Leah Senior invites us to listen softly, once again

Pt. Roadknight is out today!

Leah Senior has long been a softly commanding presence in the Australian folk scene. Her baroque psych-folk has always occupied a space between intricate musicality and intimate storytelling, each album a reflection of her meticulous yet effortless artistry. With her new single, ‘Softly, Once Again’, she continues this delicate trajectory, offering a reflective counterpart to her recent single, ‘Mothersong’, both from her new album.

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Where ‘Mothersong’ bursts with immediate energy, ‘Softly, Once Again’ moves with a gentle, considered pace. “The album is full of light and shade, so perhaps the two songs represent the different poles,” Senior explains. “Sonically, ‘Mothersong’ has a good opening kick to it. ‘Softly, Once Again’ speaks to the gentleness that I crave both in music and in how we carry ourselves through this outrageously loud world.”

The song also carries a subtle commentary on Melbourne’s punk scene. Senior positions herself as a small voice amid the city’s din, reflecting on the pressure to perform loudly in an industry that rewards volume over subtlety. 

“I never feel quite in balance. I’m always wanting more quiet, creative time. I don’t actually have anything against loud music,” she says. “I just thought it was a fun, slightly cheeky metaphor for the broader social issues such as lack of subtlety and the pressure you feel as a musician to belong to the attention economy.”

The arrangement of ‘Softly, Once Again’ mirrors its contemplative ethos. Flutes and horns weave through the track, while a playful rhythm section grounds it with quiet propulsion. “

I had a lot of fun arranging these parts,” Senior says. “There was a spaciousness in the songs that allowed me to experiment with more instrumentation than usual. Hank and Liam are also amazing improvisers and added their own flavours, which really elevated things.” Her sister Andi’s harmonies thread through the recording, adding warmth and intimacy.

These instrumental explorations are part of Senior’s fifth album, Pt. Roadknight, a record conceived in a sandstone shack along the windswept Anglesea coast. The seasonal rhythms of the village shaped both the tone and the themes of the album. 

“The insane beauty of the place shines through in my nature songs,” Senior reflects. “Some of the lyrics track the emptying out of the place in winter and the weirdness of all those vacant houses. The shack was freezing. Lots of cracks so you could feel the sea breeze on your cheeks when you lay in bed at night. My seasonal depression got pretty out of hand, which shows up on side A. Side B is the spring awakening.”

Recording Pt. Roadknight live was crucial to capturing the album’s intimacy and chemistry. 

 

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“If you can’t play the songs live in the room together then I wouldn’t bother recording. It’s all about chemistry and listening to one another. The idea of layering drums, then bass, then blah blah is so clinical. Especially these days, we don’t want to make music that sounds like AI.” 

With long-time collaborator Jesse Williams and a trusted ensemble of musicians, the process felt “wildly effortless,” and Senior notes that after five albums she has grown confident in her methods while remaining detached from the final result.

With the record complete, Senior is ready to bring Pt. Roadknight to audiences across Victoria. The tour begins at Meeniyan’s Town Hall on Saturday 20 June, before moving to Melbourne’s Tote for a matinee on 18 July. From there, she will play Martians Saloon in Deans Marsh on 25 July, Mozart Hall in Warrnambool on 1 August, the Bridge Hotel in Castlemaine for another matinee on 2 August, and finish at Old Stone Hall in Beechworth on 7 August. It keeps regional audiences at the forefront of her touring agenda.

“I’m a rural girl now and I can’t wait to play our new local, Martians,” she says. “I love the community in regional towns and just want to play some rollicking folk in a country hall.”

With ‘Softly, Once Again’ and the fresh Pt. Roadknight, Leah Senior continues to craft a singular world of folk music: delicate, reflective, and richly orchestrated, yet grounded in the intimacy of lived experience. In an era that prizes noise over nuance, she reminds us of the courage in listening softly, once again.

Pt. Roadknight is out now via Third Eye Stimuli & SPINSTER (North America / UK).

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