Melbourne-based singer/songwriter Bec Sykes takes us track-by-track through her dreamy, achingly tender debut album ‘Pepperpot Magic,’ a beautifully intimate, softly stirring alt-folk record of raw human connection, trauma, heartache, and healing.
for fans of Big Thief, Angie McMahon, Winten, Julia Jacklin
Stream: “Last to Know” – Bec Sykes
‘Pepperpot Magic’ is my life: It’s the unexplainable feelings that I can only express through music. It’s my way of saying that magic and art can happen in the suburbs.
It takes a sure hand and a steady heart to transform the gentle into the dramatic, and vice versa.
And on her debut album, singer/songwriter Bec Sykes embodies that deft, self-assured puppet master-like persona; she becomes the one pulling the strings, both of the guitar and heart variety, channeling her innermost emotions into breathtakingly intimate and vulnerable moments of raw human connection and visceral self-expression. A dreamy, achingly tender alt-folk triumph, Pepperpot Magic is a beautiful record of catharsis and confession, reckoning and reflection: Of a body’s journey through trauma, heartache, and healing, all put through a gently dramatic, softly spellbinding soundtrack.
Called me in my hotel room After the show
I was happy to hear your voice
Plastered, I was too naive
To even know
A fancy dinner for my birthday
I would’ve been happy with Thai and cake
Who’d have guessed, we never went
No card, no candles, no call
I’m the last to know
You still want me in your life
I’m the last to know
You’re cutting it fine
It would’ve been nice to know
What happened to you last night
I’m the last to know
You’re cutting it fine til I’m saying goodbye
– “Last to Know,” Bec Sykes
Released November 6, 2024, Pepperpot Magic aches inside and out as Bec Sykes spills her soul for 36 unflinchingly honest minutes of musical warmth and wonder. The Naarm/Melbourne singer/songwriter has established herself as one to watch over the past four years through stirring performances full of passion and pain, opening for artists like Telenova, Jem Cassar-Daley, Mia Wray, Teenage Dads, Didirri, Josh Pyke, and Katy Steele. Sykes also won Melbourne record label Pieater’s 2019 ‘Pie School’ competition and the 2020 Josh Pyke Partnership, both of which helped open doors and opportunities, all of which have led up to this long-awaited longform introduction.
As Sykes herself explains, this ‘album’ in its current form was wholly unexpected. “In June last year I went into the studio to record four songs with Robert Muinos – ‘Joshua’, ‘I Know What You Like’, ‘Caroline,’ and another song that went in the bin,” she tells Atwood Magazine. “I booked two days at Rob’s studio, the Rat Shack, and called on some of my favourite musicians in Naarm/Melbourne to play in the band – Matt Dixon (pedal steel guitar), Bradley Ellis (electric guitar), Ronan Nicholson (bass) and Sam Raines (drums). We recorded the band beds live and ended up smashing out all the songs on the first day, so Rob was like ‘do you have any other songs?‘ I went home and dug up ‘Marlene’ and ‘Paint the House Grey,’ and finished off the lyrics for ‘Crow Song’ and ‘Last to Know,’ and we recorded them the next day.”
“By then, to my pleasant surprise, we had seven songs, so I was determined to keep writing. I enlisted the help of Ronan, who helped me finish ‘Six’ and co-wrote ‘Do You Dream in Colour.’ It took a few months to write the final two. All the songs were written between my brother’s house in Glen Huntly, my place in Croydon South at the time, and my sister’s house in Bayswater where my upright piano lives. The album was written at a time when I had quite debilitating anxiety about health and germs which informed most of the songs either directly or indirectly.”
When I was seventeen
I thought everything
Would start to float up to the sky
Ships and boats, the railway line
Would wind between the clouds
With bad men screaming out
That they couldn’t get down
Tell me, I’ll believe it
I was a piece of clay
That you both carved into a girl
Your fears under the spotlight
As your fingers moulded mine
When I look down at my hands
I can still see myself
Before I asked for help
Ooooh Marlene
It got better better better better
Ooooh Marlene
It wasn’t the life for me
While Pepperpot Magic’s eleven songs may not have all come from the same time, they unequivocally come from the same place.
