Having just released what will surely go down as one of the finest songs of 2019, we caught up with Alice Ivy and collaborator Ecca Vandal to get the low down on ‘In My Mind’.

If you haven’t checked out the visuals for Alice Ivy’s latest bundle of musical joy, stop what you’re doing take a look below right now. Taking over a psychedelic cactus garden that changes colours, Ivy and Ecca Vandal enact exactly what is happening in our head when we listen to the song – blissful dancing in a far out space.

Swirling synths, dreamy vocal hooks, and Vandal’s smooth flow give the song a playful explorative vibe that will pick you up from your desk and transport you into Ivy’s sonic wonderland. There’s a certain innocence to the song that can only feel nostalgic in an adult world of work, bills, etc, which is completely intentional according to Ivy:

“When I began writing ‘In My Mind,’ I was picturing myself as a 10-year-old child riding my bike through the park in summer holding an ice cream in one hand. I wanted to create that exact same exciting feeling of the endless summer holidays and with nowhere important to be. The only way to relive that feeling for me at the moment is through songwriting. I was super stoked that Ecca Vandal really loved the song and wanted to play a part on it, her vocals and the instrumentation are a perfect match”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqfvdOz-5rg

It’s her second single of 2019, following on from her addictive Flint Eastwood collab ‘Close To You’, and it’s got us super excited for what post-I’m Dreaming Alice Ivy will be sounding like. Check out below where we caught up with Ecca and Alice to chat about the release, cacti, and what’s happening for the rest of 2019:

Tell us how the collab came about?

Alice: Ecca and I met at a Nandos conference LOOOOOL! As we were eating chicken we were like we should write a song together. Ecca was living over in London for ages but I managed to get a window of studio time in with her when she came back to Melbourne. Day one the power went out halfway through tracking vocals so we rolled into a second day and “In My Mind” was born!

Ecca: We met last year and talked about writing together but then I moved to London so we didn’t get a chance to jump in a room together. When I had plans to get back to Melbs, Annika sent through this track and we blocked out some time to jam!

What attracted you to work with one another?

A: Ecca is soooooo sick live, and an incredible vocalist. She’s just so cool.. so I had to work with her, the end haha.

E: I knew of Annika’s music and I was just amped to work with another badass female producer! Stoked she invited me to write this track with her.

What was it like working with Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore for the video?

A: Claudia is a genius. There were A LOT of moving parts that had to come together, my dad built the set, we had 11 people come to the site to shoot, but I reckon we absolutely nailed her version!

E: Clauds is the greatest. Love seeing her in her element on set. I mean she’s always operating on a pretty magical level but when she’s creating it’s some cosmic shit.

Where on earth (if earth) was the video shot?

E: Somewhere between here and China. Dude it was in a land far farrrr away lol

A: The largest cactus farm in Australia yeeeeehaaaw :)

There was a lot of cacti in the video. Were there any cactus-related injuries?

A: I’m pretty sure my manager walked away with cacti pricks in his pants? Luckily nothing to hectic though.

E: They made good coat hangers while we were getting changed in the garden in between takes

What is the funnest part about dancing in a cactus garden?

A: Watching how angry everyone got when we screwed up a take halfway through rolling, because every time a new take started the team had to move 50kg worth of the set back into the starting position haha. Also I’m pretty sure the take we ended up using was one where the music cut out halfway through the choreographed dance which is wild.

E: Trying to stay in time when the music cut out.. claudia kept singing so we kept rolling and somehow it worked out?!

The clip is all shot in one take. Was this a challenge? How many takes did it ah… take?

E: A few … haha..

A: Yeah it was pretty hectic! It was raining all day so that was stressful, we only had about an hour in the end to do all the filming. We managed to smash out 10 takes as the sun was setting!