Live Review: Woodes sings to our inner child in 'Bonfire'

Earthly Melbourne artist ELLE GRAHAM AKA WOODES, has blessed us with another explanation of her wild youth and her connection to the homeland in her newest release 'Bonfire'.

Having recently signed a global publishing deal with music power houses Universal Music Publishing Group Australia, and landing a spot at culture festival heavy-weight SXSW, her career's trajectory has been aimed straight upwards since the release of her debut EP just last year.

Her passion for this planet has been explored again for her newest release. A song deeply rooted within her connection to her homeland, she speaks of the grand spiralling woodworks she used to venture and how - without her spiritual guidance - the trees she used to find herself entangled within, have now grown wild.

A native sounding beat drives her serenade. Earthy, raw vocals explain the sentiment she felt upon returning to the wonderland she grew up in. "See this place run wild, the trees they all grew up, try to find the one I'd climb, that reached up spiralled out," She sings.

As is natural when returning to a landscape you once knew, she stumbled upon the tree she used to climb, only to find a stranger in it's place. It's interesting to wonder whether it's the tree that has changed so much, or somewhere along her journey, it was Woodes' perspective that changed.

With this over-grown giant gently swaying at the forefront of the track's visuals, she goes on to explain the fearless adventurer she turned into during the nights of the bonfires, reminiscing, "I was afraid of monsters, not on bonfire night."

Her connection to the wild fire shows in these lyrics; a young WOODES displays deep emotional connection to this land, one far beyond most adults. It's not hard to believe she kept a piece of those wild fires inside her, somehow to calm her fear in the darkest of moments.

With every new story of Graham's childhood we are allowed access too, it's obvious her connection to the environment that helped formulate her adult-self, still runs wild inside her. Few people exhibit such a deep-rooted connection to the land they roam. One that comes to mind is Norwegian singer/songwriter AURORA, also American up-and-comer MAGGIE ROGERS. Although newer to the professional music industry, Woodes' line of dialogue with the earth is no less fluent.

'Bonfire' is a perfect example of this connection: the words she sings are so accessible to us as humans. Although some of us have become jaded adults, the words Woodes sings can re-light the fire of adventure within us and tend to the respect for the areas we inhabit, trimming back the overgrown ruins of our childhood memories.

If you are finding yourself becoming jaded and numb to the spirit of the land that birthed you, listening to Woodes' most recent labour of love 'Bonfire' should re-ignite the child lost inside of you.

Words by STEVE COPP

LISTEN TO MORE MUSIC HERE

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WOODES HAS RETURNED WITH A MAGICAL NEW CLIP FOR 'RISE'

WOODES' DEBUT EP FEELS SIX TRACKS OF BUTTERFLY KISSES