Alice Skye: Everything I’ve Learned About Life Through Music
#5. You don't need to apologise for simply existing.
Last Friday, Wergaia/Wemba Wemba woman Alice Skye released her second album, I Feel Better But I Don’t Feel Good.
The highly anticipated album, released through Briggs’ label Bad Apples Music, is explorative and raw — over 10 tracks, Skye traces the outlines and insides of her anxieties, fuelled by the pandemic and that long, bleak Melbourne lockdown. But that’s not to say it’s an intimidating listen — I Feel Better But I Don’t Feel Good feels like a long-awaited hug, all pillowy guitars and Skye’s floating vocals.
It’s a gentle, unfurling record — with plenty of thoughts and ideas bubbling under the surface. To help us understand it all a little better, and to tease out what she’s learned throughout the process, we asked Skye to offer us her lessons for life (no big deal) that she’s gleaned from her music. Dive in, it might help ease your own worries.
#1. Have Fun With It (Whatever That Means For You)
This is something I was told a lot, but never really let sink in. I think because my songs are so tied up in my heavier emotions it felt hard to “have fun with” on stage, because I was mostly running off big anxious energy or I’d disassociate while I was onstage and not be able to recall very much.
It didn’t sink in until very recently when we toured with Amyl & The Sniffers and Harmony Byrne for Small Town Big Sound. Both frontwomen wield their own power and I loved watching their sets. We stopped in at high schools and I loved listening to Amy (from Amyl) talk about punk music and how it’s a means of saying what you want and having fun.
Seeing how the kids just launched into making up songs on the fly reminded me that I grew up loving music for the same reason. Maybe that combined with the fact that we hadn’t toured in so long, I wanna have more fun on stage with my bandmates and with the people watching.
#2. You Can’t Please Everyone
I have such an irritating need to please everyone. I’m still working on it, but working in music has pushed me to wrap my head around this in my regular life. Learning things like, you can’t say ‘yes’ to everything, sometimes you might let people down etc etc. I would end up doing things I didn’t necessarily want to or getting burnt out and end up not feeling very present in the things I was doing. It doesn’t really benefit me or the people I thought I was pleasing.
It’s hard to find those boundaries when we aren’t really encouraged to, or we look at our self-worth as being tied with productivity, or you’ve just started in music and you want/financially need to take on everything that comes your way. I try to work on being selective with my energy so I can show up fuller to things.
#3. You Aren’t Supposed To Know Everything
Make mistakes, ask questions, talk to friends in the industry, you’re a person, get things wrong and learn from the fuck ups. Especially for mob (in the industry/otherwise) there can be pressure to have all the answers.
When I first started doing interviews, a lot of the time it was NAIDOC week or Reconciliation week, and I would get asked questions like “what are steps we can take to achieve reconciliation”. I thought I was just there to talk about my music!
#4. People Might Pay More Attention To You Than You Think
I think this could be seen as both good and bad. I’m saying it because recently a Twitter post I made was quoted in a newspaper article for my album launch and I was mortified. I thought, “How dare someone take private information that I posted publicly on the internet and put it in an article.” Lesson learned.
The flip side and the good side is that there are people that connect with what you have to say. Find themselves in your music or your story. Which is the reason I loved music so much in the first place and what makes it so special to do.
#5. You Don’t Need To Apologise For Simply Existing
Sounds a little obvious and you should definitely apologise if you have done something wrong/hurtful. But I have a habit of saying ‘sorry’ too much or when it just isn’t necessary anyway. I once apologised to someone that was breaking into my car? And I have had someone shout “you don’t have to be sorry!” at me while on stage, to which I replied “sorry”. I’m now strictly saving apologies for when they mean something.
#6. Band Relationships Teach You A Lot About Relationships In General
There is nothing quite like the relationship you have with your band members. Spending days to weeks together. Sharing your nerves, the highs, lows, minimal sleep, stresses, excitement, endless Ubers and on and on.
Communicating how you feel isn’t always easy but sharing all this with your band (on or off tour) kind of forces you to do that. Just to keep each other in the loop and so you can look after yourself and each other. My bandmates are also twin brothers, I feel like there are some buttons reserved for siblings to press, but there is such a huge amount of love and joy and hilarity in doing all of this together. I love my weird, dysfunctional, emotional family that is my band.
Alice Skye’s new album I Feel Better But I Don’t Feel Good is out now through Bad Apples Music.