Love Letter To A Record: Body Type's Sophie McComish On Dianas' 'Self-Titled'

Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.

In this series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.

Sophie McComish, Body Type – Dianas’ Self-Titled

My darling Dianas,

I used to carve your name into trees. That’s a lie – I have never carved anything into a tree – but throw me a dagger and I shall catch it between my teeth before I carve your six letters into the finest wood script my fingers can muster. You have bewitched me, body and soul.

How do I love you? Let me count the ways: 1. vocals. 2. lyrics. 3. the drums, oh god the drums. 4. guitar/bass interplay, complex and challenging but utterly addictive. 5. production. 7. artwork. Look, the whole shebang. This album is the full package, and by any other name would sound as sweet.

For the uninitiated: ‘1000 Years’ is the feeling of losing your grip on a big bunch of helium balloons, watching them drift into the ether, floating towards their fate. ‘One Day’ is falling asleep in satin bedsheets with the windows open on a summer evening. ‘UFO’ could soundtrack the aftermath of a shitty and disappointing first kiss as you realise it wasn’t worth it and you’re better off alone. ‘Freakcreep’ is me at 7am every day of the working week, pre-coffee but finding solace in freshly brushed teeth. ‘Good Enough Girl’ is remembering the first time you sipped strawberry milk, sweet yet terrifying.

It is an atrocity that more ears have not heard you, that more toes have not known your rhythms to tap along to, that more heads have not found solace in banging to you. Although my love for you is no secret, I feel like one of the lucky ones having known you at all. Like a lily deep in the forest, you are magnificent and resplendent but criminally under-acknowledged.

But why is this so? Perhaps I am blinded by my lovesickness, or perhaps this is just one of those albums where if you know, you know – or *deep breathe* perhaps it is the patriarchal music industry and its relentless dismissal of female musicians despite an ongoing, resounding battle cry for change? As I twirl this ethically-sourced quill between my fingers I can’t help but wonder – how many albums have been written by Australian bands comprised entirely of non-males and furthermore, how many of those albums have been supported by our national radio stations, scouted and believed in by A&R reps, identified as worthy of investment by labels etc etc etc? I digress.

I love you. Always have, always will, if you’re a bird, I’m a bird, why do birds suddenly appear, every time, you are near, etc etc.

Ever mine, ever thine, ever ours,

Sophie

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Sydney-based purveyors of scuzz Body Type’s debut self-titled EP is out now & you can catch the ladies performing it live across the nation this December, Dates below.