Music Feeds’ Love Letter to a Record series asks artists to reflect on their relationship with the music they love and share stories about how it has influenced their lives. Here, Bundjalung singer-songwriter Djanaba gets personal talking about Fountain Baby, the 2023 debut from Ghanaian R&B star Amaarae.
Djanaba recently released her debut album, Did I Stutter?, via etcetc. In a press statement, she noted that the album stood “far above what [she] ever thought [she] could create”. “This album could honestly be my own how-to guide on figuring shit out in your early 20s,” she said. “Don’t stop. Don’t question. Don’t change. Just grow. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been worth every second.”
The album can be streamed below, with Djanaba’s Love Letter to Fountain Baby after it.
Djanaba – Did I Stutter?
The first time I heard Fountain Baby, it was the day it came out. I was 23; freshly moved to Sydney, broke, and trying to make music my full-time thing. I remember hitting play on the first track, and before the first song even finished, I had downloaded the whole album. It was instant. The way Amaarae constructed the project — how every song flows into the next, each one so unique but still part of the same sonic world — was unlike anything I’d heard before.
It was the kind of album that made you want to start over the moment it ended, just to feel it all
again. When I think about that first moment now, Fountain Baby feels like a time capsule of that era in my life — uncertain, full of potential, scary, and strangely beautiful. What Amaarae did on this album felt different. She didn’t box herself in. The production isn’t bound to one genre; it’s fluid, bold, and confident. That was a huge thing for me to witness as someone just stepping into producing my own stuff. When you’re starting out in music, there’s all this pressure to “pick a lane” — be it pop, or R&B, or dance music. Amaarae didn’t follow that. She made it OK for music to sound like a mix of all the soundscapes she loved, as long as it was good. And Fountain Baby is so good.
Amaarae – ‘Angels In Tibet’
I remember listening to ‘Angels In Tibet’ for the first time and just being floored. It starts off all soft and floaty, with these delicate strings, and then suddenly it drops. The bass hits, the energy shifts and it becomes this completely different experience. It’s cinematic, playful, powerful. I love that kind of dynamic shift in a song — it keeps you on your toes. Then, there’s ‘Water From Wine’. That song is just a straight-up bop. The kind you hear and your body just has to move. But, it’s not just fun — it’s sonically stunning. There’s this lightness to it, even in the rhythm. It’s danceable, sure, but also so delicately constructed. That combination — beauty and movement — is kind of rare.
Still, the music itself was more than enough. It felt like a friend, a mirror, a push forward. It reminded me where I was, and made me think about where I could go. Especially an album like Fountain Baby, which refuses to fit into one shape, one tone, or one mood. It’s a reminder that you don’t have to, either. You can be complex. You can shift. You can be soft and then loud. Chill and then explosive. Just like Fountain Baby. That realisation might just have changed everything for me.
Djanaba will be performing as part of Garrima: The Country Cries for Truth at the State Library of New South Wales on Tuesday, July 8th as part of NAIDOC Week 2025. Tickets are free, but RSVPs are required – which can be accessed via the State Library of New South Wales website.
Further Reading
Love Letter To A Record: Mikayla Pasterfield On Matt Maeson’s ‘Bank On The Funeral’
Love Letter To A Record: Hassall On Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bookends’
Love Letter To A Record: Hein Cooper On Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’
