Singer-songwriter & producer, Woodes releases her second album The Great Unknown – displaying the breadth of, and dynamics within, her creativity and artistry.
new record brings together Woodes’ previous two EPs – the lush, spellbinding, hypnotic melodies of Kingdom Come alongside the darker, cinematic, gritty sound found on Hibernation. Together they showcase how expansive this project’s sound can be, finding the place where Elle Graham and her musical moniker Woodes meet.
Whether she is bottling emotion, longing, and hope in authentic, dreamy anthems or standing tall behind vivid melodies and sharp, gritty production, Woodes – and in turn Elle – are completely in control of their musical destiny.
Tying both sides of this album together is its title track, the new single holding place as the moral compass that guides Woodes to find the balance between her lighter and darker sides. The new single was produced and co-written with Australian film composer Hylton Mowday and mixed and mastered by Grammy nominated songwriter/producer Rob Kleiner (Euphoria, Avatar: The Way Of Water).
Of the new album, and its title track, Woodes shares, “’The Great Unknown’ is ambitious and bold and begins my second record. This song is embarking into a new chapter - and I feel it beautifully fuses all the music I've been writing this year. While I was writing for ‘Kingdom Come’ and ‘Hibernation’, it was obvious I was writing for a dark and a light side. This duality fit as two halves on this record.
“I was writing 'The Great Unknown' in the thick of winter, feeling like everyone around me had the same shade of grey walking home. A theme that's been in this writing has been listening to an internal voice – like getting advice from an old friend. A moral compass, a childlike optimism, a unifying belief that things will get better somehow. I wrote about finding a way through.”
WOODES
Australian Producer, Composer, Song-writer and recording artist
Woodes, shares the darker side of her creative persona with new EP Hibernation.
Across its four tracks her cinematic approach to music flourishes, as she captures emotion,
nostalgia, longing, and hope in dynamic anthems that showcase just how far she can bend and
mould her alternative pop soundscapes.
Where her previous EP Kingdom Come, released in June, was built around lush, spellbinding,
hypnotic melodies that reflected the experiences of Elle Graham in this world, Hibernation sees
Elle fully embrace the character of her Woodes moniker, amplifying the immersive, cinematic
side of her artistry with dark, vivid melodies and sharp, gritty production.
“This is a very pure version of me,” Woodes says. “I was making music with my friend, and I
was completely independent. I knew I had to stand behind it with a ‘ride or die’ energy. It felt
great when I came out on the other side of everything…She’s coming out of Hibernation into this
strong version of herself.”
Woodes released her independent, self-titled debut EP in 2016, gaining audiences both in
Australia and internationally. Since then, she's toured with the likes of Thelma Plum, Asgier,
and Sylvan Esso and appeared at festivals, including Splendour in the Grass, SXSW and
Beyond the Valley, amongst headline tours of her own. Her cinematic 2018 EP Golden Hour
spawned two triple j favorites, “Dots” and “Run For It,” both arriving on the back of the hugely
popular collaboration with Set Mo – “I Belong Here” – which has been certified Platinum in
Australia.
Woodes leveled up again on Crystal Ball in 2020. It not only landed at #3 on the Australian
Independent Albums Chart, but NME rated it 4-out-of-5 stars and hailed it as “a powerfully
intimate record that tackles both life and fantasy with fierce resolve.”
In her own work throughout this time, Woodes continued to merge music and fashion,
incorporating her stylistic influences into her music and the worlds she builds around it. In music
videos, she conceptualised how to bring stories to life. On the live stage, she was compared to
contemporaries such as Bjork, AURORA, Arctic Lake, and Mr. Little Jeans through her
larger-than-life costume design.
