New Buffalo
Things are happening almost too quickly for Sally Seltmann, the bashful Melbourne balladeer who plays under the guise of New Buffalo and who wrote Feist’s 2007 hit single, 1,2,3,4. Congratulations on being in the top 10 for the Australian Music Prize and for winning the Myspace Public Vote award. How did you celebrate winning $50,000 worth of promotional support from this social networking juggernaut?
‘Aw, thanks! We celebrated by going to the pub and having lunch. I didn’t do much after that. [laughs] You know, I was surprised about the win, but I knew that for that sort of prize, my music was more suited to having a chance than having a chance at the ARIAs [Australian Record Industry Awards]’. Are you an ‘online social networker’ yourself? [laughs] ‘I am a fan of it for work stuff. I like how I can just go ‘oh, whose this band I’ve been thinking of’, and Google, or I mean, MySpace thingy it and read about it. I like, too that your fans can kind of look each other up and hook up with people who like the same sort of music. I don’t spend that much time on it though and I’m not really into Facebook or anything. I kind of feel like I already spend so much time emailing, I like to get out and about and have real face to face conversations with people.’ How did you get to meeting musical comrades, Feist, Beth Orton and Broken Social Scene? ‘I met Beth Orton when I played shows with her here in Australia. I’m on the same label as Feist and Broken Social Scene in North America, so I went over and played some shows, toured with Feist and Broken Social Scene. So its got a bit of a family kind of vibe. They were all really kind to me, and its nice to have that international network as well.’ Having written the track 1,2,3,4, do you ever regret having given it to Feist to perform, since she’s had so much success with it? ‘Not at all. I love writing songs and I feel really happy that she’s had heaps of success as well because I really like her. In a way, it’s kind of nice because I don’t have to deal with all the crazy hard work she’s been doing, but still get credit for being the songwriter. It’s opened up some great doors for me. I love writing and I’d like to write songs for other artists too.’
Tagged: Australian songwriter, Broken Social Scene, Feist, pop music
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