Sydney songwriter Fleur Wiber has impressed with her previous releases, both solo and with Chris Carrapetta. Her latest release is ‘Plastic Skyscrapers‘, a song that perfectly the blends classic and contemporary strains of country music, yet still with a gentle cosmic folk drift in its DNA. Drums shuffle, guitars twang & tumble along while a piano builds twinkling melodies lower in the mix. “The song is a feel-good tongue-in-cheek advice to someone going through a hard time,” explains Fleur. “No one will be here if you don’t help yourself”.

Fleur admits that the song is somewhat of an ode to Jeff Tweedy, “I wrote this song during lockdown after reading the book How to Write One Song where Tweedy recommends putting two seemingly mismatching words together. During lockdown last year, the outside world and routines seemed in some ways absurd and personal connections seemed fragile, so helium hearts, confetti hands and plastic skyscrapers appeared.”

Fleur recorded the song with the hugely experienced producer Michael Carpenter at his recently established new House Studio. Using the Jayhawks NPR Tiny Desk Sessions along with Wilco’s rehearsal sessions as production reference for acoustic and quirky percussion sounds, Carpenter was able to add a range of instrumentation including the vibroslap and sleigh bells. “We also added some doo-wop call and response harmonies,” says Fleur. The result is a beautifully written, recorded and performed song with sweet and rich melodic interplay between both Fleur’s voice and the instruments.