Emma Russack Chats Fighting Social Media Fixation With Her Childhood Piano & Performs ‘Body Goals’ Live

October 17th 2017

  • Emma Russack :: Interview with Tanya Ali
  • Emma Russack :: Body Goals (Live)

Emma Russack chatted with Tanya Ali on Arvos about her disillusionment with technology and modern dating, going back home and where she disagrees with fellow muso Courtney Barnett.

The Melbourne-based singer songwriter’s new album, ‘Permanent Vacation’ was written in her hometown of Narooma on her childhood piano. But the album isn’t an innocent flashback; it addresses complex issues, such as body image and social media fixation. The video clip for her single ‘Body Goals’, which is filmed on a laptop camera, highlights the relationship between vanity and insecurity.

“I’ve got a bit of a fascination with technology and mobile phones and I think I use them too much…and that bothers me, and so I thought I’d kind of explore those ideas.”

While she professes some social media guilt, her new record seems to have had a cathartic effect. Russack says that usually “it takes a long time for me to feel happy about how my voice sounds,” but that this album was a “simple, spontaneous project.”

“It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but I, I don’t know, I was just in a really good place mentally.”

This may explain her song ‘Everybody Cares’, which subverts Courtney Barnett’s ”Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party’. Russack says she’s a fan of Barnett, but that the message “nobody really cares” doesn’t resonate with her.

“I would hate that to really be the case for me. I hope that when I don’t go to the party all my friends are totally bummed out and, you know, shitty at me.” This type of affirmation comes across as a healthy expression of self-worth, and is a far cry from the vanity that she critiques in her work.

There’s a lot to explore on ‘Permanent Vacation’. Hear Russack’s stellar live version of ‘Body Goals’ and get the full backstory in the full interview above.

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