It’s no secret that we here at Newcastle Live are big fans of Rachel Maria Cox. We have raved about their set at BigSound, loved their music, and claimed they were a local artist to watch in 2017.
The non-binary singer/songwriter has been growing leaps and bounds, and it’s as clear as ever on their new single ‘Time’. The song is a five-minute emotional journey; that revels in its own slow build.
‘Time’ is the first single from Rachel Maria Cox since the release of their debut LP Untidy Lines last year. There’s a clear Pop-influenced production here; something that Cox has always hinted at – but we are finally starting to see come to the surface.
Rachel Maria Cox announced today that they will be celebrating the release of ‘Time’ with a show at The Hamilton Station Hotel on Friday, November 23. Joining them will be Wollongong two-piece Cry Club, and local solo artist Belle Badi.
We had a quick chat to Cox, talking all about their new single and upcoming launch show.
Newcastle Live: Your new single ‘Time’ came out last week, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Rachel Maria Cox: So in short, ‘Time’ is a song that’s about acceptance of yourself, and about being really honest with yourself about a need to change, as well as having the family support to change. I was really struggling at the end of last year with dieting that threatened to turn into a full-blown ED relapse, and it was like “do I really want my entire life to be a cycle of relapse, recovery, diet, relapse again?” and I stayed with my Sister in Perth and saw how she lived and I knew something had to change or I would just stay stuck in that cycle.
I think I wanted to share with people the importance of freeing yourself from the diet cycle, and also the importance of recognising the people in your life, family or friends, who can support you when you’re struggling. It’s a really important song to me as well because, in the release process, I was in hospital and then psych hospital for the month leading up to the release, so I was forced not only to ask people to help but I also had to practice a lot of acceptance and I am so grateful for my team, my friends and my family for supporting me through that release process and for reminding me of what the song is about.
NL: What was the writing and recording process for ‘Time’ like? Did you try anything different?
RMC: The initial writing was very similar to how I’ve done a lot of my writing in the past – I generally will jot down little lyric ideas here and there in my phone notes, and I sat down to write this song cause I needed to come up with something I could do an acoustic piano recording of for a test session at studios 301. So I wrote this, cause I had a couple of the ideas, and I just sat down at a piano and turned it out pretty much fully formed in about an hour.
I think the difference then was I then took the song to Skyepaint and we did a fully produced demo of the song, which ended up sounding really similar to the finished song. I then took that to the band and they added their own parts, which were recorded at Sawtooth Studios. Those parts all got sent back to Skyepaint and he finished the mixing. In the past, I’d normally take the songs to the band and jam them first before we try to record anything, so this was a bit different.
The main difference was this was my first time really working with a pop producer, so that was a learning experience and a cool thing to try and bring something fresh to what I’m making.
NL: There’s a lot more Pop influence in the production of this song, especially compared to your 2017 LP Untidy Lines, is this an active move in that direction?
RMC: Yeah absolutely. I had 3 songs demoed, and this was the least pop sounding of all of them, so it made sense for us to release this first so the other two aren’t as much of a shock to people! But I’m really excited to incorporate the pop influences into the guitar-based music we’ve been making.
NL: You’re launching the new single in Newcastle on November 23rd, what are the details? What can we expect?
RMC: We are! It’s at The Hamilton Station Hotel and we’ve got Cry Club coming up to play that show which I’m super excited about because they are my favourite people and band and I think everyone in Newy NEEDS to see them live. We’ve also got Belle Badi playing which I’m super excited about – I’ve been really impressed with how she’s been building her profile as an artist and it should be a really fun night!
NL: Excluding the High School Music series – what is Zac Efron’s best movie?
RMC: A big question. Can I give you my top 5 Zac Efron Movies instead? (If the answer is no, Tough cause I’m gonna) In no particular order: High School Musical 3, Hairspray, 17 Again, Bad Neighbours, The Greatest Showman
