Maddy Jane gets nostalgic for home on moving new single ‘Island Time’

“This song is raw and vulnerable, and the most 'love song' I’ve ever written”

Maddy Jane has shared a rousing new single titled ‘Island Time’, a nostalgic slow-burner paying tribute to her hometown of Bruny Island, Tasmania.

The track is driven by a contrast of warm electric strums and twangy acoustics, a dry beat cantering over them as Jane’s homespun and honeyed lead vocals flesh out a raw, yet colourful soundscape.

It arrives alongside a music video directed by fellow Tasmanian Jacob Collings, with whom Jane spent three days exploring the idyllic surrounds of Bruny Island to capture what Collings described in a press release as “a postcard from the bottom of the world”.

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Take a look at the video for ‘Island Time’ below:

Further expounding on the concept behind the ‘Island Time’ video, Collings said he and Jane had “no plan, just three days on Bruny and a roll of film”.

He continued: “We combined fuzzy super 8 footage with a sharper digital look as a collision of nostalgic scenes and the everyday. We’re very lucky to have access to such beautiful spaces in Tassie and it is always inspiring to shoot out in the conditions, no matter how wild.”

Jane co-wrote the track with producer Chris Collins (Gang Of Youths, Azure Ryder, Skeggs) at his home studio in regional NSW, noting in her own statement that the process came as a distinct change of pace.

“I’ve struggled with creativity through these waves of [COVID-19],” she said, “and normally I put songs together with my band, so this song was the start of a whole new way of making music. ‘Island Time’ is my first song collaborating with Chris Collins and it just came together so quickly and felt so right.

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“This song is raw and vulnerable, and the most ‘love song’ I’ve ever written. To me it’s obvious I’ve returned to my hometown of Bruny Island.”

Diving deeper into the meaning behind the song, she pointed out its title being “a saying known for when everything slows down when you’re living on an island”, but noted that “it also represents the isolation that everyone has been feeling and how far away everything feels when you can’t go anywhere”.

“This song is also about the full circle moments I have experienced returning to the quiet slow lifestyle of island life,” Jane continued. “More and more my songs tell me what I’m feeling, and the lyrics are almost the words I can’t admit to myself, words I can’t speak out loud, but I can sing them.”

‘Island Time’ comes as Maddy Jane’s first release for 2021. Last year saw the release of her debut album, ‘Not All Bad Or Good’ – flanked by lead single ‘Perfection’s A Thing And You’re It’ – as well as the standalone single ‘You’re Not Mine (But I Think You Should Be)’, which she followed with a video starring Ruby Fields, Odette, Annie Hamilton, Lily Richardson of Clews and Rosie Hamilton of I Know Leopard.

NME gave ‘Not All Bad Or Good’ a four-star review upon release, with writer Ali Shutler calling it “a rough and ready collection of tracks set to inspire”. He continued in his write-up: “With the power to mend broken hearts or shatter them all over again, it’s a wild ride of smirking fury and tiny glances as the songs tackle everything from lust to childhood trauma.”

Also last year, Jane released a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s classic ‘Dreams’, and performed a rendition of Natasha Bedingfield’s ‘Unwritten’ for triple j’s Like A Version segment.

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