The much anticipated second album I Get Into Trouble from Naarm/Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Maple Glider is released this Friday, October 13 via Pieater / Partisan. Today she shares the last preview by the way of ‘Do You’. LISTEN + WATCH HERE.

Today we can hear the sixth taste from the album. Opener ‘Do You’ is an entreaty to an estranged loved one. The project of Tori Zietsch (pron. like ‘peach’ with a z), the songs are an immediate doorway to deeply personal storytelling, shared with an edge of wry humour, over beautiful and memorable melodies and delicately balanced indie-folk instrumentation.

At the time of writing, Zietsch was in a new city, bonding joyously with a new friend, and being included in their family circle. This caused Zietsch to realise how distant she was from her own, and created a longing for better understanding, whilst also accepting her own culpability thanks to stubbornness inhibiting the closeness she desired. The music video was made with the collaborative team of Bridgette Winten and Tom Dunphy (also behind the Double J playlisted ‘Dinah‘ and ‘You’re Gonna Be A Daddy‘ videos).

Says Zietsch “For me, this song holds the feeling of being frustrated by someone who refuses to see who you are, no matter how much you put yourself in front of them, until eventually, you retreat. It’s also about the self-obsession that can come as a result of that, the fixation on identity, complicated feelings of inadequacy, and the search for meaning and significance in failing relationships. As always, there are many sides to the sphere, the ball just keeps spinning.”

Zeitsch explains further, “I wanted to capture those feelings of loneliness and connectedness I had in those first couple of years in the city. The nice fun bits and also the strange and sad bits. All the confusion of moving to a new place and really feeling like you are leaving an old life behind. But also how attempting to separate yourself completely from your past can also make it so much harder to recognise where you need growth. It’s really just a very emotional song and I think Bridgette in particular wanted to capture the sadness of it in a nostalgic and beautiful way.”

From mid-2021, the recording process for I Get Into Trouble stretched out for over a year, with studio access limited by Naarm / Melbourne’s strict lockdown schedule. The new freedoms of 2022 brought a mixed bag of awkwardness, excitement, anxiety, deadlines, celebrations and exhaustion. Zietsch found solace in nature, and in the friendship of her touring band.

Many of the songs on the new album were initially rejected as too angry, or too difficult to process. Zietsch delves back into her Christian childhood; explores her relationship to her body; consent; shame; and the death of relationships, both romantic and familial. But it’s also hopeful – there is new life, new love, and the desire to reconnect and find peace with it all. The majority of songs are performed on acoustic guitar – the exceptions being the slinky ‘Two Years‘ and lockdown lullaby ‘Scream’.

The first single ‘Don’t Kiss Me‘ was written as a counterattack on unwanted sexual attention and the objectifying gaze, it had already become an emotional peak of the live show. In Maple Glider’s typical wry fashion, the accompanying video offset the lyrics’ heaviness as a lo-fi comedy-horror, featuring a laser-eyed porcelain witch doll.

Whether it’s acerbic recriminations or devastatingly loving entreaties, Zietsch’s lyricism gets into the nooks and crannies of relationships. The back-to-back pairing of ‘You At The Top Of The Driveway‘ into ‘You’re Gonna Be A Daddy‘ holds so much tenderness – the story continuing from the heart-breaking ‘Mama It’s Christmas’ from the first LP. ‘Driveway‘ holds snapshots of childhood memories, à la Woolf or Proust, and ‘Daddy‘ compares the now-contrasting lives, forging paths taking them further and further away from their former intimacy. The video is gratuitously full of colourful costumes and a fabulous giant unicorn affectionately nicknamed “Stubz”.

The album title I Get Into Trouble is taken from the bible story “Dinah Gets Into Trouble”, where a young woman is victim blamed for being sexually assaulted. ‘Dinah‘, the most sonically “pop” tune we’ve heard from Maple Glider, outlines the double standards within Zietsch’s own experience growing up in Christianity; and the accusations levelled at “non-believers” whilst the church itself was not a safe space – contrasted by a colourfully kitsch video featuring a pink dildo as preacher’s microphone.

Says Zietsch “I want to channel the frustration and anger I’ve felt about all of these things over the past 15 years outside of religion in a playful, fun, and cheeky way. It feels like the only way to digest it at this point.” Result: irreverent artwork and imagery that flips the bird to concepts of purity and meekness. Maple Glider has recently wrapped up her first tour of the UK/EU, selling out two London dates and her Paris show. She’ll take the album along Australia’s east coast this November, followed by her first dates in the USA.