After having a bit of experimentation on her sophomore album “CHRYSALIS”, Tia Gostelow has approached her third studio album “Head Noise” with a sense of clarity. The ARIA platinum artist now feels very confident within herself of the music she wants to be creating, as well as the confidence to allow other people to give her feedback and ideas, and for her to take it on board. This record has come together through collaboration, travel, and trust. And the 10 bold tracks that make up the tracklisting feel really freeing and cathartic as she enters her coming-of-age era.

Ahead of the album’s release I sat down with Tia Gostelow to discuss the creative process behind songs like “Nothing Else Matters”, “I’m Getting Bored Of This”, “Dumb & Numb” and “Like You Better”, as well as ponder on her classic early twenties moments, and reflect on the key things she’s learnt about herself from her previous records. Check it out BELOW:

THOMAS BLEACH: Your third studio album “Head Noise” is a comforting and warm collection of tracks that reflect on life in your early twenties, mental health, and the ups and downs that follow. From finishing the record and now having some time to sit with it before releasing it to the world, what is the biggest thing you’ve learnt about yourself from writing and recording it?

TIA GOSTELOW: I had no idea what the album was going to be when I was writing it. I didn’t know what the theme was going to be. I didn’t know anything. Looking back on it after sitting with it, I feel like it’s definitely a journal. For me, it’s probably the first time I felt like that with a record and songs I’ve made. It was weird that there wasn’t this overarching theme that I was trying to write about at the time. But somehow all the songs have kind of just become like a journal, and it really documents the feelings that I was feeling throughout the year. And that was all very subconscious. I didn’t go into writing the album like “I’m going to write a mental health record”. These were all topics that I would think about going to bed. Like I struggle to fall asleep all the time cause my mind is racing, and a lot of these things are things that would keep me up at night.

TB: This record really does feel like a reflection of your coming of age era. Do you think that’s the best way to describe this record with the themes and honest lyrics?

TG: I think so. I think I’ve matured a lot as a songwriter. I feel like I kind of know who I am a little bit more now. Like my first album, those songs were written when I was between 15 and 18. I was a baby. And, I’m still so young but I remember being 18 thinking 23 was so old. Now I’m 23, and I can’t even pay my rent. I feel like I’m a more mature person, a more mature songwriter, and I just hope that kind of shines through.

TB: The album opens with “Nothing Else Matters” which gives listeners a bit of hope and reassurance before diving into the rest of the record. Why did you want to open this song and for it to be the first thing listeners heard?

TG: I just felt like it was a really good opening song, I guess. I think it’s got all of the elements of what the rest of the record is, in a way. Like obviously it’s a bit more hopeful than a lot of the other songs, but to me it just felt like a good opener. I wrote that when I was in Nashville, and I feel like that was the first song of my trip to America that I felt super excited about. It reminds me of “Two Lovers” in a way, which opened “CHRYSALIS”. Some songs just feel like they have a certain slot in where they fit on an album, and “Nothing Else Matters” definitely felt like the opening song.  

TB: “I can’t tell you the future. I’m no fortune teller. If you want your palms read, forget about it”  – I love this lyric. Tell me about it. 

TG: I love that you picked that lyric up. My mum and I went to New York, and on our last day there I had a session canceled on me, so we ended up having this whole day free before we flew to Nashville. So we went to this bar, and we were drinking cosmos, and they free-pour over there so we were a little drunk walking the streets of New York after, and we walked past this lady who was yelling out “come get your fortunes read!”. My mum decided we were going to get our fortunes read. She took us up this old building that looked like a doctor’s office, but also, like, an apartment building. And It was 70 US dollars to get our fucking palms read, but we did it. She pretty much told me that I needed to get my chakras realigned, but that was gonna cost me an extra 700 dollars, so I decided to keep them unaligned *laughs*. But anyways, I just thought it was such a fucking funny story to try and incorporate somehow into a song. 

I had a little notebook that I was like taking with me everywhere during the writing process of this record, and I wrote down “fortune teller” as a reference point, and when I went to that session in Nashville, I knew I really wanted to use fortune teller in some way. It was really hard to find a good play, but I feel like it really fits, and I love the story behind it. 

TB: “I’m Getting Bored Of This” is to me a big highlight on this record with its dreamy hook. Can you explain the creative process behind this track?

TG: This was the last song I wrote for the album, which was about two weeks before I went into recording it. I came back from America and I was going to record the album in October, but I didn’t feel like the album was finished yet. So I hit up my friend Matt McGuffie from Ivy as we work really well as writers. I went down to his studio at his family home on the Gold Coast, and we were catching up like friends and were literally talking about anxiety and just how easy it is to go out on the weekend and then feel shit about yourself for the rest of the week, and then do it all again. It’s an easy pattern to fall into. So I wanted to talk about that, but also talk about it in a bit of a hopeful way. Like, I’m getting bored of feeling like shit and this pattern, but I’m also still kind of going to do it. I’m in my early twenties, so that’s the time to do it. This is one of my favourite songs on the album. I love the music, I love the melodies, and particularly the melodies and the chorus are really beautiful and so dreamy. 

This song was also the catalyst for the album name. I hadn’t had an album name ready until I wrote this one. In the bridge I sing “head noises fading. It’s so outdated. I don’t think I’m going to miss it”. 

And I was listening to the songs in full trying to pick an album name because I had no idea, and the “head noise” bit kept popping up and it was so bizarre. I had never heard anyone call it head noise before I wrote this song. It’s a cool analogy. I was listening to the Inspired Unemployed podcast and they were randomly talking about having head noise. And then my friends were talking and used the phrase “head noise” and they all just felt like little signs of what I should call the album. 

