Jodi Phillis, the legendary front woman of Australian band The Clouds has just released a new single ‘It’s Not Love’ as well as an accompanying video (by award-winning film maker Jasmin Tarasin.) The new track is taken from her forthcoming, 6th solo album ‘We Need To Be Free’ – to be released on Cheersquad Records & Tapes – later this year.
Phillis formed the the Clouds in 1989 and the band released a succession of Top 40 albums in the ’90s, achieving Gold sales first time out with their ARIA-nominated debut Penny Century. The Clouds were Triple J and Rage favourites and Big Day Out regulars (they played the first two BDOs in 1992 and 1993, and then 1995 and 1997), and they signed worldwide with Elektra and toured the US around the release of their third album in 1995. Breaking up in 1997, the group reformed in 2011 and have since played sporadically, including as part of a Day On The Green tour in 2017 with Blondie and Cyndi Lauper. The Clouds will be touring Australia in December and have had to add a second Sydney date to their tour after selling out the first one at the Factory Theatre. The Clouds tour will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Penny Century.
Jen Cloher recently paid tribute to the huge impact that the Clouds had on her as an artist in the Dyson, Stringer, Cloher song ‘Falling Clouds‘.
Since the break up of the Clouds, Phillis has been very active as a solo artist. She has released 5 albums with the second, 2001’s ‘In Dreams I Live’, being nominated for two awards at the ARIA Music Awards.
Phillis graduated from Australia’s premier screen arts school, The Australian Film Television and Radio School with a screen music degree, and has gone on to compose music for film, TV and the stage. Her tune ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Fine’ won Best Original Song at the London Movie Awards in 2021. Phillis has been working on a Sound Track to ‘Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse’, a teen music series for ABC Me, and she has collaborated with former Go-Betweens violinist and award-winning composer, Amanda Brown to write orchestral music for Encounter (which has played at the Sydney Festival and is soon to play at the Opera House) and Seven Stories (which has played at Vivid and elsewhere).
As if this is not enough, during the Covid lockdown, Phillis started painting and her first exhibition of watercolours sold out in an hour! She has also entered a portrait of music photographer Tony Mott into the Archibald Prize.
The term ‘legend’ is bandied around a lot these days, but in the case of Phillis it is an accurate description. Her career has had a transformative effect on Australian music and she continues to inspire a new generation of local musicians.
“Phillis is an underrated national treasure”
Kelsey Munro, Rolling Stone 2001
After so many achievements and plaudits, you might think that Phillis would rest on her laurels. You would be wrong. ‘It’s Not Love’ is all shimmering guitars with a nostalgic, sixties feel – the harmonies are reminiscent of the Beatles on ‘Sun King’, but Instead of John Lennon on lead vocals, it is Phillis, in full chanteuse mode. The song features a haunting and evocative vocal performance by Phillis. ‘It’s Not Love’ fades out with some beautifully, atmospheric strings leaving you with a feeling of blissful elation, safe in the knowledge that Phillis is delivering her strongest work right now. And there is a new album to follow!
“Four women, a sisterhood working together to transform themselves into powerful, loving beings who embody wisdom, compassion, connection and strength…leading the way in this world without force, without fear.”
Jasmin Tarasin on the video for ‘It’s not Love’
Listen to or buy ‘It’s Not Love’ HERE.
Photo Credit: Tony Mott
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