“I was never planning to make a full length album; it kinda crept up on me,” Sykes admits. “I knew I wanted to work with Rob because the other records he’d made sounded a bit weird. When I told him this, he took it as a compliment. I’m a recovering double vocal addict, and when we started tracking vocals I was like ‘I WANT TO SOUND LIKE ENYA,’ but Rob was like, ‘I think this song should have single track vocals with no BVs.’ There was a bit of push and pull, but ultimately once I heard the vocal recordings, I realised Rob had captured my voice so well that a lot of the time it didn’t need a double to fatten it up. Rob was really keen to record things live, which I was tentative about at first. I hadn’t played with a band that much and didn’t have a lot of confidence in my timing. It was a really empowering experience to record the songs live. ‘Paint the House Grey,’ ‘Sculpture,’ and ‘Joan of Arc’ all have live vocals, which I never thought I’d do.”
Sykes candidly describes Pepperpot Magic as gentle, grounded, and pensive. For her, this album is a defining introduction not just to her artistry, but to her very humanity.
“On the record, the vocals and lyrics are at the forefront and the instrumentation is restrained,” she reflects. “I feel like I’m finally making the music that I’ve always wanted to make. In the recordings I’m singing softly which makes the tracks feel really intimate. We tracked the vocals without headphones, so I felt less inhibited and I was singing the way I would sing at home. It’s less of a performance and more like I’m sharing my secrets with a friend.”
The album’s title takes its name from a now-defunct fairy/occult shop in Sykes’ hometown suburban Naarm/Melbourne.
“Years ago, my sister was on call when her best friend was going into labour,” she recalls. “At 4 AM, her phone rang, and in her disoriented state she picked up and answered, ‘Good afternoon, Pepperpot Magic.’ This was the name of the fairy/occult shop in Boronia (my hometown, an outer suburb of Melbourne) that she worked at in the ‘90s (my sister is 20 years older than me).”
“As soon as I heard that story, I knew it was the name of the album. The songs are about breaking up with a scientist and leaving behind my Christian upbringing, so ‘Pepperpot Magic’ feels fitting in a playful, rebellious sort of way. ‘Pepperpot Magic’ is my life. It’s the unexplainable feelings that I can only express through music. It’s my way of saying that magic and art can happen in the suburbs.”
Highlights abound on the journey from “Marlene” to “Paint the House Grey” as Sykes brings her delicate touch to moments of struggle and strife, self-discovery and interpersonal connection.
“I love ‘I Know What You Like,’” the artist smiles. “The band nailed the groove and the textures and it has just the right amount of creepiness. It’s really satisfying to me that the song captures the unsettled feeling I felt when I wrote it. When I write songs, I’m always trying to capture a specific feeling but it doesn’t always translate so well.”
“‘Six’ is also a favourite. Rob recorded the nylon string guitar using a pair of headphones as the mic, which was a highlight of recording.”
As for her lyrics, Sykes has several standouts – each of which captures a different side of her expressive storytelling abilities:
“I was a piece of clay that you both carved into a girl / your fears under the spotlight as your fingers moulded mine“
“A quarter tab of LSD / I don’t wanna climb that family tree / no that’s not the life for me“
“With you I’d paint the house grey / spend a day deciding on the shade“
“Sitting at the bar with my seatbelt on“
Ultimately, Pepperpot Magic is the kind of album that we’ll cherish for years to come, thanks to its tender touch, its emotional depth, its folk warmth, and its brutal, aching beauty.
Sykes hopes her music brings calm and comfort to those who need it most.
“Most of the songs were written as a self-soothing mechanism, so I hope they also bring comfort to those who listen,” Sykes shares. “The record not only feels like an accomplishment for me as an artist, but also for me personally. It’s taken a lot of baby steps with my anxiety to get to the point of being able to record and release music. I really struggle making decisions, and I’ve had to make a LOT in the past year or so. I’ve become a pro. Making this album has been a good challenge for my perfectionism.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Bec Sykes’ Pepperpot Magic with Atwood Magazine as she takes us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her debut album!
