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Photo: Tom Nicholas Lewis

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Aussie newcomer Hallie has gifted us with a buzzing and bubbly debut EP This is Love that sees them exploring love, relationships, and their sexuality against a euphoric swirl of alt-pop glitter and grit. The singer, songwriter, and producer was already named one of Gay Times' 10 LGBTQ+ artists to watch in 2023, and this EP is further proof of Hallie’s speedy rise to pop stardom. 

Each of the This Is Love's five tracks brings crisp production and dynamic soundscapes to the forefront, seamlessly blending indie rock and glossy pop with a dash of punk and ‘00s nostalgia into shimmering anthems charged with energy. They’re full of character and packed with playful vitality, forming a full-bodied work that showcases Hallie’s emotive vocals and her journey navigating the winding labyrinth that is love in your early 20s. And while it can be easy to dwell on the pain and heartbreak that relationships can bring, Hallie boldly chooses to focus on the personal growth and expansion that love often catalyzes instead, highlighting the “sweet” in “bittersweet” with refreshingly upbeat bops and irresistible hooks.

We sat down with Hallie to talk songwriting, relationships, and This is Love.

Ones To Watch: Congratulations on the release of your debut EP! So, you’ve been releasing music since 2019. Do you think that your music has evolved since you first started?

Hallie: Definitely, I think I started in more of a folk world and then I was like, oh, rock exists, and started to combine those, and then the pop just snuck in casually. It’s really interesting because now, at least when I listen to my music, I can hear the influences of all those kinds of things and all of the genres that I’ve gone through. 

You’ve said that you’ve never felt so controlled and connected to your music as you do with this EP. Why is that and what was different about This Is Love?

Without even realizing, in my writing, as soon as it became monetized, I started to be like, oh, what’s everyone gonna like, what will my manager want from me, what will people expect from me. And sometime before I wrote this EP, I kind of snapped out of that. And [it has] a lot to do with self-confidence and trusting my art and what my thoughts are before someone else or a producer. I found a producer, Oscar Sharah who I did the EP with, who allowed space for me to have all my opinions, the ones that worked and didn't. It was so nice to be able to tap into that without fear of what other people were thinking, and writing from a place that feels authentic to me. I’m really proud, and I do feel so connected to this EP because of that more than anything else I’ve done. 

How long were you working on this EP?

Besides “Shift the Focus” and “Love,” which I wrote in 2021, the rest of the songs we did in two weeks. We had a blocked period, half on Zoom, and for some of it I had COVID, and it was quite an interesting experience. The other half I went to Sydney and we finished it off there, and that’s also why it was such a special experience because it was so seamless, and it was like, oh my god, this is the sound world, this is what I want to write about, I was so clear about it. 

Did you write all the songs?

Yeah, I co-wrote some of them with Oscar, as well, and also with my friend Abby Bella-May for “Shift the Focus,” so a mix of just me and other people.

Can you walk me through your writing process? 

It honestly changes. I’m not even sure what my rhythm is yet in writing. I don’t know if I’ll ever have one that’s definite. With some of them, we would start making sounds and we’d write lyrics, and sometimes I don’t know what I’m talking about until I’ve finished the song. So it’s always different, and writing on Zoom was a really interesting experience because there was a lag and sometimes there were happy accidents where Oscar and I would be writing and it’d be delayed for him, and I would be singing over it and he’d be like, yeah that’s sick I love it on the offbeat, and I’m like what are you talking about. [Laughs] So all different things. 

Was that the same with the production, since you worked on the production for all of the songs? 

Again a mix. It really depended on the song, sometimes I would be like, this needs this, this, and this, and for other songs, I’d be like, Oscar what do you think? But especially when it was in person in the studio, that’s when we did the fine-tuning of the production, we’d try weird things and see what sounded right. 

Another thing I liked about the EP is that I found it refreshing that rather than dwelling on heartbreak or sorrow that often comes with love, you managed to make it a bright, upbeat body of work, more sweet than bittersweet. Was it a conscious choice to create this type of sound and to focus on the lessons and personal expansion that love can catalyze?

I love that you just said that because I’ve never really said it in words before, but that is so what it is. It is acceptance and growth, and during my breakup and rediscovering my sexuality—which is what this record is about, that period of my life—although I did feel heartbreak and I was sad and angry at times, there was this underlying feeling of acceptance and excitement for the growth that I had experienced. There are definitely childish songs I wrote, they just didn’t make it on the EP. But in exploring what love is, there is this acceptance that love is growth and trust and every emotion, but at the core some form of acceptance. 

Something else I read was that you were exploring polyamory and non-traditional relationships at the time.

It’s so interesting to me that it’s [polyamory] not more normalized because, and I know it’s more complicated than saying it just makes sense, but it does just make sense. Everyone is attracted to multiple people and can experience multiple connections. For me, it’s between working on jealousy or working on stopping other connections, so it’s kind of like, what thing do you want to focus on. But exploring that has been really interesting.

I also connected to your lyric, “Toxicity is a comfort zone.” 

I love that lyric, because that song is about being happy and content in a relationship and feeling really nice but also really weird, and I feel like when you’re used to toxic dynamics, that is comforting, so when you’re out of it you’re like, I’m bored, like something is off. I needed to write that song to remind myself that this is nice, it’s ok that it’s not always up and down and toxic. 

 You obviously learned a lot of things about love and relationships in making this EP, but now that it’s fully released, are there any other things that you can look back on and say that you learned through this process? 

I honestly think the biggest things I learned are from the writing, and I learned so much about myself. I learned that every emotion is valid, and writing about them in such an accepting way felt like, cool, this can just be that. That’s been nice because I’ve carried that on with me. And it’s been really nice being able to interact with people, and so many queer people have said that it’s made them feel really seen, and it made me realize that as much as I have learned from this, it’s really cool that other people have learned from it. I saw someone at a festival the other week and they came up to me and said, thank you so much because openness creates openness. It’s so simple and so true, but it made me so excited and happy that I’ve tapped into such a genuine part of myself so that we can all open up.

What’s next for you? 

I’m touring next month which should be really fun, just a few dates. I maybe might have another piece to the This is Love puzzle coming out... And I am writing and working on some more stuff, but more on that later. [Laughs]

Who are your Ones to Watch?

Oh, that’s a great question… Ok, obviously FLO. I have so many artists but I’m gonna go with FLO.

Hallie's This Is Love is available now.