October, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 21NEW ALBUM
T
alkaboutapressingengage-
ment. As soon as Tired Lion front-
woman Sophie Hopes finished her
final vocal for the Perth quartet’s
debut album, Dumb Days, she had just enough
time to run home and pack a bag before fl ying
out to the UK for a run of dates. “I had to skol
a couple of drinks to get me in the zone, be-
cause I was thinking way too much about the
fl ight and the shows,” she chuckles from her
Perth home.
Dumb Days is the realisa-
tion of a goal guitarist Matt
Tanner, drummer Ethan Dar-
nell and Hopes fi rst set in high
school to one day make an
album. Six years on it’s come
to fruition. No wonder the fi rst
playback was an emotional af-
fair. “I think a couple of us had
tears in our eyes, but I’m not going to mention
who,” quips Hopes.
The frontwoman also shed tears while fi -
netuning her lyrics with producer (and Vio-
lent Soho frontman) Luke Boerdam. Though
reluctant to go into detail about the song re-
sponsible, “Camp”, it’s clearly drawn from a
place of raw emotion, Hopes singing “I could
hear your voice a million times/But I don’t
recognise you”. Similarly close to the bone is
“Where Were You?”, which essays “a crucial
age in my life, [where] someone that I really
needed to be there wasn’t around”.
Hopes’ confessional lyrics, combined with
the band’s hook-laden Nineties-esque grun-
ge, has helped forge a bond with their grow-
ing audience. “It’s actually been very reward-
ing hearing that someone listened to a Tired
Lion song for four weeks to get through a de-
pression,” says the singer, who’s openly shared
her own issues with mental
health. “I’ve met quite a few
people that I stay in touch
with and I say, ‘If ever you’re
feeling that way again, if you
want to talk, I’m here. The
whole band’s here.’”
In late August Tired Lion
returned to the UK for the
third time this year to perform
at the Reading and Leeds festivals. An Aus-
tralian tour follows this month, with Hopes
eager to showcase new material.
“I really wanted the songs this time to have
more guts and intensity,” she says. “From our
very fi rst single when we were younguns, it’s
just been this stepping stone each time that
we’ve recorded. It’s gotten a little more in-
tensifi ed. So I just wanted to hit people in the
guts and feel it.”Tired Lion’s Raw Debut
Frontwoman Sophie Hopes on the
band’s long-awaited fi rst albumBY ROD YATESCitizen Kay
Gets Reflective
Some time last year, Ghana-born
hip-hop artist Citizen Kay (real
name Kojo Ansah) dropped a big
secret on his management after a
long period of silence: not only was
he working on a new album, but it
was almost completely fi nished.
“No-one knew I was writing the
album until it was pretty much
done, which was very intentional,”
says Ansah. “I didn’t tell anyone,
and then I was like, ‘Hey, by the
way, I’ve been really quiet this past
year because of THIS!’ Everything
was really organic – there was no
pressure, no deadlines. That was
important.”
Having recently signed with Illy’s
OneTwo label, Ansah is ready to
unleash Belly of the Beast, an LP he
began work on the same week his
ARIA-nominated 2015 debut album
With the People was released.
“I’m very much like, ‘Now that’s
done, what’s next?’” says Ansah.
“I’m not a ‘marinate in the moment’
kind of person usually – I just re-
ally love being in the studio and
writing.”
Musically, the live-instrument
heavy Belly of the Beast bristles
with Ansah’s boundless energy, but
the album’s lyrical themes evolved
from a quieter period of introspec-
tion. “I’ve always bounced off the
walls and had too much energy,
and in the last year I’ve tried to be
a bit more still and refl ective,” says
Ansah. “To take a moment to look
around and enjoy what’s around
me. That refl ective year became the
underlining theme for the album.”
And is Ansah ready to burn some
of that energy on his September
and October tour dates as both
headliner and support act for
Illy? “Oh for sure!” he laughs. “I’m
drenched in sweat after two songs!
I don’t know how to pace myself on
stage – at all.” JAMES JENNINGSCanberra rapper deploys
introspective lyrics on new album“I really wanted
the songs to
have guts and
intensity.”Hopes, Ethan
Darnell, Matt
Tanner, Nick
Vasey (from left)