If you missed me on the radio, Ive got good news. It's now available as a podcast!!! Filled with lots of banter, useful tips, chats with some special guests, and a live in-studio recording of one of my songs.

Find it wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Just a quick update to let you know all is well over here at T HQ. Things may have looked a bit quiet but behind the scenes there's been some pretty cool things happening.

I completed a mentorship thanks to Australian Independent Record Labels Association's Women in Music Mentorship Program. Here's a little snippit from their website:

"The Women in Music Mentor program is a four-year nation-wide mentoring and training program aimed at empowering women in the Australian music industry. The program will run once a year from 2020 to 2023 and is designed to enable women to navigate their career and leadership pathways, develop professional decision making, governance, commercial and corporate engagement skills."

I was lucky enough to get the wonderful and super lovely Sara Storer as my mentor for the program. I got some great tips and encouragement from her about music in general, and about future project ideas - so watch this space!

How cool is this!?!?!

I've been shortlisted in not one, not two, but THREE categories for the 2021 Australian Songwriters Association Awards.

If you've been following me for a while, you might know that an acoustic demo version of  'Chasing my Tail' took out 3rd place in the Folk/Acoustic category at the 2019 ASA Awards (I also had an acoustic demo of 'Slow' shortlisted). I was devastated that I was not able to go down to Sydney in person for the awards night to celebrate with fellow FNQ songwriters (fun fact - Robert Cini, another FNQ songwriter took out number one in the same section with his song 'Different Road' - not too bad FNQ, not too bad!).

I entered again in 2020 I had a demo version of 'Butterflies & Anxiety' make the top 30. Unfortunately due to COVID the in-person event was cancelled so it wasn't just me unable to attend that year.

This makes the 2021 nominations even more exciting! The top 30 for each category is due to be announced in the coming weeks and hopefully also a date for the in-person awards event. If I get through again this year, and the event goes ahead, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be booking flights and accommodation and nothing is going to get in my way!

Please cross all of your fingers, and toes, and whatever else can be done to wish me luck - eeeeep!

Thank you so much for all of your support throughout 2021! What a huge year it was. From recording and releasing my debut EP, to playing some great festivals - it certainly was a great year full of amazing experiences!

Here's a few happy snaps of highlights.

Recording some of the guitar parts at Pegasus Recording Studios. Working with Nigel Pegrum was such a great experience, he really got my vibe and helped bring the tracks to life.

Early phases of the album artwork (it's actually painted in coffee because tea wasn't pigmented enough - shhhh).

DIY film clips! One mostly animated and one all done with just an iPhone and iMovie (check them out on YouTube). This is me setting up a "stage" in the lounge room.

Getting added to other people's playlists is really cool! If you haven't already done this, head over to your favourite streaming service and add my songs to your playlists (pretty please). Streaming doesn't really generate a lot of money for artists (I think it's like 10000 streams = a cup of coffee) so every stream counts.

NEW MERCH! To go with the EP release I made a couple of new merch lines. One has the EP cover and the other has a cactus (painted by yours truly) with 'Go sit on a cactus' written underneath - this is a line from the final track on the EP. The cactus merch is by far the best selling merch I've made. Merch is a great way to support your favourite artists so feel free to head over to my merch store and grab yourself some cool stuff.

The launch event! This was held at BulmbaJa Arts Centre and sold over 120 tickets (wow)! It was a sneak peak at the EP for dedicated fans a month ahead of the digital release. It was such a great night and a lot of really lovely, heartwarming feedback was received.

The digital EP release! Finally being able to share the tracks with people all over the world was such a surreal thing. I got some great write ups and responses from near and far.

Festivals to finish off the year! I had three exciting festival spots at the end of the year. Starting with Cairns Festival at the revamped Courthouse.

Then on to Savannah in the Round - Such a cool experience playing at a big festival like this! I ended up doing three sets and had a crowd that would catch each one. Some even figured out who my Aunty was and when they couldn't find me to sign something, passed it on to her to track me down - that's dedication. I also got my name on the official festival tee which was pretty exciting.

And finally, one of my favs -Tablelands Folk Festival. We had fun during my pub ballroom gig when the power kept tripping and I ended up having to do one song totally unplugged, luckily they managed to get something sorted to finish off the set. All in all, a pretty great weekend.

There's plenty more pics and tid-bits of information on my social media accounts so don't forget to head over and like/follow me there as well (links at top and bottom of this website).

What an extraordinary year it was! I'm excited to see what 2022 has in store.

Exciting times!

I've got a few festival bookings to share with you (and possibly another awaiting confirmation).

I'll be playing a set at 5:30pm on Monday the 30th of August at The Courthouse as part of the Cairns Festival. Further details can be found by clicking here.

Also - I've been invited to play at the Tablelands Folk Festival again this year! I've got three sets over the weekend. 7pm Friday at The Garden Vibe, 12 noon on Sat in the Pub Ballroom, and 3.30pm Sunday back at The Garden Vibe. Very much looking forward to being a part of the festival again this year. Check out the TFF website here for more information about the weekend and to get your hands on some tickets - get in quick though, last year was a sell out!

Hoping to see all of your lovely faces at some of the shows.

Hi guys,

It's been a while between updates and so much has been happening!

My debut EP is now live across all major streaming services. I'd love for you to have a listen and let me know what you think. Feel free to add the songs to your favourite playlists and share them around with other people you think might enjoy them.

