Sydney’s Donna Amini has released her phenomenal second studio album, 'Other People'. The release of 'Other People' demonstrates a beautiful evolution of Amini’s style as a songwriter. As she charts course for the embrace of a new creative era, this is the type of album to reposition her clear and proven songwriting skills in front of audiences new and long-standing alike.
An album about behaviour and the human condition, 'Other People' outlines a unique set of observations and perspectives. Amini is wonderfully experimental with her lyricism, exhibiting an incredible ability to take her audience from light to dark in a heartbeat, and then back again. At times, her writing is detailed and vivid in nature; at others, it is playful, minimal, and almost childlike, diverting more attention towards the instrumental aspect of the song. In both spaces, though, she never fails to capture something poetically visceral, in a way that is sure to linger in any listener’s mind.
Speaking about the album, Donna shared, “The title ‘Other People’ relates to the false idea that we are somehow separate from others. And how questioning other peoples’ behaviour, is really holding up a mirror to our own. The entire album is an abstract presentation of how we look at the world through the lens of our own personal culture and traumas. But as a body of work, I’d say it’s a collection of songs that are cutting, full and direct.”
Featuring previously released tracks like ‘Suburban Surf’ and ‘Big Machine’, the two songs Amini developed and released prior to 2020, Other People represents a sonic and artistic peak for the Sydney songwriter and performer. The album’s lead single ‘Pilots’, released earlier this month, was dropped alongside a visually stunning music video directed by Shahane Bekarian and filmed in Sydney, at Good Loco in Marrickville.
The process of creating 'Other People' involved collaborating with a variety of talented individuals, each of whom undoubtedly brought their own spark and expertise to the end result of Amini’s sophomore album. Other People was engineered and recorded by Amini and Nathan Sheehy; the bulk of the record was mixed by Tobias Priddle, with additional mixing by Sheehy (‘Suburban Surf’, ‘She Said’ and ‘Pilots’) and Wade Keighran (‘Big Machine’).
The sonic nature of the record finds a stunning balance between hard-hitting percussion, enchanting raspy vocals, and Amini’s signature 90s-alt-rock style guitar fuzz. Along with Amini’s own skilful musicianship, the album features instrumentation from Nick Collerson (drums), Jon Zion (bass), Tobias Priddle (bass - ‘Love Me’, ‘Ghost’), Scott Leishman (bass, ‘Hell’) and Wade Keighran (bass, ‘Big Machine’). Also featured on the track ‘Bowie’, is instrumentalist Glenn Sarangapany (Birds of Tokyo).
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