CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 132: ABBY WALLACE ON FINDING TRUTH AND TENDERNESS

Interview by Caitlin Dyson.

FMM: Congratulations on the release of your new single, Montage. You worked with John Castle on this song who has worked with notable Australian artists including Vance Joy and Angie McMahon. How did this come about and how was the process of creating this song with him?

Abby: Thank you! It’s so great to have this song out in the world. I met John very organically about a year ago now, via my mentor, Charlotte Abroms. The introduction between us was just to be mates; really, very low-pressure. I didn’t have many friends that were musicians and I was swimming in the soup of an intensely solitary songwriting practice. The day we made Montage and Atlantic Blue, was the first day we worked together. I had no idea how to flesh my songs out to the point where I might be able to play them with a band and John said he’d help me, so I didn’t go into the session shooting for a finished product. I remember him playing bass along with me as I was tracking some guitar and realising that it was the first time I’d ever really played an instrument in-conversation with another musician. In hindsight, I was really naive to who John was in an industry sense. He’s very unassuming. He has a staggering list of credits to his name and is easily the most talented person I’ve ever met, but he’s also very much just a regular guy. When we are making music together and I’m in my body and everything is fluid and it’s all working, things happen very quickly. It feels like breathing. 

FMM: I think it’s fair to say that you’re brutally honest with yourself in the lyrics of Montage. Is there anything in particular that gave you the confidence to put yourself out there like that and be so vulnerable?

Abby: Yes, I’d say that’s fair! I just don’t know what the point of songwriting is for me if it’s not reaching for some kind of truth. I feel an intense responsibility to be really honest with myself, even when it’s ugly. When I get down to it, I do think a big part of sharing these songs for me is some deep yearning to be completely seen. The bridge of Montage feels the most frank and explicit to me. I wrote the song at a time when I was just in complete free-fall; totally untethered in the world. I think it’s a common experience to lean on alcohol as an anaesthetic for emotional pain. It’s certainly very pervasive in my family, and it’s something I have wrestled with on-and-off from a young age. I don’t drink at all anymore. I’m really proud of that.

FMM: Can you give us any insight into the inspirations behind ‘Montage’, whether it be sonically or lyrically?

Abby: Sure! I had a strong sense that Montage could live on the soundtrack of some 90s/Y2K teen drama. John pulled up the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack and it was just so correct. The full, shimmery, swirling feeling of that production hit a kind of happy-sad middle ground that lifted the whole song. It needed it desperately, too. When I listened back to the demo recently it spun me out how dark and slow the song was initially. John’s influence on the sound of this project is huge. The actual skeleton of the songs, the “writing” in a very pure sense, often doesn’t change much at all, but the world the songs sit in are borne almost entirely of John’s imagination. I like it that way. We have a very similar taste and we’re making music we both love, stuff we’d be listening to even if it wasn’t our own. When we do bring references into the room, it’s usually just playing a mish-mash of 90s stuff; Suzanne Vega, Mazzy Star, K.D. Lang, Tori Amos, Natalie Merchant. From a contemporary stand-point, it’s artists like Adrienne Lenker, Samia, and Maggie Rogers; something that sits between modernity and timelessness is the sweet spot for me.

FMM: You have your first ever show in Naarm/Melbourne coming up. For someone who’s never seen you live before, what would you say to expect from one of your shows?

Abby Wallace: Yes! The Naarm/Melbourne show is going to be beautiful - five songwriters, playing three songs each and sharing a little about where they came from. It’ll be intimate and honest and special. When I envisaged the project initially, I kind of imagined this “music version” of myself as a character I’d almost take on and off. The reality is that actually, the membrane between me and everyone else feels very thin. I kind of don’t know how to show up as anything other than exactly who I am. I think that’s particularly evident in the live space. I don’t have a band yet. I play solo and it’s just me and the songs, performed exactly the way they were written. It’s exposing, but there’s also a charm in it that I’m doing my best to lean into.

FMM: Are you able to tell us if you might be working on a project at all? An EP or an album maybe? 

Abby Wallace: I’m definitely working on a project. There are a lot of songs. This past month or so I’ve really given myself permission to view it all with a concrete, tangible sense of legitimacy. Right now, John and I are focused on keeping up creative momentum. I’m figuring out how to structure the next little bit of my life around finishing a body of work. I’m learning how to hold onto the reins of the project, move with integrity, navigate the industry. All of that stuff. I want to stay focused on what matters, which for me is doing work I’m proud of with people I care about. We are shooting for a collection of songs ready to share in 2026.