A Complicated road to mainstream radio for Karydas
CATCH ARTISTS ONLINE KATHY McCABE
EXACTLY half her life ago, a 13year-old Eves Karydas was an aspiring busker on the esplanade in her home town of Cairns, spruiking homemade CDs of her songs for $10 a pop.
“I would pay a lot of money to get those back; I am just glad that was the pre-streaming era,” she says, laughing.
But even back then, her goal was to write a song that would be played on pop radio stations. Karydas cracked the alternative airwaves of Triple J with a succession of singles from her debut Unearthed upload, Heavy (released under her real name,Hannah Karydas), through to standouts from her 2018 first album Summerskin, including Couch, Damn Loyal and Wildest Ones.
That record’s bona fide smash, Further Than the Planes Fly, is still adding plays to its haul of more than 16 million streams.
Even with more than 40 million streams of her music globally and acclaimed performances on the rite-of-passage, make-orbreak Splendour in the Grass stage, that big crossover hit which lands on the commercial
pop radio networks eluded Karydas. Until now. Her latest single, the infectious Complicated, continues its ascent on the Hot 100 Airplay, keeping company with Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry, thanks to its addition to mainstream pop playlists on radio and streaming sites.
“Thirteen-year-old me would be very happy,” Karydas says.
The song, inspired by her desire to “be direct with myself”, was written in Sweden. Karydas was struggling with homesickness, having those horrid dreams about teeth falling out, and was anxious that she didn’t have a good idea to bring to the table.
When producer Magnus Lidehall couldn’t make the session because he was stuck on an island – “a very Swedish situation”, Karydas says – she decided to forge ahead and have fun with Calle Lehmann and Max Thulin, the other composers booked for the session.
Complicated happened as she poured out all her insecurities to her new studio best friends, including the teeth dream, which eventually found its way into the lyrics.
“I’ve learnt there are so many interpretations of that teeth falling out dream but for me, I found it was about having an inferiority complex. I haven’t had that dream for a while now; I’ve been facing my demons,” Karydas says.
She is also set up for a push into the American market with influential management team TaP in the US, which also steer the affairs of Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa.
Karydas supported Lipa at her Australian shows in 2018 and is a “massive fan” of LDR, which explains why she just quietly laughed to herself as the ethereal pop queen nicked her ice cream at a Los Angeles house party.
“I was in LA last year, living at the TaP house, where their artists crash ... ” she recalls. “... there’s this ice-cream wrapper and I knew it was my last ice cream. I scan the room and see Lana leaning on the bench licking this ice cream. I could always write a song about that.”