Mackay singer Zoe McLellan releases EP after Kasey Chambers competition win
A rising star in the country music scene whose debut EP topped the charts just hours after it came out got a celebrity callout that blew up her social media. Watch the video.
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A new star is rising in the Mackay music scene, with Zoe McLellan’s self-titled debut record reaching number 1 on the iTunes country music charts just hours after release.
The 20-year-old singer-songwriter grew up in Mackay and had never recorded music before winning country musician Kasey Chambers’ The Rabbit Hole Recording Studio Songwriters Competition.
When she travelled to the Central Coast record studio slash music retreat, the lifelong fan said meeting Chambers in the flesh was like meeting “an old friend”.
“I felt like we’d known each other forever and Kasey said the same thing,” she said.
The Rabbit Hole Recording Studio Instagram announced four winners on October 18 in 2021, with McLellan taking out first place.
After growing up in a household where country music was “played religiously”, finding out she would get to meet Kasey Chambers and getting a congratulatory video from Australian music legend Keith Urban was “unbelievable”.
“My mum’s seen Keith Urban like five, six times ... and we love him so much,” she said.
“When I won the competition I was actually home sick (with) tonsillitis, so I was lying in bed and I was getting all these notifications.
“I saw that video on my Instagram and I was like ‘What is going on, what is my life right now?’
“I think I gained, like, 600 followers on Instagram (and) I had a few radio stations reach out to me, all while having tonsillitis so I could barely even speak.
“It was literally one of the craziest days in my life.”
While she works as a receptionist at Field Mining Services Group in Paget, she said it was probably good timing to be home sick because “I would have been absolutely no help”.
McLellan entered the competition on October 11, 2021, by posting a video of her singing an original song on Instagram and tagging the record studio.
The song was the first she had ever written back in 2019 and is now the first track on the EP, Here Goes.
The track had remained nameless for two years, with McLellan saying she “hated any name anybody suggested for it (until) Kasey suggested Here Goes”.
After several months working out song ideas on the phone, McLellan travelled to the NSW Central Coast to attend Chambers’ songwriting camp in March.
“I was really nervous until we actually got out and met her,” she said.
“It was such a great experience because that was the first time I’d actually met her and it felt like we’d known each other for way longer.
“In May, we drove from Mackay to Tamworth and I opened for Kasey at her Town Hall show.
“After the festival we drove from Tamworth to Central Coast where we recorded the full EP in two days, then drove back to Mackay.”
The Tamworth Town Hall gig was special for several reasons, the first being that McLellan got to debut the five songs that became her record.
“It was the first time I ever got to perform the five songs off the EP live for an audience,” she said.
“I was very nervous for these songs to go out ... because these songs are very personal and that’s the only music that I can really write is from experience.”
Kasey Chambers features on the fourth track, In The Railway, and came out to perform it in Tamworth “which was so cool”.
“I also got to come out during her set and I sang (Chambers’ hit song) The Captain with her,” McLellan said.
“That was probably one of the best memories of the whole experience.”
But McLellan said the most nerve-racking part was actually getting in the recording studio.
“What if I’m not good at it, what if it doesn’t sound right ... it was definitely daunting when you had the whole band there,” she said.
“It was just like all these people in this room ready to make my song come to life and I was so nervous, but they were so helpful.
“I honestly don’t think I could have recorded this EP with anybody else.
“Because (Kasey) just made it the best experience and I had so much fun while recording it.
“I’ve already decided I want to go back and record more.”
It may be a good idea, because it only took two hours after the EP was released for it to top the iTunes country music charts.
“It was up there for about a day, I think, before it came back down, but getting to say I was number one on the charts is pretty exciting,” she said.
Days after the EP release, McLellan was able to take her debut live at NQ’s Rock’n Country music festival in Mackay.
“I have so much fun at that festival (that) I’d come back every year if they’d have me,” she said.
Sunday’s set was on the biggest stage of her career so far, putting her on par with some of the region’s biggest music names.
Mackay is hometown to a cohort of talented musicians, including Tia Gostelow, Jack Gray, Brittany Elise, and Bella Mackenzie.
Bella Mackenzie has also had a special moment with Kasey Chambers who pulled her onto the stage at age 14 after seeing her cover of The Captain.
“When I was growing up and I first got into music, I got to see Jack Gray and Tia Gostelow when they used to perform together,” McLellan said.
“Mackay is definitely one of the most incredible places for young local artists to grow up because there’s so many of us here.
“They’re all so talented and to say that we all came from the same town is pretty amazing.”
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