It's been a little while between releases for The Passport Label, but we are absolutely honoured to team up with the incredible Adalita for our next 7". If you know anything at all about Australian music, of course, you already know who Adalita is. You know her as Magic Dirt’s leading lady, who for nearly two decades have been one of Australia’s most respected and influential bands.
Taken from Adalita’s widely acclaimed debut solo record, The Repairer is a stark, haunting track which showcases her stunning vocals, heartfelt songwriting and adept guitar work. B-side Hot Air was the first song Adalita wrote for the album. “It really just came out of the blue. I had a loop going of two simple guitar chords and then laid down a melodic refrain over the top. The words came from a poem I wrote a long time ago.”
The music isn’t so much a radical departure from Magic Dirt as it is a distillation of everything that band represents, with the layers of instrumentation stripped away, leaving only the bare bones of the songs themselves. Startlingly direct, austere, beautiful and powerful.
“It was on Dean’s advice and encouragement that I give the solo thing a go,” Adalita says of her decision to go out on her own. “He really wanted to bring out other aspects of my songwriting.”
She’s speaking, of course, of her late Magic Dirt bandmate Dean Turner, who passed away of cancer in August, 2009 at only 37. Turner recorded the early takes with Adalita that June, only weeks before his death. “He was absolutely my mentor. We were a creative perfect match and also each other’s closest, most trusted friend. I looked to him for pretty much everything.”
View the Adam Harding directed video here.
On September 5, The Passport Label releases The Repairer on 7" and digital.
