Back in May we introduced Strangest Feeling, the latest full-length album from Irish-born, Australian-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Bonnie Stewart, AKA Bonniesongs, with single ‘Olive Oil’. A song which “introduc[ed] the record’s sense of nuance,” as we wrote, “blend[ing] warm dream pop with something weightier and strange, all delivered with a playful spirit.” Brought to life with help from Rhys Mottley (guitar), Tully Ryan (drums), Freya Schack-Arnott (cello) and Tony Buchan (bass, piano), the record sees Stewart lean further this style, embracing nuance to evoke transitory times and spaces. A sound shaped by the interstitial period between lockdown and real life which takes on a decidedly autumnal air, tapping into the bittersweet feel of the emphemeral in all of its melancholy and magic.
With the release of the album fast approaching, Bonniesongs has returned with the title track. The idea for the song originated in a songwriting workshop with Luke Temple, in which Stewart was tasked with crafting a love song around a lyrical cliche, and evolved into the core of the record’s conflicted emotions. From subdued, almost hesitant beginnings, the track rises in what might be worry or conviction, as though a sense of impermanence has lit a fire beneath it. “It’s maybe my only classic love song” Stewart explains. “It’s about the fear of loss with loving someone but it’s a happy song, celebrating love and connection whilst also highlighting the inevitable future heartache.”
They told me all the best love songs, happen to be the saddest ones
What am I supposed to do, with love that makes me so happy
Well I have a little fear, a quiet fear, that creeps in my ear, and tells me sometimes,
That one day I’ll lose you, or you’ll lose me, and we won’t be together anymore
Watch the video directed by Nick Mckk and Stewart himself below:
Strangest Feeling is out on the 25th July, including a special vinyl edition via Impressed Recordings which you can pre-order now.
Photo by Nick Mckk