Circle is an artist based in Sydney, who has just released the delicate and nuanced album, Coco and Charlie, a collection of intimate portraits of those that have been nearest and dearest to him. He has the gift of writing and singing about the everyday, and giving it meaning and beauty.
Each track on the album is about someone, or an amalgam of several people, who has played an important part in his life – (ok, a dog also cracks a song!). There’s a gentle touch on each track, the vocals are warm and there’s a buoyant nostalgic feeling weaving its way through the album.
Circle writes about the evolution of the tracks on the album, “Coco and Charlie started as a collection of love songs about the people in my life who’ve made an indelible mark in one way or another. As the material progressed over the course of demos and a natural whittling down process, the songs started to be more like archetypes. With that development came a deeper freedom to expand on the lyrical content and not be too constrained to a corporeal truth about an individual.”
The recording process was definitely old-school. Each of the songs was recorded directly to an old Tascam Tape Machine at Enmore Audio. The album was self-produced, mixed and mastered with the collaborative input of Owen Penglis.
About the recording process, Circle writes: “We decided that we’d push classic four track demos to the absolute limit and record everything to our old Tascam tape machine. The process of a great condenser mic going through a world class preamp only to all end up on a $200 tape machine (with a ridiculously worn out tape inside) had a huge allure.”
“Coco and Charlie” has a wholeseome warmth to it. This is an album that will have you spinning on repeat. Fans of Sufjan Stevens, The Middle East and Nick Drake should be crushing on this.
Circle has put together a track-by-track breakdown of the album. So do get comfortable, press <play> and read on.
Al
Al is a very good friend of mine who’s also a songwriter. He’ll love this song and hate it and then love it again. The good thing about writing songs about songwriters is that they know it’s just a metaphor or a moment in time. It addresses friendship and the relationship we have with substances that may or may not be helping us along.
Lucy
Lucy is my dog and this is a song about accepting the transient nature of things and how easily animals can help show us that if we’re watching carefully. We’re fairly obsessed with keeping things safe, steady and the same despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Helen
Helen was a coworker who became a really good friend. She moved to Melbourne years ago and subsequent catch ups became weirder over time. Eventually there was a falling out over something quite small. It’s the most literal song on the record and is quite literally an apology and letter to a friend who I miss.
Dan
Dan was a member of Circle and a really good friend. I’ve written a few songs about Dan because we like each other, hate each other, frustrate each other and also learn from each other. As you get older maybe you become a little less tolerant to those who ruffle your feathers but that would be a huge shame to avoid those moments.
Tam
Tam’s my partner and the indirect reason this body of work came into being. Listen carefully and you’ll catch that in the song. We get along well and mostly we have a lot of fun but all relationships have their moments. This is a little snapshot that makes me laugh every time I hear it because it’s about a bunch of things that somehow work as a song and also touch on the importance of empathy in relationships.
Sid
Sid is/was my grandfather who passed recently. This is the only song that was written before December 2021 and it was always hard to perform because it was always so emotional. It captures a special feeling that anyone with older relatives would be familiar with and sonically explores some of the coolest things I’ve experimented with.
Eddie
Eddie is probably the furthest detached track from actual events even though little nuggets within the song are real. Eddie becomes a metaphor for ego or mind and the little stories you tell yourself and play around with that distract you from higher or deeper truths. Life’s full of Eddies so watch out!
Katherine
Katherine is a homage to the ghosts of our past that both haunt and help us. The archetype of the long lost friend or lover that so many people idealize actually represents the loss of innocence or childhood or grace or whatever you want to call it. The nugget here is that you never actually lost it and it’s been right here all along, just slightly obscured with a bunch of meaningless stuff you’ve been collecting.
Mac
This is a song about childhood and the impact that small things can have on the adult that you become. It points to exploring those stories you tell yourself and maybe not necessarily letting them define you. We all have a history and a story but there’s so much more to us that we uncover in the space of creativity that goes beyond that definition and that’s so important to explore.
Nadia
Nadia is/was my grandmother who passed away a few years ago. I felt like I lost a connection with her during her long illness but that the connection returned after her passing. Exploring that made me realize that our definition of people and who they are and what they are is wrong and is worth exploring. Start with yourself of course and the rest becomes easy.
Coco and Charlie is out now on all streaming platforms. You can keep up to date with Circle on Facebook
