IT would be accurate to say the past 18 months have been horrendous for the career of the majority of musicians.
Lake Macquarie pop-country singer-songwriter Kirsty Lee Akers is one of those few exceptions to the rule. Thanks to Akers and her husband Jesse Anderson's appearance on Channel Nine reality TV show The Block, her music is finding a new audience.
"The thing I like about the show, not just new audiences getting introduced to my music, but so many people are getting introduced to country music in general," Akers said. "Before we were on the show you'd be lucky to hear one country song through the whole season.
"Now every single night, four nights a week, every time we come on the screen they play some different country song."
There's been articles in Woman's Day magazine and attention from national media over the past week since the release of Akers' new single For Love.
The track began as a traditional country song before modern studio production turned For Love into arguably the most commercial pop track in Akers' repertoire.
"I knew The Block would introduce new audiences to my music so we wanted to go with a mainstream approach," she said.
"I think we've come up with a good mix, so that people who like my old music will still like it and people who haven't necessarily liked country music in the past will like it as well."
The video clip has also attracted attention. Due to lockdown the video was filmed at home with Anderson directing and starring alongside Akers.
"It's basically us just being love in a house and it gets a bit steamy, which is funny to see some people's comments on the internet," she said.
Akers was booked to travel to Nashville in April last year to write with long-time collaborators Bruce Wallace and Phil Barton. When COVID cancelled those plans she turned to co-writing through Zoom.
For Love and Akers' sixth album, due in early 2022, were the result of those weekly songwriting sessions.
"A lot of songwriters started writing on Zoom and I'd never done it before," she said. "Before COVID people would ask me to write on Zoom all the time and I'd say, 'nah, I'm not doing that' as I like being in person but we had no choice."
Akers will release a second single later this year before making her live return at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January.
MALL GET HEAVY
A DESIRE to channel their hardcore tendencies led to the formation of Newcastle supergroup Dead Mall.
The five piece features Split Feed and Lamphead frontman Joe Willis (guitar, clean vocals) and Split Feed's Adam Lindsay (bass), Jacob's Ruairi Burns (heavy vocals), Lamphead's Darcy Long (guitar) and Resident's Liam Ruddo (drums).
Willis is the chief songwriter and he began the project with Dead Mall's producer, Long, last year before the other three completed the line-up.
"It's the heaviest thing we've all done, which is exciting," Long said.
"It's something a bit fresh for us all. Because our other bands are brighter and lighter in general, Dead Mall is like an outlet to let out that side of our inspiration."
The first track Cough It Up was released last week, ahead of a second single and five-track EP before Christmas.
Dead Mall are planning to make their live debut at an EP launch later this year, COVID-19 restrictions pending.
NAT CATCHES FIRE
WHAT does Queen, Cold Chisel and Gurrumul all have in common? This week the three legendary music acts sit behind Newcastle alt-country singer-songwriter Natalie Henry in the ARIA album charts.
Henry's second album White Heatdebuted at No.34, the 40-year-old's first entry into the charts.
The impressive result for the independent artist also places Henry's record at No.6 on the Australian album charts behind Linda & Vika Bull, The Kid Laroi, Lachy Doley, Guy Sebastian and Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes and second on the country album charts.
GOOD ONE FALLS
NEWCASTLE country-pop band Hurricane Fall didn't aim for subtly when they named their latest single Good One.
The track follows the 2021 Golden Guitar nominated band's single Another One More Time, which was become the five-piece's most popular song on Spotify with almost 800,000 streams.
Good One was recorded over Zoom before producers Michael Paynter and Michael Delorenzis edited it together in their Melbourne studio.
The COVID lockdown played havoc with Hurricane Fall's touring commitments this year, but the band hope to return to the stage in January at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
