IT might be the first time she’s played in Ipswich but for Jem Cassar-Daley the city is familiar territory.
The family farm she spent a lot of time on growing up was in Fernvale.
“I love Ipswich. There are so many little corners that are just really beautiful, beautiful homes,” she said.
“I spent so much time out near Ipswich. We spent every single weekend of my childhood on the farm and it was just beautiful. We used to love it there. Sometimes on the holidays we would be able to go to Bundamba and go roller-skating so that was a treat, so many awesome memories.”
Jem will launch her debut seven-track EP I Don’t Know Who To Call at the Ipswich show after cancelling her show in July when her grandmother passed away.
I Don’t Know Who To Call, released in May, is a collection of her previous singles released on streaming platforms, Letting Go, Changes, Like it More and Oh No with two new cuts and a cover of Colin Hay’s I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You.
The EP has quickly gained her notoriety and taken her from performing at the side of the stage with her father, Australian country music star Troy Cassar-Daley, to centre stage as an indie-pop artist.
“I started releasing music back in July of 2021, so I’ve only just started that side of my career in the last year.
“That’s been a really cool journey, because I’ve played a lot on the road and did a few gigs for the years before and then we had Covid and I had that time to do a lot of songwriting.
“It was really good to finally get that music out there that I’d been writing for such a long time.”
With music being in the family home, Jem was destined to be a part of the music industry. She embarked on a Bachelor of Arts degree but found that her music took over before she could start her studies.
“I got a couple of weeks in and thought, ‘I might just put that on the back burner for a little while and just do the music side of things’.
“I just got so busy with that and I’ve been loving it’.
“It’s been a really fun year. To have travel back as well; I’m on the road at the moment with Thelma Plum which has just been such an awesome experience. We’ve just done a few shows in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.”
Fans of her dad are familiar with Jem’s vocal abilities with a number of impromptu invitations to get on stage during his shows.
“We would go to pretty much every Tamworth [Country Music Festival] every year on our school holidays. It was an awesome experience, but I remember there were times where my brother and I played, we were just so shy about getting on stage and Dad would be like, ‘I’ll get you the new Littlest Pet Shop kit’, which was my favourite toy at the time.
“I love how I had to be bribed at that age, but now it’s my favourite thing ever to get up on stage with Dad.
“My family are my favourite people in the world to sing with because we’ve been singing together for such a long time that we know which harmonies we love to jump on.
“I deferred [university studies] and I went on the road with Dad and played about 60 or 70 shows in that year. That was just before Covid. We were lucky enough to get that tour done. It was Dad’s solo tour and I did the support for all of that and I was like ‘I’ll go to uni at the start of 2020, I’ll do it, and then I started it and I was like I just want to do music’.
“I could always go back but I’ve just been loving playing gigs and I’ve just been putting everything into my career and loving every minute of it.”
Jem could have taken an easier path and followed her father into country music but her music went in a different direction into indie-pop.
“It’s just always been the music that I’ve loved to listen to, artists like Phoebe Bridgers and I love Maggie Rogers and Faye Webster.
“Obviously country music has been a huge part of my upbringing and I still love country music, I love singing it, I love listening to it, but it was just kind of the music that came naturally to me really. I’ve always loved that genre of indie pop.
“One of the first concerts I went to, with my own money, I saw Tame Impala at the River Stage and it was just absolutely incredible, I was so blown away by his stage presence and everything about it.”
She said the EP, which features a pastel drawing by her of her grandmother’s home on the cover, was a deeply personal project.
“Being the first project of mine I wanted to keep it relatively stripped back and quite personal.
“The cover of it is my grandma’s home. We spent so much time on that veranda together, my whole family, so I was just thinking and reflecting on what those songs are about and it was about myself growing up and the change of leaving school and these sorts of things.
“I wanted to keep it all about a place where my family would gather and share our memories. It’s a very personal project of mine and I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to share it.”
Her dad features on a few of the tracks and co-produced the EP.
“I was very lucky to have both of my parents who supported me. When it came to my first releases, I was incredibly nervous about releasing songs. I was so nervous about co-writing when I first started because it was just such a new thing to me and I was lucky to have Dad having experienced that when he was younger as well. He would have had the same nerves and the same feelings. It was such a new thing to me and it was really great having that support from my family to know that I was making the right decision in pursuing music.”
Jem Cassar-Daley will play at Studio 188 with her band on October 7.
