Maple Glider is Naarm/Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Tori Zietsch.
A superb return for Tori Zietsch, bringing the woozy off-kilter Americana sound we loved from her 2021 debut and broadening the horizons into a widescreen, majestic display. It’s both hugely cinematic and unfalteringly relatable, a triumph of every sort. Lovely,
On her sophomore album “I Get Into Trouble”, Tori takes her songwriting to another level while she delves into her Christian childhood, exploring topics such as her relationship to her body, consent and shame, as well as the death of relationships, both romantic and familial. Heartbreaking at times, the songs ultimately paint a hopeful picture, shining a light on new life, new love, and the desire to find peace and connection with these experiences.
Ultimately, “I Get Into Trouble” is the sound of alchemized pain. In each song, Zietsch transmutes tribulation and confusion into clarity and deep insight. She combines the infectious folk-pop hooks of her debut with a sense of scape and scope.
“I Get Into Trouble” follows Maple Glider’s acclaimed 2021 debut “To Enjoy is the Only Thing”, a deeply personal project which earned her a performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk, as well as praise from Pitchfork (hypnotic), Paper (sublime), Stereogum (some voices in indie just hit home) and Rolling Stone (“one of the most accomplished debut albums in recent years.”).
From mid-2021, the recording process for “I Get Into Trouble” stretched out for over a year, with studio access limited by Melbourne’s strict lockdown schedule. The new freedoms of 2022 brought a mixed bag of awkwardness, excitement, anxiety, deadlines, celebrations and exhaustion. Zietsch found solace in nature, and in the friendship of her touring band.
Many of the songs on the new album were initially rejected as too angry, or too difficult to process.
But it’s also hopeful – there is new life, new love, and the desire to re-connect and find peace with it all. The majority of songs are performed on acoustic guitar – the exceptions being the slinky ‘Two Years’ and lockdown lullaby ‘Scream’.
The first single ‘Don’t Kiss Me’ was released in May ‘23. Written as a counterattack on unwanted sexual attention and the objectifying gaze, it had already become an emotional peak of the live show. In Maple Glider’s typical wry fashion, the accompanying video offset the lyrics’ heaviness as a lo-fi comedy-horror, featuring a laser-eyed porcelain witch doll.
Whether it’s acerbic recriminations or devastatingly loving entreaties, Zietsch’s lyricism gets into the nooks and crannies of relationships.
The back-to-back pairing of ‘You At The Top Of The Driveway’ into ‘You’re Gonna Be A Daddy’ holds so much tenderness – the story continuing from the heart-breaking ‘Mama It’s Christmas’ from the first LP. ‘Driveway’ holds snapshots of childhood memories, à la Woolf or Proust, and ‘Daddy’ compares the now-contrasting lives, forging paths taking them further and further away from their former intimacy. The video for “Daddy” is gratuitously full of colourful costumes and a fabulous giant unicorn affectionately nicknamed “Stubz”.
The album title “I Get Into Trouble” is taken from the bible story “Dinah Gets Into Trouble”, where a young woman is victim blamed for being sexually assaulted. ‘Dinah’, the most sonically pop tune we’ve heard from Maple Glider, outlines the double standards within Zietsch’s own experience growing up in Christianity; and the accusations levelled at “non-believers” whilst the church itself was not a safe space (see the colourfully kitsch video featuring a pink dildo as preacher’s microphone here).
Says Zietsch “I want to channel the frustration and anger I’ve felt about all of these things over the past 15 years outside of religion in a playful, fun, and cheeky way. It feels like the only way to digest it at this point.”
Using the same team as her debut, “I Get Into Trouble” was recorded with multi-instrumentalist, mixer and producer Tom Iansek (Big Scary, #1 Dads, Lisa Mitchell, The Paper Kites), and drummer Jim Rindfleish (Mildlife). All tracking was done at BellBird studio in Collingwood.
The Fat Angel Sings 