Australian songwriter Angie McMahon has announced ‘Piano Salt’ (Released October 2nd on AWAL), a riveting, stripped-down companion piece to last year’s debut album ‘Salt’. After a truly breakout 2019 which saw her win the Grulke Prize at SXSW for Best Developing International Act (previously won by Courtney Barnett, CHVRCHES and Jade Bird), release her debut album ‘Salt’ and open Hozier’s massive US tour; 2020 has of course had some different plans. The Melbourne, Australia-based artist adapted with a return to the instrument that helped her fall in love with music in the first place – the piano. The new collection finds her reimagining five fan favorites from her debut album ‘Salt’, as well as stunning piano covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” and Lana Del Rey’s “Born To Die.”.
Angie has also shared a live piano version of her hit ‘Slow Mover’, which has amassed over 16 million Spotify plays and was certified Gold on the Australian charts. This new version of ‘Slow Mover’ comes in conjunction with the news that Angie has received a Levi’s Music Prize, aimed to help promising artists stay afloat through the pandemic. The moving and beautifully presented rendition takes this jaunty track to a whole new level. Soothing and sombre the track takes an almost lullaby tone with McMahon’s warm vocals caressing the melody with a sweet tenderness. The graceful piano surrounds the song in an immaculate soothing soundscape as McMahon’s emotive vocals highlight her mesmerising songwriting. The piano version is a cooler and elegant rendition of the track and showcases just how versatile McMahon is as an artist.
About the ‘Piano Salt’ collection McMahon said : “ Piano is the first instrument I learnt and the one that made me first love singing,My favourite piano song when I was young was k.d lang’s cover of ‘Hallelujah.’ So this EP feels like a return to my piano-cover-loving inner kid. It’s been a really nice creative opportunity to recreate the feeling of some bigger songs off my first record, give them a new life, and cover some of my favourite songs too. It gave me something to do when we went into quarantine. The creative process also helped me shed some fear around sounding too cheesy on the piano, or too sad – I realised that doesn’t matter so much because I just love to play and sing.”
Watch her perform ‘Slow Mover’ on piano below
Author : Danu
