Gordi’s Songwriting Inspirations Span The Decades

The sounds that underpin her bold new album...

Gordi's new album was constructed in different cities, written in different continents, and pieced together across different phases in her life.

Out now, 'Our Two Skins' speaks eloquently about identity, and how this can shift; growing up in a Christian family, it took her a long time to fully come to grips with the full 360 of her own soul.

A beautiful record that switches between folk textures and digital production elements, 'Our Two Skins' is driven forward by that assured sense of purpose.

At times almost classic in its approach, while at others seeking disruption, Gordi moves between different poles – perhaps her music has more than one skin, after all.

Clash spoke to the Australian artist about the Influences that underpin her marvellous new record.

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Perfume Genius – 'Alan'

The sheer epicness of this song and its emotional saturation leaves me with a lot of unprocessable feelings. The choral/strings drone does that ebb and flow so well and there's so much space for the vocal to shine.

The thing I find most inspiring about this track is that it manages to maintain its grandiosity while really just being quite a bare-bones song.

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Helado Negro – 'Please Won't Please'

This is Roberto Carlos Lange's sixth album as Helado Negro and I love the entire thing.

'Please Won't Please' is my favourite track – from the opening synth and filter sweeps to the drum samples and the gentle vocal; it's like this song can cradle you. I referred to this track a lot when in the studio making my record because it never overcomplicates things.

It is a few elements done really well and recorded superbly.

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Laura Marling – 'Failure'

This song is one of the all time greats. It was one of the songs that made me want to be a songwriter and it was a regular in my covers set list in the early days of gigging.

I remember discovering Laura Marling as a teenager and rinsing the 'Alas, I Cannot Swim' album. I always thought she was one of the only modern songwriters to really be on par with the likes of James Taylor and Carole King.

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Amanda Bergman – 'Falcons'

I heard this song for the first time when I was sitting in a tour van driving across America. I saw the Swedish artist known as 'Idiot Wind' play in Sydney many years ago and then made the connection that that artist is Amanda Bergman.

The repeating electric guitar riff and the snare rolls perpetuate the anticipation that this song makes me feel. Cue the glorious horns, and this becomes the perfect song to blare through the van stereo as we cross another set of state lines.

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Bessie Smith – 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out'

I recently read a book about Janis Joplin and it kept referring to Bessie Smith. I found the recording of Bessie singing 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out', made in 1929.

Her voice just transports me somewhere else. I love to imagine her in the studio just ripping the vocal. The sound of the tape, of the piano; it just oozes warmth.

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'Our Two Skins' is out now on Jagjaguwar.

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