SEPTEMBER is a new season, a fresh start and hopefully it brings some positive news in the battle against COVID as the weather warms.
It's also the time Newcastle teenage Americana singer-songwriter Piper Butcher felt ready to unleash her debut EP, naturally called September.
"September is my birthday month, so that was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to come out at that time and be called September as well," the soon-to-be 17-year-old said. "It's a fresh beginning for me to put all my music that I want out there and start my own career as my own person."
Despite being 16, the West Wallsend talent has been gigging since she was 11 to become a well-known and respected voice in the Newcastle music scene.
Back in April Butcher released her debut single, Haunting Your Thoughts, co-written with the 2020 Tamworth Country Music Festival Starmaker, Sammy White. It was followed by the bluesy alt-country of Before The Thunder. White's partner and fellow country artist Brad Cox, lent his band to back Butcher during the recording of the EP.
September will feature the two singles, plus originals Not Yet, Long Road and the scorching Soul Into Sand.
"Music is the best form of anger management, us musos have just got to get it out," Butcher said. "I felt that a lot with Soul Into Sand because it was originally about a girl who was trying to get into my friends and relationships and it was absolute mayhem."
Not Yet was the first song Butcher wrote aged 13. She wanted it included to illustrate her growth as an artist.
COVID-19 prevented Butcher from launching the EP in the traditional sense, but it didn't stop her from making noise in her own West Wallsend neighbourhood and online.
On Sunday she performed a livestream set from her driveway.
"We live right near a sports oval, so we had people walking past to go running at the oval and they were enjoying the music and cars driving past heading home from work," she said.
"So many neighbours sat outside on the driveways, having crackers and a drink. It was really fun."
Piper Butcher releases her EP September next Wednesday.
BOI IN BLISS
BOI'S trademark exuberance will have one of its biggest audiences on Friday when Sydney hip-hop heavyweights Bliss n Eso release their new album The Sun.
The record features the track Lost With You, a collaboration between Bliss N Eso and BOI, aka Newcastle electro-pop artist Anna Buckingham.
"She is a ball of lightning," Bliss n Eso's Max MacKinnon said of BOI. "She's so fun, she's so enthusiastic.
"She definitely brought the energy to the studio that day. She was even rap freestyling at one point. I was like, 'let's stick to the singing'."
The Sun also features collaborations with Kasey Chambers and Dizzee Rascal.
Meanwhile, Bliss N Eso have announced they will play Wests NEX on February 19, 2022 on their mammoth 29-date national tour.
COUNTRY COUPLE
NEWCASTLE could have a new country music power couple after Catherine Britt announced she's dating guitarist and drummer Bradley Bergen.
Bergen has played with the likes of Felicity Urquhart and is a sought-after musician in the country scene. The pair are long-time friends and previously dated when they were teenagers, prior to Britt's move to Nashville in 2004.
This week the couple teamed up on Facebook to perform a stripped-back version of Britt's new single Long Way Around, off her latest album Home Truths.
