Singing and Songing is the debut album from Sydney/Eora solo artist Hubcaps. Three years in the making, the record is a distinctive flavour of ambient pop, awash with droning synthesiser and layered vocals spinning out deeply confessional poetry. Steadily ticking beats push minimalist elements together, giving shape to nine mesmerising tracks. The resulting album airy richness is as atmospheric as it is identifiable – no mean feat considering the project comes mostly from Garageband.

Our Independent Artist of the Week this week, she joined Jenna Parker on Lunch to discuss their creative process, product and life post-debut.

Speaking to the beginnings of Singing and Songing, Hubcaps revealed the album’s origin as the fruit of her departure from tried and tested guitar-vocal singer songwriting and into electronic production.

“I was trying to learn as much as I could about Garageband. I was trying to do a little bit of everything and to make songs that I like to listen to as well.”

When asked about lyricism, Hubcaps spoke to her poetry-first writing process.

“Most of the songs that I’d written started with a poem and then I’d sit down to write the track. Sometimes I’d adjust to be more of a song and sometimes it’d just be the poem straight up.”

She also noted how each shaped the other.

“Once I’d written poetry and turned it into a hubcaps song, the poetry took on a bit more intention whether i knew it or not at the time. There’s themes that carry throughout the album that I wasn’t super aware I was writing at the time but are definitely very prominent now.”

The instrumentation seemingly the perfect vehicle for their poetic payload, Hubcaps’ influences shed light on a similar kind of lyrically-centred music making – maybe even a new scene. Including fellow Melbourne alt label Dinosaur City artists Solo Career and Greta Now, Hubcaps spoke about hearing the poetry of the pieces and then having the instrument colour that, as well as admiring the “intimate, personal but also quite fun and silly” songwriting – exactly the kind of double appreciation you’d expect upon learning that Hubcaps previously went under the moniker ‘Hot Goblin.’

To hear more about her striking former name, the pressures of performing such intimate material live, and the making of the music video for ‘Beside(s) Me’, listen to the full interview above. Buy/stream Singing and Songing on Bandcamp below.