Of course, if you're like me and you like to have the physical copy of things, you can head to the music tab on my webpage (or click here) to grab yourself a copy. Massive shout-out of appreciation to those of you who've already ordered your copy - I'm heading to the post office later today with a bundle <3

The EP has been gaining some attention online with numerous blogs writing some pretty heart-warming reviews. Here's a few links if you'd like to check them out.

https://musicexistence.com/.../album-review-talitha-jae.../

https://indieshark.com/music-reviews/talitha-jae-spilt-t-ep/

https://ventsmagazine.com/.../singer-songwriter-talitha.../

https://skopemag.com/2021/08/14/talitha-jae-releases-spilt-t

Even  more exciting the songs are not only doing well on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, but they're getting a fair bit of airplay across radio stations- 'I'm Done', the final track on the EP hit number one on the AMRAP Regional Charts on 16/08 which is mindblowing and still a little surreal!

I've got a few more exciting announcements coming up soon as well so keep your eyes peeled.

Wow! So much has been happening over here in T land!

Last weekend I held a launch event at Bulmba-Ja for my upcomming Debut EP and gave the crowd in Cairns a taste of what's to come. It was such a huge success and I was so excited to have a crowd of around 130 people cheering me on! Check out my facebook page for some happy snaps of the night :)

Physical sales have already started strong and the pre-orders are rolling in for the digital release which is due out on the 6th of August. You can pre-save, pre-add, and pre-order (depending on your favourite streaming service) by following this link right here > https://ffm.to/spiltt

The EP consists of six of my most popular songs, with the track listing designed to take listeners on a journey through 'the feels' associated with love, heartbreak, and moving on.

Fun fact - I painted the EP cover myself and it features my favourite T2 teacup! I am a little tea obsessed so the concept for the name and design of the album seemed to fit perfectly.

I've just launched a brand new merch line to accompany the release too. You can get your very own 'Spilt T' shirt, and there is also a very popular 'Go sit on a cactus' design (it's a line from 'I'm Done' the final track on the EP). The cactus merch actually outsold the rest of my merch at the launch event and I'm so glad people like it! I also handpainted the cactus for this one too!

Following on from my first single 'Chasing my Tail' (if you haven't already heard it you can find it here) I've got another new song headed your way on the 25th of June.

I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to this song. It's about that beginning stage of a relationship, where it's not even really a relationship yet. You don't know exactly what it is, but you know it feels good. Your stomach is constantly filled with butterflies when you're around them, or thinking of them, but in a split second you can also be plagued with the thought of 'what if they don't even like me, and this is all just made so much bigger in my head than it really is!?!?!?".  It's a beautiful, horrible, bittersweet place to be. 

This is the song that just wanted to be written and wasn't going to let me rest until it was done! I was actually smack bang in the middle of an 8 day intensive in my final year of university, and when I say intensive - it was intense. 8 days of classes during the day and working on assignments (to be presented on the last day) at night (and just to make it extra fun, the library was undergoing renovations and we had limited resources after hours) to try and tie together four years of learning. *Intense* I had zero time to be writing songs, or even thinking about writing songs. But this song had different ideas. I still have the notebook from that class with the original lyrics scrawled in the back pages. I quickly scribbled down lyric ideas as they'd do the rounds in my head just as a way of saying "ok, it's down, leave me alone now", only to then have another line pop in not long after. By the end of the 8 days I had the lyrics and melody pretty much written, I went home, played around a bit on the guitar and bam, song finished.

Butterflies & Anxiety is perhaps my most requested original song and I'm really looking forward to sharing the recorded version with you. 

It's still got a very strong acoustic feel and a lovely 6/8 sway (I promise not all of my songs are in 6/8 but it definitely is my favourite time signature - its perfect for swaying and, in my opinion, is the feeliest time signature). Aside from the acoustic guitar, you'll here a few different electric guitar styles on this track too. We've got some tremolo and slide in there and some sneaky organ as well. I can't wait to hear what you think!

I'm having a launch event for the EP and I'd love for you to join me!

It's a little bit sneaky because the online release of the EP isn't until August so you'll be among the first people to hear the tracks from the EP.

You'll also have early access to a physical copy of the CD (even if you don't have a CD player it's still a really cool collectors piece - it's got a lyric book and everything inside.

I'll also be launching new merch on the night featuring the EP cover and another line with lyrics to the third single (no spoilers yet!), plus I'll have some old favourites like the ever popular 'T' Bag.

It's set to be an amazing night of live music. The extremely talented, award winning, fellow FNQ singer-songwriter, Robert Cini will be opening the show. If you haven't come across his stuff yet you are in for a treat! You can check out his website here.

I'll jump up and do a set of songs solo that didn't quite make the EP but are sure to be included in future projects, before having the band join me to show you all the songs from the EP.

The venue has comfortable theatre style seating so everyone should have a good view of what's happening on stage. It's also fully accessible and there will be an Auslan interpreter on stage as well. There is a bar onsite and some nibbles will be provided. 

All you need to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy a night celebrating the amazing talent we have up here in Far North Queensland. 

Don't miss out - Get your tickets NOW!

Holy wow! My first single is out there in the world for everyone to enjoy! Have you heard it yet? You can stream it on all major streaming services (click here) and I've even made a cute little music clip which you can find here.

I made the film clip using VYOND which is an online animation program and I had so much fun doing it. I made a little character that looked (kind of) like me and went from there. You're a little bit limited in what you can do in there but I found enough to make it work and even had a bit of a giggle at some of the scenes I made. I love that I was able to get it to lip sync fairly accurately as well.

I'd love to know what you think of it!