My Giddy Aunt
Rory Vagg (he/him), Luke Perry (they/them), Océane Federow-Yemm (she/her)
Naarm
Interviewed by Juliette Salom (she/her)
Consisting of three self-described curly-haired, queer, indie musicians based out of Naarm, My Giddy Aunt make the kind of garden pop music that would’ve soundtracked your youth. Made up of songwriter Rory Vagg (he/him), guitarist Luke Perry (they/them), and Océane Federow-Yemm (she/her) on bass and backing vocals, the three Naarm locals chat to Demure ahead of their upcoming single launch at The Old Bar on March 29 for the release of their newest song Your Garden. The trio of emerging musicians have already played a range of iconic music venues around Naarm, sharing their music to crowds at The Workers’ Club, The Tote, Edinburgh Castle, as well as Port Fairy’s very own Folk Festival. A combination of folk, pop and indie rock, My Giddy Aunt make the sort of music only your coolest (and giddiest) of aunts would listen to.
Hello My Giddy Aunt! Tell me a little about the space you’re speaking to me from!
Rory: Hi, how’s it going??? Currently we’re extremely comfortable gathered around a very small table at Green Refectory on Sydney Road, notepad and coffee apiece :)
How did the three of you find yourselves together in a band? What’s My Giddy Aunt’s origin story?
Luke: It's hard to pick a definite start point but I'd say the band really began in 2017, when me and Rory's high school band dissolved and we were just writing together in the shed in his backyard. It took us until 2021 to get the skills and confidence to actually start releasing music as a duo. When we were piecing together our live band, we met Océane and she started playing bass for us. We ended up hanging out so much as a trio that it became inevitable that we'd make it official.
Océane: Last year, the other two needed to find a bassist and managed to find themselves a third band member that has plagued them ever since and notoriously helped them discover the curly girl routine. Very happy to have formed a trio with this bunch!
The name My Giddy Aunt is pretty incredible – it feels hella unique while still slotting right into that category of quirky, idiosyncratic Naarm indie band names. Where did it come from?
Luke: Thank you, we get that a lot so we must’ve done something right! Unfortunately it doesn’t really have an exciting origin story. We had a series of truly awful band names leading up to this one which I won't mention, so we really had to nail it. (Don't go searching for Younger Next Year on Instagram). Eventually someone just said the phrase ‘oh my giddy aunt’ and then we were on our way.
My Giddy Aunt’s sound sweeps across genres, oscillating between elements of rock, pop, folk, and everything else. What are some of MGA’s influences? Are there some artists or musicians that you garner particular inspiration from?
Rory: We definitely love keeping things fresh with the kinds of sounds we’re using and we love hopping around putting our spin on different textures and genres! I’d say some of our biggest influences are Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers, Rufus Wainwright, Gang Of Youths, Skullcrusher, Adrianne Lenker, Nick Drake, Radiohead, Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird, Charles Mingus, and a whole bunch of musical theatre!!!
The orchestral magnitude on the song All Things Come In Time, from the EP of the same name released in 2022, sounds incredibly impressive. What’s the process like of putting together a song like that?
Luke: Thank you! That song was literally the first thing Rory and I ever wrote as a duo back in 2017, so it's crazy that it's made it this far. We knew for a long time it would be our first single and we just spent ages refining the arrangement. The brass section was the last thing to fall into place. I still remember the sheer excitement we felt on the day we got the trumpet recordings. We knew that we'd cracked it, it was finally done.
Rory: I think as far as the process goes it’s really simple with that song in particular we pretty much threw the kitchen sink at it adding anything we could think of. Chimes? Add ‘em. Brass? Add ‘em. Like 700 barely audible guitar parts? Add them now!!
I noticed on the band’s Spotify that after Naarm and Eora you’ve got some listeners stretching far from the banks of Australia. What’s that feeling like, knowing that you’ve got people in Santiago, London and Buenos Aires bopping along to your tunes?
Océane: It’s definitely something that we’ve held a great deal of appreciation for when we release music! The idea that there are any number of people beyond our Melbourne scene tuning in to My Giddy Aunt is very heartwarming, and we can’t wait to continue sharing our music far and wide!
The artwork across the singles and EP is incredibly detailed and beautiful. Are these images MGA make themselves or are they sourced from someone else?
Océane: Thank you! The artwork for our music has always been an important aspect of our creative identity, and we love funnelling the energy of our songs into visuals. We’ve worked quite a bit with our good friend Jess Williams, the artist responsible for the great work on Sunk, All Things Come In Time, and most recently the Your Garden cover. I had a lot of fun making the EP artwork - clambering onto Rory’s roof to draw the mural overlaying the cover photo was definitely a highlight! Very keen to continue creating visuals for our music alongside our friends!
With the release of the new single, Your Garden, new MGA music isn’t far away from reaching the dance floors of the masses. What can My Giddy Aunt listeners expect from the new song?
Rory: So the song is about an experience I hope we’re all quite versed in, that being holding the thought of someone particular in your head for so long that they just kind of start to make themselves comfortable. You might even think about them for so long that they start to build a garden. I think gardens are nice because you can also think of a garden as a metaphor for loving someone in and of itself - both take time and gentle care. So is this strange mind-person building the garden or are THEY the garden? I don’t know, you decide!!! Musically, think whimsical indie-rock oozing with sentimentality, a cracking guitar solo and as a bonus fact this is our first song featuring Pearl, our new baritone guitar!!
Luke: In defence of the guitar solo, Rory wanted me to do something in the vein of Dylan Thomas by Better Oblivion Community Centre and it ended up being this cheesy lil thing.
I see you’re playing a show at the Old Bar in Fitzroy, how exciting! What about bringing your new music to a live audience are you most looking forward to?
Luke: We have a lot of fun and bring a lot of energy to our performances so it's always the best time. Our favourite thing is the challenge of winning over and engaging the crowd, like there's a fun moment where we get the whole crowd to crouch on the ground as we do a breakdown and then build it back up to get them jumping. It's just so rewarding to see people respond to stuff like that. Our 6-piece live band adds drums, piano and saxophone to the lineup. They're brilliant players and we literally go giddy with glee when we hear them play the songs!!
Thanks so much for speaking with me! Where can we find you / hear more of your music?
Luke: Thanks for having us! We’re everywhere you’d want a band to be: Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, etc, where you can find our EP and all future tracks. We’re @mygiddyauntband on Instagram and Tiktok. And you can catch us live around Naarm if you keep an eye on our Instagram!
