Naarm/Melbourne singer-songwriter Grace Robinson shares her newest single ‘driving’, the third to arrive from her forthcoming debut LP, choppy, out November 13. LISTEN HERE + WATCH HERE + PRESAVE LP HERE + PRE-ORDER VINYL VIA IMPRESSED RECORDS.

‘driving’ was written on what was meant to be a five-week trip off the grid on Bajawa, Flores, but instead, Robinson spent most of it answering emails. The song turns that theme on itself, speaking to her unique experience on both sides of the industry: as a booking agent with WAT Artists, a festival programmer, the director of a hundred-person choir, and a teacher on the side, she’s constantly trying to work out where all that admin work leaves room for her own songs — and even when she’s trying her best to be creative and ‘live in the moment’ as an artist, that instinct usually gets trumped by the day job. “In order to sustain a life in the music industry, you end up needing to do a million things just to stay afloat,” she says. “I’m not even sure if I’m the player or the game.”

Watch: Grace Robinson – ‘driving’ (Official Music Video)

Musically, it’s the most straightforward indie-rock moment on the record so far. Jangly, driving guitars hold up a vocal that keeps shifting register underneath them, gentle in the verses and cracked open by the chorus. “She’s precise but never short on personality,” wrote Bad Scene. “When she lingers and lilts, it’s lovely. When she decides to rock, it’s a thrilling little hit of sugar.” The song closes on its central question, unresolved: how long can I keep driving on empty until I fill you up?

“That trip was supposed to be about decompressing, and I ruined it by trying to keep every plate spinning from a hostel in Flores,” Robinson says. “It was only writing the chorus that I actually understood you’re allowed to move slowly. You’re allowed to swim in the ocean and just wait. Not everything has to happen all at once.”

‘driving’ follows ‘harder than you think‘ and ‘is it over?’, rounding out a clearer picture of what choppy is circling: a record that questions the external by going internal first, that’s about the body without forgetting the brain runs it, and that keeps returning to the part of yourself you’ve let rot rather than deal with.

choppy is Robinson’s first full-length record under her own name, produced by Alex Gorman (Angie McMahon), mixed by Marcus Paquin (Julia Jacklin, Arcade Fire, Saya Gray), and recorded in five days at a Pakenham studio with her closest collaborators around her. It’s the clearest picture yet of an artist who spent a decade making other people’s music before she made her own — a decade that includes national tours booked, an 80-voice choir directed, five years of jazz training at the VCA, and the front of Naarm electro-soul outfit Empress across Dark Mofo, Beyond the Valley and Strawberry Fields.

‘harder than you think‘ picked up triple j Unearthed rotation in its first weeks, an ABC Rage feature, and coverage from The AU Review, Beat Magazine, Atwood Magazine and KEXP in the US. Robinson has sold out headline shows around the country, supported Middle Kids, JET, Hiatus Kaiyote and TOPS (CA), and played Dark Mofo, PANAMA, Brunswick Music Festival, Wonder Mountain and Queenscliff Music Festival, among others.