Artist bio
Gerty Balbao is a singer/songwriter & producer based in Wollongong. She started singing at a very young age and has continued to improve her musical abilities by having learnt to play the guitar, keys, and drums. Her melancholic lyrics are inspired from past experiences while her style is influenced by Lizzy McAlpine, Searows, and Adam Melchor.
Program notes
My EP ‘Where’s the Light?’, is a journey about getting hurt, losing hope, to then questioning what’s next. I have been experimenting with alternate tunings and loved the tunings ‘Open D’ and ‘DADGAD’, so I wanted to use those for the 3 songs I have written. The EP starts with a simple guitar and vocal performance. ‘Bruise’ is the only track that is not heavily produced as I wanted the focus to be on the lyrics. ‘Will I Drown?’, is slow and builds into this dramatic bridge section. Finally, ‘The Other Side’ is a high energy song that sums up every emotion that is present in the EP.
I performed all the vocals and some guitars, but the rest of the EP was only possible with the help of Ellie Thompson on drums, George Schweitzer on electric guitar, Annie O’Reilly on keys, and JB Robbie on bass guitar.