It’s been a couple of years since we last heard from The Overheads, the Melbourne dream-pop group led by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sunny Morris. While that project’s sound was defined by glistening synths and intricate grooves, it’s clear with Sunny’s debut solo record that we’re entering a new phase with the artist, Hearsay arriving loaded with balmy pop smarts and folksy tenderness as she fully leans into her commanding brand of storytelling.

Across the ten tracks of Hearsay, Sunny reveals a dynamic ability to encompass the sharp, directness of the folk-rock greats alongside a delicateness that loads her music with intimacy and potent power. Opening track ‘See You In A Million Years On Sunday’ erupts open with rich guitar jangles over an assertive groove, and tracks like ‘Who Knows How I Ever Got To Sleep?’ and ‘Mistress’ keep this atmosphere up with their expansive instrumentation and striking vocals. Whereas on moments like ‘Add Anything To That’ or ‘Dinner Table (Tiramisu)’, she cleverly resists the urge to fill the soundscape and instead places her evocative lyricism in full focus. As she suggests in the following track by track, at over eight minutes long ’Judgement Days’ plays as an album centrepiece, and in doing so Sunny manages to combine these two sides of her songwriting - crafting a sprawling and dynamic journey that feels equal parts meditative and gloriously transportive.

To help us get to know the new record a little better, Sunny kindly walked us through each track on Hearsay.

See You In A Million Years On Sunday

I remember during the first lockdown, riding my bike down Sydney Road, which was eerily deserted and silent. This old guy crossing the street randomly yelled “It’s like bloody World War III!” I remember that’s when the reality of the pandemic kicked in. There’s lots of moments like that in this song, but I can’t really make sense of most of them!

Who Knows How I Ever Got To Sleep?

This is maybe the only song that I look back on having written two years ago and feel like is still relevant to my experience now as a trans woman. I remember months of back and forth battling with myself trying to figure out what I was. I think the chaos of the song feels accurate to the craziness I was experiencing at the time.

Help

I can’t remember what I was feeling when I wrote this, but very recently I had my first proper mental breakdown (hurray!) and it took a lot of strength to ask for help. But that was the best thing I could have done for myself, just letting people know. So I wanted to remind people that letting people in and asking for help, even if it seems impossible, is always the right thing. I love you and you are beautiful ok!

The Wind He Howls

This was a poem I wrote after reading The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain. I don’t remember much of what happens in the book, but the concept seemed relevant at the time. I like to think of this song as a side story to ‘Judgement Days’. Something about “The howling winds on the crimson sheets of water”.

Add Anything To That

I’m not sure where the idea for this song came from. It’s just six lines, from the perspective of a mother telling her child that she doesn’t have the money to give them what she would like to. I guess it’s a question of what a mother’s love is worth in place of that. It’s probably to do with my own relationship with my mum and how I always feel guilty when she spends money on anything.

Judgement Days

This feels like the centrepiece of the album to me, mostly because it’s a story set in a specific place, with lots of different themes which the other songs on the album relate to. I started out with a very simple and kind of obscene vision of whatever apocalypse we seemed to be heading into in 2020, but over time became more interested in the idea that we always seem to be preparing for something that never happens and the effect of that endless anticipation. I wanted there to be a gentleness as well as chaos, which I think the character of Thomas embodies. There are so many different revisions of this song that eventually I felt like I needed to let it go and exist on its own, like it wasn’t even a song I had written.

Mistress

This is a fun song to play, but the lyrics are so silly! It was one of the first songs I wrote for the album. I seemed to be hung up on the idea of time and getting older. There’s a line in it from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, “The concentrated essence of all the madness in the world”, which I always thought might be the tagline for the album.

Dinner Table (Tiramisu)

Another one that started as a poem, about my family. My mum is the tired dragon in an apron and my dad is the badger badgering on about some existential crisis. For some reason my brother is tucked behind my ear. Fun fact: tiramisu is my favourite dessert!

The Quiet Chorus

A bit of a cheesy epic about …society… I’m really happy with how it sounds. Matthew Colin (who recorded and mixed the album) has a friend (Justin Marshall) who plays timpani. The world’s on fire! I guess this would be the song that most relates to the album cover.

Those Who Came To The Party

I wrote this for an event which featured three poets and three musicians who wrote a piece for the other to respond to, relating to a one word theme. I’d love to find the poem that was written in response to this song. Thanks Jess Zanoni for inviting me to that event! Otherwise this song wouldn’t exist.