Premiere: St. South announces debut album, shares Does Your Brain Ever Get This Loud?

Header image by Liam Gillie.

St. South is a familiar face to anyone involved with the Perth indie-pop scene, having been a large part of the blossoming west coast's music output for a solid six years now. Since her 2014 debut single Slacks, the project Olivia Gavranich has blossomed into something remarkably special - a place for the multi-instrumentalist to build us up and tear us down with single after single, and EP after EP (she released her debut EP Nervous Energy in 2016, with another - titled Inure - in 2017); her music both potent and remarkable as it sways between sounds and sub-genres with every release.

Today, however, welcomes a new era for the bustling musician and her drive to become one of the country's next big forces. Premiering on Pilerats today ahead of its official release this Thursday, Does Your Brain Ever Get This Loud? is St. South's first single in two years - she's only released a remix of Thelma Plum's Clumsy Love in the time since - and the first from her debut album, forecast for release this year. It's a record that's bound to push St. South into the cultural canon moreso than ever before, with her knack for storytelling and hand-gripping power within her lyricism to be fleshed out over a full-length record that's been a long time in the making.

Does Your Brain Ever Get This Loud? offers a taste of what's to come, and sees St. South move into a bit of a different direction - one that proves she has the versatility and range needed to become something special amongst the constantly-growing Australian pop scene. Thick with soul and this indescribable swagger (for the lack of better term), Does Your Brain Ever Get This Loud? is a moment of swaying R&B that feels comparable with some of the genre's international best; a spacious and strung-out production allowing plenty of breathing room for St. South's vocal to rise and fall alongside.

It's a strong opening from St. South that highlights her craft for songwriting, with the her haunting vocal hinting at something swirling underneath - a recounting of that classic 20s crisis that grips everyone trying to work out what's going on with their life, told through the lens of someone who understands music's quality of storytelling often better than words alone can do themselves. "I’m often riddled with self-doubt. But this song is the process of accepting that, while learning that it’s completely ok to feel lost and purposeless," she says.

It arrives with an official video directed by Sam Brumby below. Dive into it, and keep an eye on St. South as she continues to rise into something remarkably special across the year ahead.

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