Birdee Sideris can hardly grasp her new reality.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Just a few short weeks ago she uploaded her new music collaboration - only the second song she's ever released - to Triple J's Unearthed platform, now it's getting daily radio time.
Pulling Strings is a brand new song that the Parkes product has worked on with fellow artist Butter Bath - Toby Anagnostis.
Just a few days ago they woke up to the news that their tune had been added to Triple J's spot rotation. That means it's getting airtime on the national station every single day.
"I'm still getting my head around it," Birdee said.
It would be an exciting time for any young artist but for a student living in Sydney in lockdown, it's a real thrill.
- READ ALSO: LIVE COVID-19 news in Central, Western NSW
Birdee graduated from Red Bend in 2018 and moved to Sydney to study at the Australian Institute of Music and explore the opportunities the industry and the city have to offer. But the past year-and-a-half has been pretty disrupted.
Birdee came home to Parkes last year when lockdown was imposed and spent the time here with family, this time she's stayed in Sydney and it hasn't been easy.
But she's continued studying at home and fortunately she's got recording equipment that allows her to continue to work with other artists - that's how Pulling Strings has come together.
Birdee describes the new release as "bedroom low-fi pop" in style: it was initially crafted by Toby and the pair worked together on lyrics and melody.
Birdee performs the melody and backing vocals on the track, and Toby has drawn together the instrumentals and produced it.
"It's about being in the midst of a relationship and not being sure where it's going - it's complicated," Birdee said.
And it's just the beginning of what she wants to produce.
"It's very much inspired by an artist Still Woozy, very much an underrated artist," she said.
"I want to make a lot of different styles, I want to get out of my comfort zone and see what kinds of music I can make and reach out to different people.
"There's other music I want to put out that is electronic EDM, and more that is contemporary acoustic, raw."
Birdee's diversity comes back to the range of music she enjoyed growing up: the Sideris girls had a pretty broad repertoire of covers for their gigs here, tweaking them and performing their own arrangements.
"We have such a vast range of music that we love," Birdee said.
"We grew up playing classical music but we love pop, jazz, rock, punk rock, the oldies that are goodies.
"And I guess that's encouraged me to to create music that's completely different."
Parents Leslie and George have encouraged their daughters all the way, with piano, dance and gymnastics lessons from when they were just three years old.
"I've grown up in a very musical and creative family," Birdee said. "That's really helped me."
On reflection, she's been writing songs since she was about nine but more seriously since age 14.
"I sang in a show at school and came second, and thought, this is what I want to do," Birdee said.
Over the past two years she's been on an intense learning curve both artistically and in business.
"You have to put yourself out there," Birdee said.
"It's scary but it's exciting - thrilling even. I make music that is very personal, it's a part of me, a story or an experience."
When it resonates with someone else - as Pulling Strings clearly has - it's a privilege.
"I think that music is very, very powerful," Birdee said.
"It's a way for me to express myself and I think it can let other people feel like they have been heard.
"Even if it touches one person I have done my job, helped in my own way."