I had never heard of Sienna Tenn until this interview. While preparing to talk with her, I listened to all her releases,realising immediately she is yet another gem in the indie music scene. This Brisbane based artist utilises a dreamy, ethereal charm in her tracks behind her incredibly skilled voice. Producing from her room, she absorbs us into a wonderland that leaves you anxious for more. The audio experience is heightened with the recent addition of handmade zines, free to access on her website. Based on Tenn’s first E.P ‘memory lane’, every zine is given its own careful time, resulting in beautiful and homemade pieces accompanying the songs that (I hope) become a further staple of the artist.

I had the great privilege of speaking with Sienna in the lead up to her new single release. She spoke of her childhood, the zines and her music process with a dedication intrinsic to her work that we can look forward to. ‘i don’t want to kiss goodbye,’ that came out 19 June, is a twinkling synth-scape with jazz inspirations. Aside from being catchy, it almost takes you by surprise with the combination of elements that feel equally fantastical, and grounded. All in all, I’ll have this on loop for at least the next month.

(this interview has been condensed and edited for clarity)    

How has music cemented itself in your life? Was it through your family, friends, school or just discovering it yourself?

Yes. Music definitely started with family. I've always grown up around music. My whole family's super musical. So it's kind of been from birth—when my mum was pregnant, my brother actually used to play guitar to her, for me. So I have literally had music playing at me before I was even born—and it just kind of felt like a natural thing that I was going to end up doing. I always loved singing, even when I was little and then when I got to around 12 years old, it started to become a lot more of a creative pursuit, where I approached it in more of a way of self-expression, rather than just loving the thing of music. It's definitely something that's always been in my life and feels like something I can always come back to— it just makes me feel like myself.

The idea for your zines, I was like looking through them is just so unique and wonderful. I love them. So, what made you want to specifically do zines?

I also really love visual art, and that's something that I've kind of tried to pursue more at the moment as well, alongside the music. I wanted to have something that could bridge between my music and art, and I also wanted to have something that I could share more about the stories of my music. So, in the end I think I just decided on a random night that I was going to do it. I painted a bunch of different images and then brought them together. I’ve always loved creating all sorts of different things. I thought it was such a cool concept and such an easy thing as well for people to just access, which is why they're online so you can download them. I think it was just the perfect thing to express both the music and the art in the same way—and in a way that was really accessible for people.

That kind of actually falls under the question I was about to ask next, do you think zines and music culture are quite connected?

Yeah, I think it's really important. Zines were super popular years ago, a lot more in the punk scene, as well as through feminist zines. Nowadays, from what I've seen, zines are a lot more widely produced, and the ones that I've seen are a lot more like a proper book and not simply a paper pamphlet thing. I think it is having a bit of a resurgence, which is exciting because I think it's so cool and a simple (and great) way for independent media to be more seen. More people should do it!

I completely agree. Your zines have the lyrics of your songs, on top of black and white artwork. Was this decision intentional and what did you want to convey through this?

Honestly, I just decided that it would be quicker to paint the images divided in black and white, so I made them monochrome. Then with the lyrics over the top, I initially created these paper scenes using the words to figure out what I wanted to express, and then kind of deciding, what is the imagery? What is the story between this section that I'm showing? So, then I would scan those in and alter the colours just to bring out different contrasts between the images. But, I think the black and white also kind of ties to a more of a comfy sort of look, which is something that is related to the figures that I like to draw with just their backs—so you can't see their faces. They're like the characters of the stories with the girl sort of symbolising me and the boy as sort of a love interest. I wanted it to be a bit more comic-like as well, which is why the black and white works with that too and then the inside of the lyrics is all colourful—just to have something really contrast what you see on the front.

Segueing to more of your music and your creative process—what would you say is your process for producing a song?

