Premiere: Genes makes it two from two with new single, When I'm Around You

One of last year's best Australian pop debuts came through Genes, the Townsville-via-Melbourne project of songwriter Maddy Rowe who you may remember as being someone we shouted out in our feature on songwriters and producers entering the spotlight last year. Back then, Maddy was someone only really found behind-the-scenes of pop music, either as a radio host pushing homegrown pop into the commercial canon, or as a songwriter making that pop music happen, working with everyone from Young Franco and Donatachi to Sam Bluer and Kilter. Now, however, she's an entirely different beast.

Last year, she launched her solo project Genes with its debut single Give It Away, a catchy three-minutes of vocal-driven pop that bursts with the optimistic-sounding emotion of some of the genre's most cult-adored names - Carly Rae Jepsen particularly - and, in the process, led Genes to somewhat of an unexpectedly strong start that included commercial radio spots and triple j applause alike (a difficult feat, considering the latter station's complex relationship with unashamedly hook-driven pop within a realm of a few certain acts, but a testament to how great and wide-ranging her sound is).

Today, she's out here to prove that Give It Away wasn't some kind of one-off fluke, if you were for some reason thinking that despite her imprint on some of Australia's most brilliant top-lines and hooks. Premiering today ahead of its official release tomorrow, When I'm Around You is a swirling pop jam that like Give It Away, captures the confident - yet cool, calm and collected - prowess of musicians Carly Rae with a distinct Genes-flavoured twist that puts it in her own lane; a mix of sharp lyricism and floating pre-choruses mixing with a synth-driven beat that keeps everything in check and pushing forward.

It's a single that also grapples with these incredibly colour-packed and optimistic emotions without being too cheesy or overloaded; a tasteful reflection of feelings and love that despite giving the single this obviously bright edge, isn't too much (comparable to what her debut did too, but I guess the opposite considering its slightly darker edge). "Sometimes you don’t even have to talk about feelings to know," she says on the track. "It’s just in the eye contact that lasts a little longer than normal, the built up chemistry on the drive home, the late night texts that feel a bit too comfortable."

There's a lot to love here and there's plenty more to come, so take a dive into When I'm Around You below ahead of its official release this Friday, and keep an eye on Genes as she continues to build herself a profile as one of Australia's most exciting names in pop:

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