Earthlike

Earthlike’s music has always felt like a meeting point between landscape and inner life — a project shaped as much by rugged escarpments and humid Top End sunsets as by the quiet churn of thought. Emerging from years spent between Naarm/Melbourne and the remote communities of West Arnhem Land, Earthlike’s songwriting captures the tension between movement and stillness, isolation and connection, and the small emotional shifts that define a life lived across wildly different environments. With the upcoming debut album The Main One, Earthlike steps further into this space, weaving psych-rock surges, intimate ballads, and field-influenced textures into an expansive yet deeply personal body of work. At its centre sits Over And Over — a song born in the grind of study, bush work rosters, and the pressure to keep pace with both personal expectations and societal demands.

Your music often draws heavily from the environments you’ve lived in, from Naarm to Arnhem Land. How do these places shape the stories you tell through Earthlike?

As a writer it feels natural to draw inspiration from the spaces you’re in or the particular moments and feelings that you’re experiencing. Whether that be a specific interaction with a person; a passing comment that has struck a chord; a take on societal expectations; or the landscapes that surround you. Earthlike encompasses all of this but isn’t bound to any themes in particular. I guess I’m using this project more as a vessel to document thoughts and feelings as I move through life.

I grew up in Melbourne and played drums in a band for a while. I think growing up in such a vibrant music city and having experience playing in bands has informed my writing style for the Earthlike project. I’m also an ecologist by trade, so I feel like my personal interest in the natural environment has a tendency to seep into my song writing. I have spent the last four years living in the Top End of Australia and the most recent two of those years living and working remote in a small community in West Arnhem Land. Some of the songs touch on aspects of my childhood in Melbourne and connection to place and family, however the album really came alive and was conceptualised while I was living and working in remote NT. The Top End of Australia is a special place and I feel lucky to have lived and been inspired by this beautiful part of the world.

'Over And Over' explores the feeling of being trapped in the routines of daily life. What inspired this song, and how did you approach translating that sense of repetition into music?

I wrote ‘Over And Over’ while I was completing my masters thesis in environmental science. At the time I was working a 3 week on, 1 week off roster while I was living out bush. So I’d return to Darwin for my week off and spend those 7 days straight in the library working on my thesis. I did this for six months straight during the writing stage of the thesis and felt like I was burning the candle from both ends. The lyrical content came out of the feeling of being trapped by the machine - a machine that is both my own internal thoughts and pressures but also those placed upon us by society with the pressure to progress and better one's self. The chorus lyrics really lean into that sense of repetition.

With The Main One being your debut album, how does it expand on the themes and sounds you’ve explored in your previous singles? Were there any surprises for you during the recording process?

The Main One is a very time and place specific album. All of the music that is online at the moment is off of this album, and was recorded over a 10-day period in Melbourne. The songs themselves are quite eclectic in their sounds but they are bound by the themes that they explore that came about from my time living remote. The long drives through escarpment country; the sounds of the bush; my often wavering head space; and the people encountered along the way. All of whom have seeped their way into the album in some capacity. I’d strongly suggest listening to The Main One from start to finish as a whole.

I was lucky to have Dylan Young on engineer and recording duties for this album. Early on in the communication phase he suggested that these songs would be nice recorded to tape. So that’s what we did. I’d never recorded to tape before so the whole process was new and full of surprises. We recorded a track called ‘There’s Something About You’ and through the recording process the percussive elements were brought to the front and the song began to feel like it had this French cafe atmosphere crossed with a latin percussive vibe. It’s not exactly what I had in mind going into the session but It came out sounding really sweet. I think all the happy accidents and imperfections that can come from recording to tape have built a lot of character into the album.

Earthlike transitions seamlessly between punchy psych-rock anthems and more introspective ballads. How do you decide which musical style best suits a particular story or emotion?

I feel like sometimes I don’t get to choose. The songs just come to me as they are. I don’t like to feel particularly bound to one certain style or sound. I think this is already reflected in the singles that I’ve put out from this album. Expect more of that on the rest of the album.

Collaboration seems key to your live performances. How does working with your close bandmates influence the way you write or perform your music?

To me the live and the writing processes have been two completely different things. Maybe that’s situation specific. I’m happy to let songs have a very different feel in the live setting and for bandmates to bring their own pizzazz when onstage as they are all very talented musicians in their own right. I was living a very solitary life during the writing stage of this album, but I am about to move to Melbourne, so being around bandmates and a thriving music community may change how I approach both the writing and the performing.

'Can You Tell Me Your Name' is available exclusively on Bandcamp ahead of the album release. What can fans expect from this track, and how does it fit into the broader narrative of The Main One?

‘Can You Tell Me Your Name’ is a homage to the contrasting worlds of remote and city life. The juxtaposition of the clean and gritty; the mundane and the beautiful; and a play on my mind not being able to keep up with both worlds. It’s one of twelve pieces of the puzzle that make up ‘The Main One’, which is available now.