Yeah, it changes a lot. What I've been doing kind of recently is I came up with an idea, and it's very much that I'm songwriting in the door, like in logic. Sometimes, I'll be songwriting outside of it and then I decide that “Okay, I do want to explore this idea more”. And then I'll just record straight in. I'll literally record on my bed and I'll have my headphones and my guitar and my little MI controller or whatever, and I'll just sit there for hours and I'll just keep coming up with different ideas and going through libraries and everything. Then I usually sit with it for a long time until I get to a point where I go, “Okay, I want to finish this song” and then I'll spend a bit of time really critiquing everything. It's been a very self- driven, self-learnt process. I started learning how to produce through teaching myself, probably when I was about 15. So, it was very trial and error for a long time and I still have so much to learn.The producing side of it is always sort of shifting.I think it starts with laying down a very basic core structure,doing all the vocals and then stacking a bunch of vocal harmonies.It just becomes a big experiment with different ideas,chopping them around and just having fun playing with them.

In your EP memory lane, what was the message that you wanted to convey the most while producing and then when releasing it?

I think memory lane was very much about reflection. The concept is how it could be this place in your mind that you're travelling through.You've got all these different places in your memory and they're like streets and houses, which is sort of what I wanted the song to articulate. I think it was a navigation between different moments in my life. Production wise, the songs all happened in very different ways. ‘reverie’ was a song that I never intended to be on the EP. Then I played it to some people and they said, “You have to finish this song and put it on the EP.” Which just really surprised me. I originally made it for the background of a random recap video purely because the song I wanted to use got a copyright claim. I just decided I’d make a song and that ended up being ‘reverie’.  ‘memory lane’ was one of the first songs that I wrote for the actual EP, along with as ‘these are the moments.’ But then ‘attached’, I wrote while I was on holiday in the Isle of Man. So the process was all over the place, which I think adds to the feeling of what memory lane is as well. It's all over the place. It just ended up coming together when I felt ready to put out a body of work. I went through and found the things I thought felt most pivotal to me of what I wanted to convey.

With ‘i don't want to kiss goodbye’ releasing very soon, what kind of themes appear in that song that are also apart in your other songs?

That was very much a love song. I was feeling like doing a little bit of bossa nova. I loved going to lots of jazz gigs in the past year, and the jazz scene has really been growing here. I've been naturally sort of exploring that more with the guitar in that song especially. In the end, it’s become much more of a dreamy bossa nova song. I think love is always through all of my songs, but more of it is about relationships based on any sort of connection, which you can see in ‘these are the moments’. That song is very much more of a deeper song about a connection with someone that's passed away and how I had this conversation with my dad. He kind of gave me this really great advice; he said these are the moments you can't wait for in your life. I was really young and it really struck me as this pivotal moment. I then ended up writing about how there's all these different contexts of love that I like to explore, because I think the most important thing in music is the connectivity,the relationships and love between everything: between who you're performing to, the people you're performing with, between yourself. That's sort of what's informed, ‘i don't want to kiss love goodbye.’

What are some challenges you face while creating music independently, especially in Australia, and what do you find most exciting or enthusiastic about?

I think the most challenging thing creating independently, especially at first, was that I did everything entirely by myself. It's a challenge that I wanted, but it's also hard not having many resources and not knowing how to reach out to people or book a studio.It was very challenging at first because I had all these ideas in my head, but then I had to kind of figure out how I was going to put all of this down as the sole person. Everything is myself. If you look at it further, being an independent artist in the scene, it's fighting the ways to be seen and finding different opportunities that you can push yourself for without having much funding. I think it sometimes can be a bit difficult when you don't have that extra force behind you, trying to push you further. But, the journey of doing that and of pushing yourself is also super rewarding. It helps you build yourself up to be more resilient and to be strong in what you're doing—in your music,your art, your creativity or whatever you're doing independently. Those are some things I've really enjoyed. I've just really enjoyed every opportunity to share my music with people and to learn more; about the community around me, about all the different music outlets there are, all the different people that are working in the industry and everyone’s perspectives. I think it's just been so incredible to meet so many people and to be able to share what I' m creating with them. I just feel so grateful to be able to do that.