On episode 28 of Round the Ground, I interviewed Adelaide singer-songwriter Anna Jeavons, who’s on the cusp of releasing her debut album, Anomie.

How long have you been performing actively in the Adelaide scene?

Oh, a long time. I first picked up a guitar and got forced on stage when I was 19. It’s been over 15 years of playing little shows. I’ve never been a big artist in Adelaide, but I’m also involved in a lot of community work in the Adelaide scene, including Girls Rock, which is the best.

What happened at 19? You were just pushed onto the stage?

Kind of… I lived in a big share house with a lot of music-minded friends and they were doing some weekly music shows. They were like, “You know what? You’ve written a song. Get up there.” And that’s how I started performing live. I only had like one or two songs that I could barely play, but they just pushed me on stage and got it all going.

That’s an unconventional introduction into the music scene, but hey, if it worked for you! You also just mentioned Girls Rock, can you tell me about that?

Yes, there’s actually Girls Rock organisations across the country. But in Adelaide, we were founded in 2018, and it’s basically a music mentorship program.

It’s for girls, trans and non-binary young people, we bring them in and get them to start a band and write songs together for the first time, to build their confidence and get a few more people into the music scene that otherwise wouldn’t have the chance or the confidence to give it a go.

Is the Adelaide scene very welcoming to emerging musicians, particularly women and gender diverse communities?

I can only speak from my perspective and my friend’s perspective—I think every scene has challenges—but Adelaide has certain scenes that I think are really beautiful and welcoming because we’re so small, everyone kind of knows each other.

Adelaide has certain scenes that I think are really beautiful and welcoming

When I was recording my album with Ben Stewart, who’s from Melbourne, every time he came to Adelaide, he felt like it was ruled by the girls. It was such a good vibe. I’m sure there are people in different pockets of the scene that have had different experiences, but it’s certainly positive for me.

That’s such a difference compared to Sydney’s Northern Beaches, which is the region I covered last week. When I was researching that scene, I could find barely any bands with female members. It was basically a perfect 50/50 split between solo female musicians and all male bands. There was no in-between.

Do you have a favourite venue in Adelaide that you’ve enjoyed from just a gig goer’s perspective?

I love a pub gig. So the Crown and Anchor has always been a staple of the Adelaide scene. It’s currently shifted to the Ed Castle because of all this renovations and stuff. There’s The Wheatsheaf as well, which is great.

I’m doing my album launch at Nexus Arts, which is more of an arts venue, but it’s fully accessible and it does all ages shows.

In the national scene, I’m sure you’ve noticed in the past couple years, that Adelaide keeps getting snubbed. International musicians always go to Sydney, Melbourne, maybe Brisbane, but never Adelaide… Katy Perry was the anomaly. 

Yeah, like, I know Lily Allen’s not coming to Adelaide, but she is going to Perth, and same with like Hillary Duff.

It sucks, but also I really empathise with some of the artists, like it costs so much to go on tour, and Adelaide is far away. Adelaide is notoriously mostly last-minute ticket buyers, and I can really understand from an artist’s perspective why that sucks.

Adelaide is notoriously mostly last-minute ticket buyers

And if we want people coming here, we need to make sure we’re showing up and we’re supporting them when they do. So I think it’s a mutual responsibility to support that relationship.

That’s a great point. When I covered Adelaide last year, I spoke to Dakota Griffiths of Band Banta and she said the exact same thing about Adelaide, which I hadn’t heard anywhere else.

Maybe like sleepy town vibes or maybe the average age, because a lot of young people do move to Melbourne or Sydney or elsewhere. And I think Covid really changed the way people go out and interact as well, and it almost hasn’t recovered since then.

Can you tell me about your upcoming album, which is coming out in April?

Yes, it’s my first album and it’s been produced by Ben Stewart from Slowly Slowly. It’s a huge thing for me — I’ve always loved his music and we just came together and made something that I’m really proud of.

There are a lot of songs from my twenties that I wanted to capture before I get old and forget about them. So there’s a lot of stuff about your turbulent 20s, experiencing a quarter-life crisis, and living with mental health challenges, dealing with things like nihilism or just generally being really lonely and miserable.

Broadly, it’s got a bit of a melancholy, kind of sad-core vibe, but ‘Woo Me’, the lead single that came out, is actually quite upbeat and kind of unusually happy compared to the rest of the album. It’s one of my older songs, and it’s quite optimistic — It’s about being sick of shitty relationships and not wanting to put up with them anymore.

How long have you been workshopping that song?

Oh my god, I don’t even want to tell you, it’s so long ago. I feel like it’s a 15 year old song potentially.

It’s the song that people remember from my sets and like tell me that they, they get it stuck in their head. So I was like, it has to be on the album, even though it’s from a million years ago.

It’s been a trend recently, I want to know why you decided to trickle the release of singles in batches of triple A-sides.

It’s really hard for one song to capture the vibe of the album, or like who I am as an artist, so releasing three songs each, with slightly different vibes, kind of gives a broader picture. And if someone doesn’t like one or connect with one, they might connect with another one.

So to me, it puts less pressure on the single, and it just feels a little bit nicer, especially if three songs, or two, just fit well together. I think it’s a great strategy.

Follow Anna Jeavons: @anna.jeavons and listen to her music on Bandcamp…