One of Australia’s most exciting pop newcomers, TAMMA, has released her second single, Tongue Tied. Produced by the award-winning Konstantin Kersting (Tones and I, Mallrat, Jungle Giants, Tia Gostelow), Tongue Tied was premiered yesterday via Pilerats. Of the track, Pilerats said “Tongue Tied is a moment of excellence, something that really elevates TAMMA into the upper echelon of pop music’s next generation and the hot-bed of talent that sits within it”.
TAMMA exploded into the scene with her debut smash Beat You Down in 2018, a song she wrote after the loss of her nephew. It was soon added to rotation across national radio, featured on Australian TV shows (most notably Home and Away) and racked up more than half a million plays across streaming services. In 2019 TAMMA collaborated with US duo Kiings, and released We Know Better – a track that was completed remotely between Australia and the USA, which also landed radio play across both countries. TAMMA has now teamed up with acclaimed Brisbane producer Konstantin Kersting to record her debut EP We’re Still Here. She describes the experience of working with Kersting as one of the best times of her life. The EP combines contemporary pop and electronic elements and the timbres of traditional and contemporary soul music. TAMMA uses her voice at the centre of these arrangements, lyrically and thematically writing her way through the lowest times in her life and communicating resilience to her listeners with a strong message that you can always get up again.
TAMMA’s first single to be released from the EP is Tongue Tied, a song that is really close to her heart. “I wrote this at a time where I could not make sense of anything, I was feeling trapped in my own head and a bit of a wreck”.
On a flight from Melbourne to Brisbane to for the final recording session of the EP with Kersting, the unfinished piece of the puzzle was a song called Tongue Tied. In a flurry of emotions the pressure grew as the plane was preparing to land.
“I was still missing the chorus and had so much to say but couldn’t get it out. I closed my eyes, almost giving up, when the chorus ‘I’m a wreck but I’m still alive, I’m just tongue tied’ came to my mind.”
Completing the song was a significant time for TAMMA as she also admitted it was closing an old chapter in her life and starting a fresh page. With everything that’s been going on in the world in 2020, TAMMA feels the song is very relevant. Bringing a lighthearted contemporary pop sound to her listeners who are facing times that are incredibly challenging is her goal.
Currently residing in a small coastal town on her family’s avocado farm on the beautiful North Island of New Zealand, TAMMA splits her time between writing music, working as a business productivity coach and tending to the farm.