New Buffalo solo
Aussie Sally Seltmann likes solitary studio Makes first Toronto visit this weekend
When you get your heart stomped on, sometimes it takes someone else to point out the small slivers of light still peeking through the darkness. New Buffalo’s songs are like that. They’re mournful and forlorn on the surface, but then Aussie songstress Sally Seltmann’s sweet, unaffected voice cuts through the gloom like a friend reaching out her hand.
“Recovery/ looks like it’s gonna be okay/ it’s a new day,” Seltmann sings over shuffle- y handclap percussion and swirling organ fills on the lead track to her enchanting new album, The Last Beautiful Day.
It’s perhaps fitting that Seltmann, a. k. a. New Buffalo, wrote, recorded and produced the album all by herself at home in a nook she dubbed The Lonely Studio.
“ It was a good way for me to try to bring the right feeling across for all the songs — they’re kind of solitary, but also rather hopeful, I think,” says the 29year- old from her home in Melbourne.
Painstakingly crafted over eight months, The Last Beautiful Day is a hushed pastiche of densely layered sounds perfect for late-night headphone listening. Seltmann played piano, organ and guitar, and programmed the rest of the sounds on by splicing and dicing orchestral samples.
Aside from guest turns by drummer Jim White ( Dirty Three) and singer Beth Orton, the album is all Seltmann — a challenge she set for herself after collaborating with husband Darren Seltmann of sample- happy Aussie electro crew The Avalanches for her debut EP in 2001.
“ When I started doing New Buffalo, I knew that it felt right for me to do a solo kind of project, and with this album, too, I really wanted to try to do it all on my own. And I thought that would help with getting my own sort of sound,” she says. Seltmann’s singular vision even translates through to her choice to use a handle other than her own for her musical project.
“ When I was trying to figure out what to call myself, a friend of mine had just had buffalo horns tattooed on her arm, and I also really love ‘ Buffalo Stance,’ that Neneh Cherry song. I sort of made up ‘ New Buffalo,’ and then around a year or two later realized that there is actually a New Buffalo in Michigan. And then I went there when I was in Chicago a few years ago, and had photos taken in front of the sign and all that — silly, really,” she laughs. Thanks to local indie- label- that- could Arts & Crafts, North American music lovers will be hearing and seeing a lot more of Seltmann, who released the album last year in Australia.
Seltmann will meet her new Canadian benefactors when she hits the Great White North this week for the very first time.
“ People have been telling me good things about the markets in Toronto, and I’m really looking forward to just seeing the landscape and that sort of thing. I’m expecting it’s going to be quite different from Australia, though people always say that Canadians are quite similar to us, quite friendly and so on,” she enthuses.
“ I always wanted my music to come out all around the world so that lots of different types of people could hear it. It’s a pretty nice part of the job, really.” Just the facts Who: New Buffalo Where/When/Admission: Sunday @ 10 p.m.: Sneaky Dee’s, 431 College St. (part of Wavelength), PWYC. Tuesday @ 9 p.m. The Drake Underground, 1150 Queen St. W. @ 9 p.m., $10