Lifetime

Woodes

Reflecting on the lost time in the last few years and knowing that the best may be yet to come.

Why I wrote this song

“This song stemmed from a conversation with my father when I was talking about wishing I was older or wiser – and he said “these are the times where wisdom is learned”. I found a lot of friends talking about a shared feeling of lost time or feeling hopeless or stuck in the past or a particular chapter. I wanted to write about all of the things yet to come. All of the joy, all of the lessons, all of the potential and opportunities. This relates back to my feelings around sustainability and conservation, I feel I need to look ahead and try and keep finding silver linings, and good news stories and surround myself with community that share in seeing potential. A lifetime ahead.

As the daughter of a Marine Biologist and a Park Ranger the environment has always been very important to me and is one of the core values of Woodes. After the Pandemic, personally, I was rebuilding everything around me, including my relationship with music. I found myself playing piano again, writing songs to heal. I found myself hiking and returning to nature, starting to reconnect with myself. It felt magnificent to feel small and part of the greater ecosystem. I’m so proud of the process. It feels like my most personal work. My new album has an accompanying Australian hike for each song, using sustainable fashion, rewilding collaborations with The Diggers Gardening Club… My aim is to get my audience outdoors for their mental health, as I know it has helped me greatly. This song was one where I invited some of my composition students and friends out to the wild with me.”

About me as an artist

Woodes released her self-titled debut EP in 2016, gaining audiences both in Australia (where she found herself on many “ones to watch” lists) and internationally. Since then, she’s toured with the likes of Thelma Plum, Asgier, and Sylvan Esso and appeared at multiple festivals, including Splendour in the Grass, SXSW & Beyond the Valley, amongst headline tours of her own. Her cinematic 2018 EP Golden Hour spawned two triple j favorites, “Dots” and “Run For It,” both arriving on the back of the hugely popular collaboration with Set Mo – “I Belong Here” – which has been certified Platinum in Australia.

In her own work throughout this time, Woodes continued to merge music and fashion, incorporating her stylistic influences into her music and the worlds she builds around it. In music videos, she conceptualized how to bring stories to life. On the live stage, she was compared to contemporaries such as Bjork, AURORA, Arctic Lake, and Mr. Little Jeans through her larger-than-life costume design. Having modeled for clients such as Chanel, David Jones & Myer, her styling and presentation have become as renowned as something that goes hand-in-hand with each release.

Woodes’ debut album Crystal Ball came out at the end of 2020, receiving a 4-star review from NME & charting at #3 on the Australian Independent Album Charts. “How Long I’d Wait” was added to high rotation & fan-favorite “Close” was named one of Youtube’s Top Aussie Songs of 2020. Woodes signed to Nettwerk Music Group in 2022 and her second album ‘The Great Unknown” in 2023.

About the music video

“For Lifetime, I wanted it to be a simple, low impact process. I asked my audience their favourite hikes & with their feedback I put together a map of national parks. I catered each hike to a song & I took only two friends out with me (photographer/creative director & director/cinematographer). We shared one car followed our instincts to discover the locations as we went. We leaned into the simplicity & let things happen how they naturally should… rather than over-thinking it. The process felt very sustainable, which is what I have been seeking in my music practice and in my relationship with my career. For this particular video I invited some friends out into the wild with me, we spent a day by the creek and went for a hike – later sharing peaches and a big dinner together before sitting out on the lawn under the stars. I wanted the character of Woodes to be in line with the values and the person I am. To allow ourselves to all reset and get a beautiful experience from a shoot. Everyone shared what they loved about the song and we felt really connected in the experience.”

The environmental organisations I admire or support

Feat., World Wildlife Fund, Wetlands International, Queensland Parks and Wildlife, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Euroa Arboretum, The Diggers Club, CERES Environmental Park, Australia Conservation Foundation, UNICEF, 1million women, Green Music Australia.