Tones and I and Thelma Plum share their emotional wrestle with success after ARIA Awards nominations
Tones and I’s ‘Dance Monkey’ catapulted the young Melburnian to music stardom. But she wishes the chart-slaying hit would dance off stage left, as she and fellow ARIA nominee Thelma Plum reveal their emotional wrestle with success.
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AS the Australian music industry celebrated the pop phenomenon that is Tones and I with eight nominations for the 2019 ARIA Awards, the 19-year-old artist was wrestling with how she felt about the adulation.
Even as her chart-slaying Dance Monkey continues to reverberate around the world to the tune of 300 million streams, finding fans from six to 60, Tones wishes her breakthrough single would dance off stage left.
“I know every artist says this but there is nothing more true than the fact you could start really not liking your song if it goes that big,” she said after her nominations tally was revealed on Thursday.
“I’m proud I wrote that song and I have those moments whenever I play it live but I have other music that I want to get out there for different reasons and I’m so ready for Dance Monkey to fly away.”
The other songs she would like to have their moment include Never Seen The Rain, about people whose lives are paralysed by fear of failure, through to The Kids Are Coming, an anthem for the global youth activist movement.
Dance Monkey in fact was written about her frustration about the expectations fans often put on performers to be, well, a dance monkey.
The serious undercurrent of the song was hijacked by the hilarious film clip featuring Tones, made up as a senior citizen, dancing to the song. It has been nominated for the publicly voted Video of the Year.
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“It’s fun for kids but also repetitive enough for adults for it to be catchy. I don’t think the video gives the song the depth that it had when I wrote it but I made the decision for the song to be taken lightly when I chose the film clip (treatment) I did and I don’t regret it for a second,” she said.
Her next song seeks to answer the question she gets most: how do you feel? It’s the first thing anyone asks in the wake of another seismic moment in her fledgling career.
To date, Dance Monkey has set a new record with 10 weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA charts, the longest streak for an Australian artist.
She became the first Australian artist in five years to top the UK charts this week.
And she is racking up streams and Shazams faster than any other Aussie in the history of the digital era.
“The next song I am releasing which is probably my most favourite song I have written and is called You Can’t Be Happy All The Time. I’ve played it here and there at a few shows and it’s more of a ballad,” she said.
“It is about the question everyone asks me about how does it feel?
“At the end of the day, I’m still trying to spend time with my friends, I’m trying to be healthy and happy, I want to play basketball, I’m still trying to do the same stuff that I always did.
“I’m really happy this has happened — it’s my whole dream, my whole life goal — but it doesn’t change those things of wanting to be loved and wanting to love, having strong connections with people and see your mates and have those fun times and laugh as much as possible. I just wanted to write a song about that.”
Currently on a sold-out tour of Australia, Tones and her team are keeping healthy on the road by staying sober and instituting the “hydration challenge” where they compete to drink three litres a day.
There are also fun activities planned including playing basketball and going to watch her new mates in the Australian women’s cricket team play against Sri Lanka in Brisbane.
As for the ARIA Awards coming up on November 27, Tones won’t be thinking about it anymore until the day arrives.
“This time last year I was watching the ARIAs with Amy Shark (winning), living in my van, and I would never, ever, ever think this would be me right now. No f … ing way, it’s the craziest thing,” she said.
“Some people think when it happens, all your problems must be over but they’re not. You still want to focus on fixing the exact same things you were focused on a year ago which is being happy and healthy. You career and your passion is only 50 per cent of it, which is a good chunk.”
Her uneasy relationship with success is shared by fellow 2019 ARIA Awards nominee Thelma Plum.
Plum’s Better in Blak album scored six nominations, recognising her fierce bravery in telling uncomfortable stories about prejudice, bullying and misogyny wrapped in bright pop melodies.
In between trading GIFs with her parents about the exciting recognition of her work by her peers, she admitted she was overwhelmed.
“I feel a bit like I’m in a dream. I worked so hard and I shared a lot of things that were very hard for me,” she said.
“The lead up to writing it, then recording it and the anticipation before it came out, it all feels worth it. I’m glad people have found that it resonates with them.”
Like Tones, she admits she can feel an emotional toll performing songs ripped from her soul.
“I have such a funny relationship with my songs. One day I will love it and have a deep connection to it and the next day I’m like ‘I can’t listen to this, it makes me too sad’.
“Do You Ever Get So Sad, that song makes me a bit teary if I hear it playing somewhere or I am singing it on stage.”
The 2019 ARIA Awards will be revealed at the Star Event Centre on November 27.