It’s fitting that Candy’s latest album contains a song called ‘Challenger Deep’, taking its name from the deepest known point in the seabed. A Pull To Heal plums the full depths of its creator, Calum Newton’s thoughts and emotions, an unflinching and unrestrained exploration of what makes him the person he is. Earnest emotion is everywhere, whether it be while contemplating the horror of the 1997 Thredbo landslide in ‘Avalanche of Pain’ or contending with the personal terror of panic attacks on ‘Affirmation Fixation’.

Although previously known for his bedroom pop, he recruited Matthew Neighbour on mixing duties for this one, who has worked with distinct artists such as The Avalanches, Matt Corby, and Sky Ferreira. So the pleasant jangle of previous releases has been traded for rockier rhythms and thicker atmosphere. Candy sounds very much like DIIV on this album, if with less reverberating shoegaze and not quite so cloaked in murky mystery. Zachary Cole Smith (who notably dated Sky Ferreira for many years) and his band are well known for their significant issues with substance abuse and Candy’s record, one could envision, is the album they could have made if help had been sought to a greater extent, if a slightly clearer head had been able to raise itself above the parapet.

Which leads us back to ‘Affirmation Fixation’. Newton wrote the song after experiencing a derealisation episode. “I don’t feel right,” he howls in it, and his literate and forthright emotion feels real and raw. This is how Candy performs, how he feels music: there is little need for subtext or metaphor when you wish to connect with your audience at this level. To feel subsumed by a panic attack is the loneliest place of all; by sharing his own experience so openly, Newton can perhaps make any listener who’s suffered similarly feel a little less alone.

We caught up with Candy to take us through each track on A Pull To Heal individually, which you can read below.

Challenger Deep

‘Challenger Deep’ is the deepest known point in the earth’s seabed. Did you know more people have been to outer space than the deepest part of the ocean? Bit of trivia for you! I’d been messing around with some alternate tunings and came up with this. It’s E A D F# B D. My favourite bit is 1:30 where it’s got that weird swirling underwater sound like you’ve just been hit by a wave and you break through the water as the instrumentation comes back in. Props to Matthew who who made that the way it was. I’d just had it as a solo guitar voice thing.

Avalanche Of Pain

My most emo title yet I reckon. This came about from a trip to Thredbo with Annie and her family. The lodge they stay at is next to one of the lodges that was hit by the 1997 landslide. I hadn’t known about it until I read about it at the little Thredbo museum under the steps while I was trying to find the bistro. A truly horrible and saddening event. Big huge drums by Dan Oke here and pretty much on every other song too.

Who You Are

One of those looking-in-the-mirror songs about being discontent with the evil conniving parts of yourself. You can’t have the good without the bad I guess? Kinda feels Star Wars-esque. I love all the strings performed by Mara Scherdtfeger and the backing vocals/harmonies by Layla-Rai Cambourne.

Reaper

The chorus was taken from the final words of Robert Alton Harris, an American criminal. An absolutely awful person considering what he did in the 70’s. I stumbled across him because I’d watched Escape From Alcatraz and got really into looking up the Wikipedia of criminals and stuff. Bit morbid.

Buried In The Ground

I played drums on this track! Sam Lyons played sax and keys and Mara played some strings. This is maybe my favourite on the album. I’d recently spent some time with Annie’s nephew, Harvey, as everyone else was skiing. We watched David Attenborough and he kept saying the wrong animals that came on screen. Keep in mind he was two at the time but I thought it was really cute. It also made me sad thinking of a world he might grow up in, where this beautiful earth is no longer available to bask in.

Affirmation Fixation

I had a panic attack watching Hereditary. It sent me into a bit of a spiral where I didn’t know what was real or fake. It was super scary and since then my anxiety has been a lot higher. Saw a psych the other day – not sure it was that helpful but I’m taking steps to try and have some ownership over it and learn how to deal with it better. Stopped drinking coffee too! Now I’m a little less anxious - more of an earl grey person. Layla also contributed vocals to this song too.

(we did it to ourselves)

I thought the album needed something just a little different to make it feel like an album, you feel? I loved these lyrics - ‘We did it to ourselves, We cut the tongue out of our mouths’ - from ‘Silent Spring’ and wanted to incorporate it earlier in the album to give a more thematic drive.

Clean

I wrote ‘Clean’ after the bushfires at the end of 2019. A lot has happened since then! This song came about from feeling the collective despair of a country whose leaders don’t seem to put much energy into the planet and write these events off as mere coincidence. Getting a text from my mum saying she was ready to leave her farm if required was just heartbreaking. She ended up being fine but so many others in the country weren’t.

From The Belvedere

Ahhh my shred song! Ran my guitar through this multi effects unit that supposedly My Bloody Valentine used a lot on Loveless - Yamaha SPX90. The song’s about being near those going through things like depression and eating disorders. It’s hard to know how to be supportive of those people. Hindsight can make us realise what was really happening even if we didn’t notice at the time.

Silent Spring

This was inspired by the book of the same name written by Rachel Carson. Really love the vocals by Layla and the strings by Mara. The lyrics are pretty full on so it was a bit of a laugh getting Layla to sing it and get all moody with me in my garage. I think it might be my favourite song to play live at the moment. Definitely a change up from my more bedroom pop stuff that’s for sure.