How Does a Student Score a Triple J Feature Album? We Asked Gordi Over Bánh Mì at UNSW

Sophie Payten, a.k.a. Gordi, is about to release her debut album Reservoir this week, but right now she’s just focused on her bánh mì; a notoriously messy snack.

"Oh, I just got a big bit of chili," she gasps after taking a bite out of the crusty roll. 

We're sitting at one of Sophie’s regular haunts, Tropical Green, on University of New South Wales’ Kensington campus, where she's studying medicine. Even with a construction site just next door, it's a strangely cathartic outdoor space compared to the chaos of the narrow food court below. 

Over the course of her six-year medical degree, she's spent many hours devouring cheap meals here in between her studies.

But as of next month, Payten will be a fully qualified doctor. Her last hurdle will be juggling her final exams with a three-show East Coast tour with fellow Sydney artists, Gang of Youths.

Music wasn't always the obvious choice for her career. It was during a Missy Higgins concert in 2012 that Sophie first realised she wanted to make the kind of music that deeply affected people.

She was at the Seymour Centre in Sydney with her family, who had all been obsessed with Higgins’ 2004 album Sound of White. But it wasn’t just a regular concert for Payten.

"I walked out of that venue and I just remember having this real feeling in my chest, this warmth," she explains. "Nothing can make you feel that way."

Her new album, out today, is called Reservoir, which she explains is titled after "that space inside you that’s where you go to think about things and contemplate stuff." It's an expression she uses with her friends to describe when she's feeling really reflective or a bit moody. "This is me offering up my reservoir to everyone else I guess," she confesses.

On Reservoir, Payten's emotive vocals and honest songwriting—notably on "Heaven I Know"—create that feeling of warmth, which contrasts with the lush, icy soundscapes influenced by her time in Reykjavik, Iceland.

During her time on the frosty island, she worked on songs like "Aeon" and "Bitter End" with Alex Somers, a huge producer in the alternative music industry famous for working with the likes of Sigur Rós and Jónsi. 

It would've been an intimidating experience for a young artist from Canowindra—a NSW country town with a population of 2,381—but she clearly knew what she was doing. "I thought a lot about that and I thought the one advantage I have, the one strength I have over those producers is that I know my music better than they do," Payten explains. 

She pauses; the chili, hidden among the layers of pâté and coriander, has finally gotten to her. "This chili is bringing me undone," she finally says. "I always talk a big game with chili."

Recording her debut album, Reservoir, took its toll. She explains that last year was particularly hard; from the beginning of January right up until November, she was working at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick from 8am to 6pm for 12-week-periods, with one week off in-between. During those rare breaks, she would fly straight to the United States to record songs for seven days back-to-back. Then she would fly back to Sydney and go to the hospital on Monday.  

"There’ve been lots of moments where I kind of melt down and think holy crap," Payten casually explains after taking another mouthful of her bánh mì. "There were lots of times where I was past breaking point."

It all came to a climax when Payten was supporting her favourite artist, The Tallest Man on Earth (a.k.a Kristian Matsson), at his Brisbane show in December last year. The band departed the stage, leaving only Matsson in front of the audience. He began to sing the praises of Gordi's music, explaining how she inspired him. He then dedicated his song "The Gardener", Payten's favourite track ever, to her.

"It was like my whole world caved in and I just balled my eyes out for a good five minutes while the song went on," she admits. "I was like 'I think it's all been worth it, maybe.'"

Still, she was never going to forfeit her education for her music career: "I really like medicine, I’m not just doing it as a backup plan."

Just like the upcoming completion of her degree in medicine, her rise on the periphery of the music industry has been long in the making.

After getting home from that Higgins concert in 2012, she decided to jump on to Triple J Unearthed and upload a demo, which she describes as "really bad."

"It got no attention, thank God," she said. But it did get Payten a live gig, and each gig seemed to lead to another, until she finally saved up enough to record her first song.

"My first EP [Clever Disguise, 2016] I recorded one song at a time by working over the summers," she recalls. After getting picked up with regular rotations on alternative radio stations such as FBi, and later Triple J, she began growing her following and eventually signed to Jagjaguwar, a huge indie label that is home to Bon Iver and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

While the radio stations don't deserve credit for all her recent success, they definitely helped prop her up, and for that, she's extremely grateful. 

"The Queens of the Stone Album (QOTSA) album came out this week and so did mine and [Triple J] picked mine as the feature album," she exclaims. "I mean… nine times out of ten QOTSA would win that battle—probably ten times out of ten—but Triple J are about championing their local artists, especially ones that they’ve fostered from unearthed."

(In a twist, some vinyl copies of Reservoir were accidentally pressed with the B-side of QOTSA's newie, Villains.)

"When you go around the world and you say to people: 'We have a government-funded station [Triple J] that has no influence from commercial industry and their job is to find and scour the country for up-and-coming Australian musicians and then play [them] on the premiere radio station for alternative music in Australia,' they’re like 'What!'" she explains.

"I think we’re sitting on a gold mine here."

Her sound was also something that took a few years to craft. Up until a few years ago, she described her music as folk-rock. Once she discovered the atmospheric sounds of Northern Europe's music scene, that all changed.

"In 2014, I heard this album—can I have this?—", she’s interrupts herself, having finally overcome the roll, now pointing at the serviettes.

"It was [an album] called In The Silence by Ásgeir and it was like I was hearing music for the first time," she explains, wiping her hands of all the running juices which are now collecting at the bottom of the white paper bag.

"[After that] I did a big deep dive into Nordic pop and Icelandic music."

"Basically, the past couple of years has been about me looking at what a genre is and then looking at how to confuse that," she says. "I’ve come a long way but I’ve still got a long way to go."

She's right. While it's already been a long journey, she's only just about to embark on the start of her debut album cycle and the hype is immense.

I ask for her advice on how young students and aspiring musicians can get into the music industry, even though it usually just comes down to a recipe of hard work, perseverance and a generous dose of luck.

"Be prepared to make sacrifices," she says.

"Don’t listen to people when they tell you that you can't do both [study and music]."

She also says success is not something that happens overnight. For her, she reminds us, it took the duration of her university degree. "I sound like a parent, but it's kinda worth sticking it out," she chuckles. "Play live as much as you can... Get that performance experience."

After all my questions, I ask her if there's anything else she wants to mention?

"I'd recommend the Tropical Green bánh mì," she laughs, but I know she means it.

Reservoir comes out today. You can stream it on Spotify and buy it on Bandcamp and Secretly Store.

Photo: Sarah Basford