalung Country, Brunswick Heads NSW
- Sat 12 Sep – Crafted Beer Festival, Yugambeh/Kombumerri Country, Gold Coast QLD
- Sat 28 Nov – Rolling Sets, Bundjalung Country, Tweed Heads, NSW
- Sat 28 Nov – Rolling Sets, Darkinjung Country, Central Coast, NSW
- Sat 9 Jan – Ocean Sounds Festival, Bunurong/Boonwurrung Country, Millowl/Phillip Island VIC
- Tickets here
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
View this post on Instagram
“I wanted to be grounded in where I was coming from, knowing I was creating something that had integrity, and representing my community in a way I knew they could be proud of.
“To make a record in that space that used Jabirr Jabirr language, and told a story, was the way I wanted to approach it.”
The album title was inspired by a Nina Simone quote: “The people who built their heaven on your land are telling you yours is in the sky.”
“Abbey Road is kind of like this castle in the clouds; this unimaginable heaven, this place where magic has happened, but it’s been reserved for the select few,” Liddle says.
“So to go into that space and kick down that door, and use it to tell a First Nations story, is what made it feel radical and subversive.”
The songwriting process was equally ambitious. After writing on Country with fellow First Nations band member Rhys and elder, jazz guitarist and mentor Wayne Torres, the band relocated to a studio an hour south of Paris.
“We basically had six weeks there just to work on an album. Back home you can’t just not work for six weeks to focus on an album, but thanks to the grant, all the magic happened at the end of it.”
The routine was simple: write constantly and challenge every instinct.
“My uncle Wayne had a provocation:
‘When you’re writing music, ask yourself what you’re risking, because if you’re not risking anything, you’re not putting any skin in the game.'”
“If I’d made a punk song the day before, I’d think, okay, if I was in front of a post-punk crowd, what would scare the shit out of me? And it’s like, to make a really sensitive love song. We’d contradict ourselves to push ourselves out of our comfort zone.”
The result was 25 songs, eventually narrowed to the 13 that became Breaking Into Heaven before being re-recorded at Abbey Road.
Now Selve are expanding that world with Breaking Outta Heaven, a companion EP drawn from the same writing sessions.
“Breaking Outta Heaven is like the expansion pack to Breaking Into Heaven,” Liddle says. “They were all written at the same time, but the Breaking Outta Heaven songs felt like they were telling a different story.”
While the album charged forward with relentless energy, the EP offers more space to breathe.
“Breaking Into Heaven is a brick through the window, full throttle, out the gate for the first six songs before the gooey centre,” he says.
“Breaking Outta Heaven has a bit more breath in it, some big rock songs, like ‘Desire’, but otherwise a slower BPM, more space.”
That openness extends to Selve’s creative process. Despite Liddle being the primary songwriter, the six piece treats every idea as communal property.
“Every member of Selve contributes an incredible amount to the band and the sound,” he says. “When you allow other people the freedom to contribute what they want, they treat it with a lot of intention and value, and you get a better outcome than what you imagined.”
For a band whose records are packed with narrative detail and layered references, the live show remains the priority.
“Our shows are really bombastic and full on and loud and engaging,” Liddle says. “That’s the main element of Selve, getting people in a room.”
And few places have embraced that mission quite like Melbourne.
“I really do love playing in Melbourne, might be my favourite city to play in,” he says.
“People don’t need to know who you are, they’re just going out with that curiosity. There’s always new people who haven’t seen us before, more shows happening of a night, so there’s that delicious hum on an evening of music going on. It’s really fun. We love Melbourne.”
Breaking Outta Heaven is out now via Community Music. Selve tour Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales from June to September.
For more information, head here.
