Lock Yourself in a Room, Make an Album

When you listen to New Buffalo, aka Sally Seltmann, you wouldn't ever think that she used to be in a punk band. But she was. Growing up in Australia and listening to bands like Pavement and Sonic Youth, Seltmann was also being classically trained in piano. At the age of 16, she started teaching herself guitar and eventually formed the punk band Luster4 with a friend. After going to college for visual art, she found herself living the typical life of a starving artist, i.e. working a bunch of odd jobs while trying to make art when you can. After working up to three jobs at a time just to meet ends meet, she put out About Last Night, an EP produced by her husband, Darren Seltmann (see confusion below), and then won national acclaim with her first full length, The Last Beautiful Day. Now she's just released Somewhere, Anywhere, a stripped-down, piano-based album reflecting on life from a secluded seaside.

So, your husband produced The Last Beautiful Day -
Eh - sorry, no. My first EP he produced but not The Last Beautiful Day.

Oh, he didn't do that?
No, I produced that myself.

You did?
Yeah. Yep.

Okay, so you originally started to work with someone who produced Björk.
Yeah, he's engineered stuff with Björk.

But then you decided to scratch all that and just do it by yourself. How did that come about?
I was working with a label in the UK and that sort of fell through and then I just thought, "I can just record this album on my own." Um... so I did. [Laughs]

The first album was a lot more whimsical and kind of having fun discovering recording and sampling, but Somewhere, Anywhere seems more based in song-writing.
Yeah, I feel that, too. I did get a bit sick of all the technical gear that I used making my first album and I just really wanted to focus on playing the piano.

The songs seem fuller, more orchestrated and the lyrics more direct.
Yeah, I felt I've really tried to make the songs better and the lyrics better and more intereseting and pretty personal, I guess.

The Last Beautiful Day you recorded by yourself in your Melbourne apartment and with this one you went out to the sea. It seems to me that you lean towards a hermetic setting. Is there any reason for that?
I just think I'm quite introverted in a way and I always, since I've been young I've always had the feeling that I just need to get away to a room by myself and, whether it would be making artwork when I was younger or now sort of writing songs and recording songs, it's just my way that I cope with being in the world, [laughs] I guess.

A lot of odd bands that don't always have the best audiences in the US seem to find a following in Australia. What's the musical climate there like?
It's pretty great. It's, I don't know, it's pretty divers but lots of bands that operate in Australia try to really sell overseas as well you know, 'cause the market's pretty small here.

How about American bands? You mentioned earlier that you were into Pavement and Sonic Youth, did they come through when you were growing up?
Yeah, they did. We have quite a lot of international artists come through which is really good. So, yeah, that's always been really good.