Hot off the back of a mammoth time at The Great Escape (UK) last week, Rowena Wise is releasing her stunning new album, “Senseless Acts of Beauty” today. Described by CLASH as “carefully etched indie folk”, the Melbourne/Naarm-based artists’ ruminations on love, alienation, and self-empowerment are fast catching attention.

Hailing from the Western Australian surf town of Margaret River, Rowena Wise’s musical journey began at a young age. Together with her mother (a folk musician from Chicago) and father (a luthier who builds the custom guitars she plays today), they performed as a family band throughout her youth, playing folk festivals all over. Now, grown up and living on the opposite coast in Melbourne, Rowena is on the precipice of something exciting of her own.

“Indifferent is about letting go of someone, holding space for pain with the knowledge that one day my wounds will heal. The song was born from a deep chasm of heartache, but it’s about honouring my capacity to feel free despite feeling alone. It’s about feeling the pain before moving on. Sometimes the healing process needs that.

I wrote it after a phone call that changed my life. I was in Tasmania on tour, and my long term partner and I split up over the phone. I was standing alone under the stars in a city where I knew nobody, and I felt completely alone. Yet I felt so free. I got over my fear of taking that first breath of freedom after a tumultuous relationship.” – Rowena

Having gained a burgeoning reputation over the last few years as both a lyricist and performer, Rowena recently signed to Australian indie Beloved Recordings (Lewis Coleman, Darvid Thor) and with her new album is opening her songbook up to the world. Inspired by the strong storytelling sensibilities of 60s folk icons and making a sound that sits her snugly alongside the likes of Aldous Harding, Julia Jacklin, and Waxahatchee, Rowena found her spark during a down moment while travelling at the end of a relationship.

A new zenith, her songs are full of emotional depth, and by allowing a searing honesty to run throughout, she’s being true to herself and the listener, holding space for all of life’s wonder and mess. Over the album’s ten tracks, she offers heady ruminations on love, loss, and alienation yet counters them with warmth, courage, and empowerment.

Working closely with producer Robert Muiños (Didirri, Julia Jacklin, Little May) and her band Rich Bradbeer (bass) and Jess Ellwood (drums), they recorded the whole album live in Melbourne’s Rat Shack studio. Often capturing a track in one take, this approach allowed them to bottle the raw energy of the performance, lifting Rowena’s whispy, powerful vocals to help make an evocative listening experience, as if the storytelling is being delivered by a close friend. This is music that reflects new perspectives, consolidated after navigating heavy life experiences and hard lessons that informed a new direction, artistically and personally, for Rowena to move forward.

“The name ‘Senseless Acts of Beauty’ is an ode to the senseless act of doing something despite the odds being stacked against you.” Rowena says, “I think that really rings true for where I was at when I wrote these songs. The growing pains of my adulthood were laced with self-loathing and disenchantment. I loved someone who hurt me very deeply. It was the kind of relationship that messed up my sense of self and the way I related with others. It made no sense to love like that, but I did, and I can only learn from the experience. I’m stronger for it.”