INTERVIEW: Georgia Scarlett Talks 'The Rhythm of Life'

We chatted to Meanjin/Brisbane singer-songwriter Georgia Scarlett, who is stepping into a brand-new chapter with the release of her debut album, Rhythm of Life, which was release to the world on November 28. Blending the quiet honesty of folk with the warm, sunlit glow of country pop, Georgia’s first full-length offering is a celebration of growth, self-discovery, and the steady pulse that carries us forward.

Georgia traces a journey from heartbreak to acceptance, discovering strength in change and beauty in every lesson learned along the way. Today, she joins us to talk about that journey, the stories behind the songs, and what it means to finally share this chapter with the world.

When you began writing this album, what questions were you asking yourself as an artist and as a person?

When I began writing the album at the beginning of 2023, there were lots of questions that I was asking myself. It was definitely a time of reflection. In the world of my music, I was asking myself some big questions like What does releasing an album mean? What does it look like? How do I make it happen? Pretty quickly, those questions faded into the background. Once I let myself lean into the process, I focussed on what truly mattered: What do I want to say? What’s my story? What am I feeling right now, and how can I turn that into a song? At the same time, I was asking myself a different set of questions in my personal life, whether the people around me were really my people, and whether I was heading in the right direction. All of that inevitably seeped into the writing. Honestly, I wasn’t consciously sitting down and analysing these questions. I was so deep in the moment of creating that the album almost wrote itself. The album was always going to happen, and I chose to let it unfold naturally, in its own time.

You move between folk delicacy and country pop warmth. What draws you to those spaces and what do you feel they allow you to express?

I’ve always been drawn to the spaces between folk and country warmth because they hold storytelling and emotional connection at their core, the two things that drive everything I create. There’s something intimate about these genres, something that lets you really feel what an artist is trying to say. They give me the freedom to be honest, vulnerable, and expressive in a way that feels natural and authentic. Community is also a huge part of why I make music. Through hosting a folk/country/acoustic radio show in Brisbane, I’ve seen first-hand how these genres bring people together. They’re built on shared stories and experiences. As a musician working in these spaces, I genuinely feel what it’s like to belong to a community and that sense of connection is what keeps me coming back to these genres.

Creating a debut album can be both grounding and disorienting. What part of the process challenged you in a way you did not expect?

One part of the process I didn’t expect to be quite so demanding was the admin side of things. As an independent artist, a huge amount of my time ended up going into emails, planning, and organising rather than making music. It wasn’t a bad surprise, just a real reminder that creating an album is as much about the behind-the-scenes work as it is about the songs themselves.

This record reflects a period of growth and self-awareness. What do you hope listeners feel after listening to the album from top to bottom?

As an old soul and a lover of concept albums, I’ve always believed a record should tell a story, not just through the individual tracks, but in the way they sit together from start to finish. This album explores the theme of time, with each song capturing a different moment of processing change, heartbreak, loss, and self-discovery. It’s less about mapping out stages of grief and more about simply living through these experiences, feeling them fully and noticing how we often circle back to familiar emotions, no matter the scale of the change. I hope listeners connect with different songs depending on where they are in their own journey, and that when they listen from beginning to end, they’re taken through a wider story that reveals the bigger picture.

Reflection is at the heart of the album. How do you create space in your life to notice the moments that end up shaping your songs?

Even though my life can be pretty busy and loud, I still find small pockets of reflection in the middle of it all. My mind tends to process things as they happen, often subconsciously, so even a walk to my car or a drive home becomes a moment to unpack how something made me feel. I always keep my notes app handy because ideas tend to show up when I’m not expecting them. On my album release day, I’d had a hectic schedule, but a conversation in the car sparked a lyric, so I quickly wrote it down before the feeling passed. I’ve realised that you don’t always need a quiet room to reflect. Even in the middle of a busy week, there are little moments where something resonates, and those are often the ones that end up shaping my songs.

Working with arrangements that include banjo, harmonica and fiddle brings a certain texture. What role did instrumentation play in shaping the emotional palette of the record?

I’ve always loved the traditional instrumentation in folk and country music. There’s something about the sound of a harmonica, banjo, or fiddle that hits a spot in the heart, warm, immediate, and joyful. On this record, the instrumentation was never just decorative, it was central to shaping the emotional palette. The idea was always that the lyrics would guide the storytelling, but the instruments help carry that story sonically. Each song’s arrangement complements its mood. In ‘Can’t Stop Time’ and ‘My Love’ felt like they had to exist as one-take performances with just voice and acoustic guitar, no click track, just stripped back and intimate. On the other hand, ‘Finding My Destination’ is about leaving the past behind and stepping into something hopeful and uplifting. For that song, the instrumentation needed to be warm, lively, and celebratory, carrying that sense of forward movement.

When you think about the stories behind these songs, what did you find hardest to let go of and what came easiest?

There were a few songs I’d written back in early 2023 that I had always imagined releasing on the album. The stories and emotions behind them were really strong, and I was definitely making those decisions from a very emotional place. Letting go of the idea of including those tracks was hard, especially when I felt so connected to them, but in the end, they just didn’t fit with the flow and vision of the album as a whole. Some songs were easier to release because I wanted people to hear how I felt at the time. Releasing ‘Can’t Stop Time’ as the second single felt natural, I wanted to share that moment honestly. Other songs, like ‘Watering Can’, were much harder because they’re so personal. I tend to be a perfectionist with that one, especially the spoken word at the start, which comes from a deeply meaningful place. I’m even still deciding whether to tell people exactly where it came from.

What does healing look like for you in a creative sense and how do you recognise when a song has reached its emotional truth?

For me, healing in a creative sense looks like giving myself the space to be authentic and honest without forcing the music. I’ve learned that the writing and recording process works best when I let the emotion unfold at its own pace instead of trying to shape it too early or align my work with deadlines. I recognise a song’s emotional truth when the story stops feeling performative and starts feeling grounding. If I can sing it back and feel a sense of release or clarity, even a small one, that’s usually the sign that the song has arrived where it needs to be. It’s less about perfection and more about recognising when it feels real.

As you step into this new chapter, how do you see your identity as an artist shifting or expanding?

When I released ‘Finding My Destination’, I spoke a lot about how that song was me finding clarity as an artist, both in my songwriting and in my sound. I wouldn’t say my identity is shifting so much as it’s expanding. Over the past few years, I’ve been exploring more country textures with my band, experimenting with different arrangements and sounds. At the same time, in my solo work, I’m still drawn to writing folk ballads and leaning into the emotional vulnerability that comes with them. I feel like this new chapter is giving me more freedom to explore different sides of myself creatively, without losing the core of who I am as an artist. It’s about embracing a broader palette, whether that’s in storytelling, instrumentation, or the moods I want to create, while still staying true to the intimacy and authenticity that I care about most.

Looking ahead to bringing these songs to the stage on your 2026 album tour, what are you most excited to explore in a live setting that the studio could not capture?

I love connecting with an audience whether it’s in the slower songs, really diving into people’s emotions and telling a story through my body language and expression, or in the more upbeat tracks, where I get to move across the stage and even join the audience on the dance floor during a song. In a live setting, I love the chance to meet the people in the room before I even step on stage. That connection makes its way into the performance, and it makes the songs feel even more meaningful for everyone listening. What makes these tour shows even more special is that I get to bring my band along and share this music with my family in Adelaide and my old school friends in Melbourne alongside new audiences. It’s exciting to know that these songs will reach people in ways they haven’t before, and that energy in the room will give the music a life that the studio can’t capture.

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