Runaway Belles’ debut single ‘The Weekend’ is the kind of tender, affecting indie-folk that’s at once delicate and devastating. Above a textured backdrop of acoustic guitars, piano and cello, the Tasmanian duo – Tash Parker and Emma Anglesey – sing a breathtaking ode to doomed romance that centres around stunning vocal harmonies from the pair.
“This song is about that person who you can’t help but be in love with despite knowing it’s never going to work out in the end,” explains Parker.
‘The Weekend’ was self-produced by the duo with the help of Lachlan Carrick, Becki Whitton and Josh Barber, with instrumentals recorded in the Victorian studio of Wally DeBacker (AKA Gotye) and vocals tracked in an 1800s bluestone cottage on the edge of the Tasmanian wilderness.
“When we recorded this song we imagined we were sitting around a campfire in a forest with a guitar telling the story. We wanted to capture that intimacy in the verses. In contrast, in the choruses we imagined our voices and music carrying out into the expansive night sky and beautiful surrounding mountains – much like a weekend camping trip where you can forget about the troubles of the week,” says Anglesey.
“And with everything that’s going on in the world right now it feels like a good time to be sharing new music and connecting with people.”
Though ‘The Weekend’ is the first single from Runaway Belles, Parker and Anglesey – best friends and housemates – have been writing music and performing together for over 6 years, performing at the likes of Dark Mofo, Panama, Party in the Paddock.
Given that Parker and Anglesey share a residence, the duo’s creativity has been largely unaffected by having to self-isolate during lockdown. They’ve decided to make the most of it and perform a live-streamed set over on their Facebook page at 8pm every Monday throughout May.
“We live in a country town in Tasmania which means we’ve been iso buddies and can play live together in the same room for this livestream,” says Anglesey.
“We’re going to play 4-5 songs per stream which will give us some time to chat and share stories while not frying people’s eyeballs from looking at the screen for too long,” adds Tash.
Listen to ‘The Weekend’ below.
