'Sleeping Dogs' has Alice asking herself whether she should reach out to a past love – or just 'let sleeping dogs lie'. It's a commentary and reflection on Alice's first queer relationship, and everything that came with it.
The track features production and contribution from recording engineer Matt Cunliffe (Yothu Yindi), Holly Thomas (Quivers), Gormie (Angie McMahon) and Pepi Emmerichs (Oh Pep!).
“The pandemic forced me to work in a completely different way to what I had envisioned for my debut release,” Alice explains.
“Basically I emailed the musicians my vocals and guitar take, the names of some artists I like, and the song lyrics. I left the rest of the creative decisions up to them. Except for the harmonies! I mapped these out carefully with the singers, it was like a long game of musical sudoku.”
This musical sudoku resulted in the sweeping, intimate, melancholy vibes of 'Sleeping Dogs' – and FROOTY is super excited to be premiering the accompanying music video early. Check it out below.
Alice tells us a little bit about the idea behind the visuals.
“I wanted the video to have this quiet and home-spun feeling to match the intimacy of the track, and the feeling of home being somewhere you can nap with your dog. I was so excited to learn that the Videographer, Jacob Hazeldine, was born and raised on Larrakia country (Darwin) like me. It felt important to include snippets of the place we are from, the frangipani trees, louvres and mouldy ceilings, as regional tropical life isn’t captured very often on Australian screens.”
The video embodies a gorgeous, warm, homely vibe starring Alice, and she's joined by Bluey the greyhound resting at her feet. Then, on the right hand side, lyrics are interpreted by Auslan Stage Left's Susan Emmerson.
“The decision to have the lyrics interpreted into Auslan came from this very slow moving process I am going through, grappling with an understanding of ableism and how it shows up in my own creative practice,” Alice describes.
“After studying feminist music therapy and reading works of Alice Wong, I started to realise that I was considering access and inclusion in my therapeutic work, but completely disregarding it in my own creative work. I’m still learning about it and I’m only at the beginning of this process, but interpreting my lyrics felt like a good step on the wonderfully wonky path that is feminism.”
Videographer Jacob Hazeldine says he's grateful to have been involved, commending Alice's choice to include an interpreter.
“I was stoked to be a part of this clip for Alice’s new single. It was a privilege to get some insight into her creative process and her commitment to the accessibility of the clip was heartening and something that I will try and carry forward in my work.”