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:: stream/purchase Pepperpot Magic here ::
:: connect with Bec Sykes here ::
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Stream: ‘Pepperpot Magic’ – Bec Sykes
:: Inside Pepperpot Magic ::
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Marlene
I wrote “Marlene” when I was reflecting on my religious upbringing. I was listening to Laura Jean’s ‘Teenager Again’ a lot, and in hindsight I subconsciously borrowed the first line ‘When I was seventeen.’ What followed was a stream of consciousness about my deepest fears as a teenager – the rapture occurring and the world ending, and thinking I’d never make it to adulthood. It’s also about inheriting anxiety and extreme cautiousness, and realising how much that has shaped my decisions (or lack thereof). The song is ultimately a celebration. I made it.
Last to Know
This one is probably the least cryptic song on the album. It’s about quietly giving up on a relationship after being let down too many times. In the studio we got heaps done on the first day, so I went home that night and furiously searched my voice memos to see if there were any other songs we could record. I found the idea for “Last to Know,” wrote the rest of the lyrics from old diary entries, and we recorded it the next day.
I Know What You Like
I wrote this song when I was housesitting in Glen Huntly for about six months. It was my first time living on my own and I felt super creative because I didn’t have to worry about people hearing me sing while I was trying to write. I Know What You Like is about feeling unsettled when someone you’re in a new relationship with shows their true colours, but giving them the benefit of the doubt because you’re in love with them.
Do You Dream in Colour
I co-wrote this song with my bass player, Ronan Nicholson, and the lyrics sparked from a conversation about social anxiety. I so badly want to connect with people, but I find it so hard to open up. I think the song is about feeling frustrated as an introvert about the pressure to be social, telling myself it’s okay to stay in my shell, but also feeling pretty lonely and isolated sometimes.
Six
My older brother John died when he was sixteen. I wrote this song as an act of empathy for my Dad. Last year Dad had to go to hospital (he’s fine now) and when he was in the back of the ambulance the paramedic asked him how many kids he had. Already in a vulnerable state, he burst into tears. Later he told me that story and he said he never knows what to say when people ask him that question.
Sculpture
Sculpture was one of the last songs I wrote for the album. I find it really hard to talk about the weird things I get anxious about. This song is about leaning towards the person I love and letting them see all the yucky parts of me.
Joan of Arc
My boyfriend left my guitar in an alternate tuning and this song came out. This was the last song I wrote for the album and I think it’s one of the most honest songs I’ve ever written. It’s about guilt and anxiety and forgiving myself and deciding not to be a martyr.
Joshua
I was seeing this guy who would never come to my house. I was such a sucker, I’d always end up going to his place and I agreed to catsit for him on multiple occasions. One time after I looked after his cats for like a week, he got back and asked if I wouldn’t mind going home to sleep in my own bed that night. I wrote this song in one sitting.
Caroline
Caroline is about being jealous of the love another person received from someone who didn’t treat me very well. In hindsight I was partially in denial when I wrote this song.
Crow Song
Crow Song is a diary entry about falling in love with someone who lost a parent two months into the relationship. They pulled away and it felt like they dropped off the face of the earth. The song is about me trying to be patient but feeling very lovesick.
Paint the House Grey
Paint the House Grey is about entertaining the idea of settling down and surrendering to the suburban dream. I wrote it after my friend announced she was pregnant and a bunch of other friends were getting engaged or married. Up until that point I was pretty judgemental of people in my life who seemed like they were just going through the motions of what society expects you to do. I feel like not wanting kids or a “normal” life was part of my identity, but I shocked myself when I realised a part of me wants that sense of comfort and security too.
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:: stream/purchase Pepperpot Magic here ::
:: connect with Bec Sykes here ::
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© Jeff Andersen Jnr.
© Jeff Andersen Jnr.Pepperpot Magic
an album by Bec Sykes
