Melbourne-based Wren Bellette (formerly of Adelaide band The Heggarties) sets sail under her own name with the irrepressible sound of ‘Sailor‘, the second taste of her forthcoming debut solo album (co-produced by Taasha Coates of The Audreys).

It’s a song that opens with a vessel creaking on a gently rolling ocean, as a super laidback groove and warm resonant organ enter the waters.

Wren delivers a supremely soulful vocal on the song, comparable to contemporaries such as Frazey Ford (Be Good Tanyas) and Jaime Wyatt, while the lilting heartache of Emma Luker‘s violin provides a central melodic motif and Gina Nott‘s backing vocal adds another layer of country soul to the song.

Creative inspiration can appear at the most unexpected times and, as Wren explains, it was at a gig in Nashville that her muse came calling. “The line ‘I wish I was a sailor so I could sail past his shores’ came to me at a Kasey Chambers gig at The 5 Spot in 2018. I had to run into the toilet and finish the verse and record it while people were banging on the door.”

“Ironically it’s not about me,” she reveals. “It’s about a couple that I knew that were struggling. Little did I know how that relationship breakdown would ultimately impact my own.”