Melbourne artist Woodes is known for her world-building and has taken to Minecraft to create a universe around her upcoming debut album Crystal Ball - to be released October 2nd.
Hyping up the musical world she has been creating, Woodes has found herself streaming on Twitch with fellow songsmiths Montaigne and Didirri, and more recently Mallrat and Alice Ivy creating plots that represented some part of their music – be it the albums as a whole or singles they had been releasing. The tactic is a creative one, bringing gaming and the music industry closer together and interchanging fans to develop an audience interested in the immersive experience they have all been creating in their sounds.
“Each song on the album exists in a different landscape in my head, ‘Queen Of The Night’ is a song for the desert.” Woodes shares, “I’d also been really obsessed with desert super blooms. When writing this song I had all of these purple and orange desert blooms on my desktop and I was singing at them, imagining being in a desolate barren wasteland, coming across a field of vivid colour.”
Now almost 12 years old (A long time in the world of technology) Minecraft was created by Swedish video game programmer Notch in 2009 who sold the rights to the game to Microsoft in 2014 for US$2.5 Billion and has over 110 million monthly active players. It has since been used by NASA for educational purposes and even by journalists to avoid censorship.
Woodes enlisted Reuben Gore (also behind Splendour Minecraft) to build this vast city in Minecraft, allowing fans to interact and explore the ‘Crystal Ball’ word which Woodes has fantasised of, utilising these creations to make music videos for her single releases.
Minecraft music videos were popularised on YouTube by the likes of CaptainSparkles, who used to create parodies based off the ubiquitous block game – most famously his ‘Viva La Vida’ video ‘Fallen Kingdom’ that still manages to pull some OG Minecrafter’s heartstrings. Minecraft was revitalised by CallMeCarson and friends in 2019 with his server SMPLive streamed on Twitch, which found old Minecraft players being featured. This led to the current boom of Minecraft memes, streams and exploits.
With her already released melodic ballads Woodes is giving fans much to look forward to in early October. ‘Euphoria’ was a track we could see being set in spring flower forest, a maiden dressed in white running barefoot through mossy landscapes to reach her destination. Newest single ‘Queen of The Night’, however, presents the knight in shining armor on the B-side of her album, a picture of knights clashing swords, thunderous drums and bold moonlight glistening over deep lakes.
The musical releases so far are giving us the cathartic feeling of nostalgia and childlike wonder, along with the lack of care that comes with 'Dancing in the Rain'. Added to the creative sandbox world of Minecraft, we can see that Woodes is dedicated to not only bringing fans to her world but the world to her fans.
Crystal Ball is released October 2nd