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Jun 08, 2020 By Samantha Small Gordi

Australian musician Gordi (Sophie Payten) has shared her fourth single, “Unready,” from her new album, Our Two Skins, out June 26 on Jagjaguwar. It was shared via a video for the new song. Through all of June, Bandcamp proceeds for the track will go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency. Gordi will also join Bon Iver on their rescheduled Australian arena tour in early 2021.

Directed by Madeleine Purdy, the video shows a disgruntled clown, a lot of spilled spaghetti, and an impulsive haircut, among others. The track itself is a gorgeous synth-driven melody, with muted percussion and the ineffable feeling of letting go.

Initially, “Unready” began as a voice memo recorded in 2017 at a harmonium in Reykjavik, Iceland. She called upon Chris Messina (Bon Iver, Bruce Hornsby, Big Red Machine), and Zach Hanson (Bon Iver, Hand Habits, Waxahatchee, Tallest Man) to bring the track to life. The trio then set up shop on her farm in Australia with only a strobe light for guidance.

“For me it sits quite separately to the rest of the record—it’s the only song whose lyrics predate the period of my life described by the rest of the songs on Our Two Skins,” Gordi says in a press release. “When it came time to record the song we tracked every guitar we could find for the big strum sound in the chorus. Singing it proved a challenge because it sits a little higher than my comfortable register. We had tried to do the vocal takes in the cottage but it wasn’t working so one night we ventured over to my parent’s house for a change of scene. Chris asked me (as a joke) if we had any strobe lights in the house to set the mood. We always joke that you could request any object from my mum and she’d have it to you in minutes from some treasure trove of stuff in the house. Surely enough, we found a strobe light in the wardrobe of my brother’s childhood bedroom. We turned the lights off and hit the strobe, setting the perfect conditions to finally execute the vocal take for ‘Unready.’”

Previously Payten has shared three singles from Our Two Skins: “Aeroplane Bathroom,” “Sandwiches,” and “Volcanic.” “Volcanic” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Our Two Skins, was written post a nervous breakdown on a flight from Australia to Europe back in 2017. Payten had just earned a medical degree—a degree that she hopes to use to help out during the COVID-19 crisis. Currently on standby with a variety of hospitals, she is eager to return to wards when possible.

“I’ll dig out my work backpack, make sure my stethoscope is functioning as it should and go back to my other life; it will likely be in a more frantic state than I left it,” Payten said in a previous press release.

According to a previous press release, the “other life” is the crux of Our Two Skins. The album is a journey through an intense and life-changing realization of just who Payten really is and how she fits in the world.

Gordi 2021 Tour Dates with Bon Iver:

Sat. March 27 - Adelaide, Australia @ AEC Arena

Mon. March 29 - Melbourne, Australia @ Rod Laver

Thu. April 1 - Brisbane, Australia @ Riverstage

Mon. April 5 - Sydney, Australia @ ICC

Tue. April 6 - Sydney, Australia @ ICC

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