TB: Lyric wise, “Dumb & Numb” gives some cool standout moments. “I’m too young, too young to feel so done with love” – and then intertwining with dumb and numb. What is the story behind this lyric?

TG: This song was based on watching your friends being in a relationship and wanting the best for them while they were trying to work stuff out, but not being sure if it will. I wrote this with my friend Dana, and she is just an incredible writer and she’s so good with melodies. I really love the play on the dumb and the done as it’s so subtle and fun. Dana and I wrote it really quickly, and I think it was more about the melody of it and the feeling of it, and honestly it just kind of felt right to do it that way.

TB: Your recent single from the album is “Early twenties”. So what is an essential Tia story about your early twenties?

TG: I feel like there’s been a few. When I first moved to Brisbane from Mackay, obviously we don’t have roads like Brisbane, and I was going from Newstead into the Valley andI ended up turning the wrong way and had to do a three-point turn in the middle of 4 lanes with traffic coming the other way through it. I remember calling mum crying after it. I was so mortified. I’ve done shit like that. I also put fucking alfoil in the microwave, which felt like a rite of passage to be honest *laughs*.

Also, my boyfriend and I were in Paris on a Contiki trip. We went to the Moulin Rouge, and after it we were drunk and trying to get a taxi. We were waiting on the side of the street and this random guy was like “jump in, I will take you guys home” and I went to jump in and my boyfriend was like “Tia, don’t fucking do that. They look like they’re serial killers. Don’t get in there”. I got the shits with him and stormed off and ended up walking past this pizza bar, and I was so hungry at this point, so I went to walk in and they’re like “no, no, no, we’re closed”. I started begging, and they agreed but only if we danced for them. 

They turned the karaoke on, and we were all dancing, and they said that after we danced for five minutes they would give us some pizza. Somehow me being a musician came up and they started searching me on YouTube and watching my videos. And at the end of it all I didn’t even get any pizza. It was pretty upsetting. 

TB: “Like You better” delivers this really cool groove that I can just imagine to come even more together live. Is this a song you immediately imagined a live identity with?

TG: I actually wrote this one maybe three years ago, way before I even started to think about this album. I wrote it at a Song Hubs on the Gold Coast with Ali Barter and Garrett Kato, and it was just this demo I had sitting there for a while, and it was just a really simple song. It was really pretty but I didn’t know what to do with it. It ended up being one of the last songs we recorded, and I also think it was the hardest song for me to wrap my head around. But I love it now, and I think it’s gonna be an incredible live moment, and will be my standout in the live set. It’s got the room there for you to elongate that sax bit and really build on that which will be cool. Never in my life did I think I’d have saxophone on any songs. And I’ve now got two songs on this album with Sax *laughs*. 

TB: You kicked off this new era with “Say It To My Face” which actually doesn’t feature on the album. Why did this track feel more like a standalone track for you that belonging on this body of work? 

TG: “Say It To My Face” was a big favourite within my team. I really like the song, but I don’t think it fits sonically with the rest of the record. I really had to push back and say “no” to it being on the album and explain that I saw it more-so as a standalone track. To me it was very much its own moment. 

TB: What would you say was the portal track from “CHRYSALIS” into “Head Noise” for you?

TG: I actually think “Thick Skin” was more of an influence on what “CHRYSALIS” was. I think “CHRYSALIS” was a moment for me to explore and go more pop and let go of the guitars. I don’t think there was a single acoustic guitar on “CHRYSALIS”, because at that point in time I really wanted to break away from the folk thing that I was tied to with my first album, and the country thing that people kept finding some way to put me into. I really wanted to break away from it. So “CHRYSALIS” came from that.

I needed to experiment in that world to be able to reflect and realise that’s probably not what I want to do anymore. I think my thing is actually acoustic guitars and the raw live band feeling that came through on “Thick Skin”. Obviously that album resonated a lot more than what
“CHRYSALIS” did, but I also think “CHRYSALIS” came out during COVID, so I feel like it was just very unfortunate timing. But in a way, I also wouldn’t have been able to write “Head Noise” without “CHRYSALIS”. 

So I don’t know if there is a particular song that feels like the portal track into this record, but I would definitely say “Thick Skin” is the portal album. 

TB: You’re heading out on tour in September and October where you will finally get to play this new record live. Have you had time to start playing with how this record will sit as a palate, especially with your older material, and what new songs you definitely want to perform live? 

TG: I’m in this really cool position now on my third album where I can obviously play the hits now. I was going through it the other day and figured I literally could just pick the five top songs from each record, and then whatever I wanted to. So that was really cool. So there’s definitely songs from “Thick Skin” that I’m bringing back and haven’t played in years, like “Vague Utopia”.

So I think that’ll be cool. But I really want to rework them. Like obviously having like interludes and like spicing them up a bit because I listened to “Thick Skin” the other day and I sound so little so little. 

There’s obviously also gonna be songs from “CHRYSALIS” as well. I think that’ll be the really hyped up moments in the set. And then, this record’s kinda like an in between.

TB: Let’s play a quick game of rapid fire questions about the record. Are you ready?

TG: Yes!

TB: The emoji that best describes my new album “Head Noise” is…

TG: The sad watering eyes one, but with the smile. 

TB: The song that nearly didn’t make the album was…

TG: “Like You Better”

TB: The song that went through the most versions to get it to where it is now is…

TG: “Dumb & Numb”

TB: Another title I was playing with for the album was…

TG: This was the only one I had. 

TB: The first song I’d want you to show your friends from my album would be…

TG: “I’m Getting Bored Of This”

“Head Noise” is out now!