By Callum Ludwig
An up-and-coming Victorian artist has incorporated a touch of the Outer East in her latest release, with a famous voice of the Valley and popular local venue featuring in a new single.
Electronic artist Alice Ivy, who hails from Geelong, has paired up with the Yarra Valley-based Josh Teskey of The Teskey Brothers for ‘Do I Need To Know What Love Is?’, with the music video shot in the Caribbean Rollerama skating rink.
Alice said from the moment she heard The Teskey Brothers, she knew that she wanted to collaborate with Josh.
“We were still in and out of lockdown in Victoria when Josh and I wrote ‘Do I Need To Know What Love Is?’, so part of it was recorded at my place but Josh came up with the lyrics while he was listening to the demo and driving around the Yarra Valley,” she said.
“From the moment I laid eyes on Caribbean Rollerama I always wanted to do something there, originally, I was planning on launching my 2020 album ‘Don’t Sleep’ there with a big roller skating party, but once again, the lockdowns prevented us from doing that,”
“When it came time to think of a music video concept for ‘Do I Need To Know What Love Is?’ I immediately thought of Caribbean Rollerama as a location and we shot the most beautiful one-take music video there after-hours that features some of Victoria’s best roller skaters, with help from Pat Pierce (of the Pierce Brothers) and the director Dara Munnis.”
Alice’s latest single has dropped ahead of the release of her latest album ‘Do What Makes You Happy’, which releases on 22 November. It follows Don’t Sleep in 2020 and her debut album ‘I’m Dreaming’ in 2018.
Alice said the experience of working with Josh was really unique.
“When he came into my studio to record his vocals he spent a few hours warming up his vocal chords by blowing through a straw and then he belted out a few takes of the whole song from start to finish, which is very different approach to how a lot of singers record, which is usually in bits and pieces, chopping and changing things, which was unreal to witness,” she said.
“I grew up listening to Motown records and Soul music and I’ve always had a great appreciation for music that’s raw and authentic, but also intricate and layered, which is something I think Josh and The Teskey Brothers do so faithfully,”
“Josh had never collaborated with an electronic producer or sung on an electronic song before, but I just had a gut feeling that his sensational voice would sound beautiful on a lush electronic pop song.”
The Teskey Brothers, Josh and Sam, grew up in Warrandyte and are now based in the Yarra Valley.
Alice said funnily enough, Do I Need To Know What Love Is was never intended to be a single.
“I always thought it would be a beautiful album track that complemented some of my new albums’ more obvious, uptempo, high-energy pop moments as singles,” she said.
“But when Josh and I finished the song and people on my team heard it for the first time they all individually reached out and said, ‘that’s the one’ which was obviously a nice surprise,”
“The reaction to the song so far has been amazing with all of the airplay on triple j, Nova, Hit, K Rock, it’s such a good feeling when people connect with something that you’ve created.”
Alice Ivy is currently touring the UK and Europe will return to Victoria in November for the album’s release.
Josh Teskey will be one of few Australia features on Do What Makes You Happy, which Alice said is the inverse of her last album.
“On my last album ‘Don’t Sleep’ in 2020 I mostly worked with local artists like Thelma Plum, Odette, Montaigne and Ecca Vandal with a few overseas artists thrown in the mix,” she said.
“The new album is mostly overseas collaborations with people like Mayer Hawthorne, Låpsley, Kah-Lo and others but I wanted to have at least a couple of really special local collaborators as well,”
“The first was my friend Mallrat who sings on ‘Broke My Heart’ and the other was Josh Teskey on “Do I Need To Know What Love Is?’, the benefit of working with both of those artists was that we got to spend a lot of time together face-to-face, unrushed and make both of those songs extra special.”
Alice Ivy is a two-time ARIA nominee and two-time Australian Women in Music Awards winner among other accolades and currently has over 180,000 monthly listeners on streaming service Spotify.
Alice said Do What Makes You Happy was written at a time where we were finally allowed to create music in the room with each other again.
“You can just feel the emotion and energy, because we were all so grateful to be back doing what we love,” she said.
“I feel like I’ve come full circle on what genuinely excites me about making music; live instrumentation, analogue sounds and music written outside of the box, most of the vocal recordings on the album were tracked on the first day of writing,”
“The music that inspires me, Motown and Soul music, was generally done in a few takes and everything feels so raw and warm, that’s how I like to sonically describe Do What Makes You Happy.”
