“It just happened so naturally”: The Stamps on friendship, moving cities and creating ‘In All The Ways I Am’
The Stamps. Photo credit: Michelle Pitiris
Interview by Jordan Royal
With the release of their debut album In All The Ways I Am, out today, The Stamps aren’t just reflecting on the friendship that sparked creating music together in high school, they’re preserving it in song. What began as a cross-continental bond between Australia and Canada, kept alive through snail mail, has grown into a tight-knit creative partnership that the band likens to a “three-legged chair” – something that feels off when one piece is missing. “It just happened so naturally. Nothing was forced.”
Recorded across a period of personal transition – moving cities, leaving family homes, and stepping into adulthood – the album feels like a time capsule of formative years. “We probably didn’t set out to be like, ‘This is my coming of age.’ But it just naturally happened like that.”
In our chat, The Stamps open up about the songs that helped them process change, the joy of sneaking Easter eggs into their recordings, and the quiet magic of hearing a voicemail from a childhood friend on the opening track.
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Jordan: I want to start with how you guys formed as a band. I feel like it's at the centre of everything. You guys have been friends since high school, and it feels like that deep connection seeps into everything that you do. You've described yourselves as a three-legged chair and it feels off when one of you is missing. So, what's it been like growing into this project together and how did that friendship impact this debut?
Sofia: It's been the best, I think. Like, I don't think the journey would be the same without sharing it with the three of us. It wouldn't be the same if we did it by ourselves. Yeah, I just think it's kind of just happened so naturally, if that makes sense. Nothing was forced. We've just kind of just been playing together because that's what we love to do and it's just nice that it's gotten us to where we are.
Rubina: It was always like, especially in high school, when we first formed, it was always music was always something that we all loved and that was kind of all we thought about at the time. But I think having it like that when we were younger, being able to like form a friendship and then also form a friendship through music too, was really cool. And to be able to relate in the same sort of like genre and music type, yeah, I think probably helped a lot.
Jordan: Yeah, that's so amazing. I love like the, I guess, aspect of your answer of the ease of your friendship and coming together and creating music together. It just was meant to be.
But you guys have such a unique origin story too. Like truly, when I read sort of the origin story, I was like, that's insane that you guys went to high school, but Scarlett was on exchange from Canada. So, you stayed connected through snail mail, which is sort of where your name comes from too. So, there's something so tactile and like loving about that. How did that connection come through on the album and writing the album for you?
Sofia: I was just going to say, I feel like the songs that are on the album are like, some of them are actually quite a few years old and come from not exactly that time of when we were writing letters. But even in high school, I think some of those songs were written in high school. So, I think this album is sort of reflective of the connection that we've had since that time of being together.
Rubina: That chunk of time in high school.
Scarlett: And I remember saying earlier, that period of time from when I first came to Australia, like 15 to I guess now that it's being released, or now that it was recorded last year. That's such a formative time in anyone's life. Those teen years to young adulthood kind of thing. I feel like that's some of the most important years of your life in terms of shaping who you are as a person and how you see the world. So, I think that perspective, I think there's a lot of different perspectives in the album because it reflects how we were back then and how we still are now. And very fluid and lots of movement and lots of changing and growing. I think there's a bit of growth in the album in terms of the songs and our perspectives and how it's kind of evolved.
Jordan: That's such an awesome time capsule to have and reflecting on some of your formative experiences. It's definitely so, I don't know, listening to those songs and the themes in some of those songs too, it's so relatable for me as well. Like you guys have really captured that and put like a bow tie on some of those experiences so nicely.
It sort of takes me to my next question is that In All The Ways I Am feels like a little bit of a coming of age film in motion full of friendships, uncertain futures, you know, that like weird, quiet period transitioned into adulthood. Did you guys set out to write an album that was about that transition? Or did those themes sort of reveal to themselves to you as you went on?
Sofia: Definitely. I would say the latter. Yeah, I would say like, I mean, it's kind of interesting because I think any songs that we chose that we would have chosen for the album probably would have tied into that overall theme. Because all the songs that come from that time that even the ones that didn't make the album are about that.
Scarlett: And like, I think there's a lot of like emotional weight to the songs that were chosen.
And also the ones that weren't chosen. And like, it might not feel like, like, we probably didn't set out, I'm going to write this song to be in this album that's about coming of age. But it just naturally happened like that, because that's how emotionally charged the songs were. So, even if someone didn't know us or didn't know any of the story behind the album, like, I feel like they could hear it and maybe still hear like the that those things like running through. But yeah, I don't know. I think don't think anyone like sets out to be like, this is my coming of age.
Sofia: Yeah. But hey, we want to write a song about this and this. And yeah, it's going to be this number of tracks. It wasn't that calculated.
Rubina: And I feel like it probably formed too. But this is just me thinking, like, we kind of were in the process of like, moving out of our family home and going to like a new city. And like, there were lots of stuff like that that was going on. So, I guess, like, we were experiencing that.
Scarlett: I feel like even with that, it's like we were like, yeah, when we curated the songs that were going to be on the album, we were like, in transition period. So, it even made us look back on the songs that were written previously, like, nostalgically or to how we're feeling back then and revisiting those kind of feelings and being like, you know what that song there, I don't feel that way anymore. But yeah, I can see how that, like that captured how I was feeling. And I can remember how I was feeling back then. And that's not how I feel anymore. But like, yeah, those songs that were chosen, I think helped to guide that sort of story.
Jordan: Wow, that's so cool that like halfway through the album, even in like another transition period of you guys moving out of home and moving out of your city, you still had the earlier songs to sort of hold on to and attach to. That's so—I don't think I've ever heard like that answer before. That's so amazing to like, see in hear too.
A lot of these songs feel like diary entries, they're very relatable, they seem very like authentic from the heart, honest and formative. Is there a particular track that helped you move through something in particular, one that gave you clarity on maybe like a chapter of your life or a part of your life?
Sofia: For me, it definitely would be Holy Verse, the most recent single. That was one that like kind of just fell out of me on my 20th birthday. And songs don't usually come out of me like that. I'm usually quite like I need to let them marinate and like sit on them for like weeks or months or whatever. So, that one definitely is like, holds such a special place in my heart. And I feel like it's kind of found a new meaning as well since moving away and like being away from family. And because that's what the song is about, like growing up and finding your own voice and finding your own identity away from how you grew up and things like that. So, I think that one will continue to, yeah, kind of just heal that part of me and like reassuring me that it's okay to find myself.
Rubina: Probably My City out of everything. It just talks about us right before we were about to move. So, I guess still the same thing. Just like recap and thinking about like all the memories of the place that we grew up in.
Scarlett: I think mine would be Bitter Place, I think for me, because it's that one sometimes I forget that it exists. And every time I hear it again, or I play it again, I'm like, oh, that is a very emotionally charged song. And I have a really distinct exact memory of me writing it and why I wrote it. And I just I really feel like that song, like when I initially wrote it was like, I was in that period where I was like, I have to write a song, I have to get this out. I was definitely in that space where I couldn't keep any of that in. So, probably that one.
Jordan: I feel like it must be so nice to have such a creative outlet where you can pour these emotions and these feelings into and really show how you feel so authentically and amazingly. And I feel like you can definitely tell that a different part of yourself has been poured into these songs.
But I think that so many moments on this record, it speaks to distance and identity, growing pains, chaos too. You guys are definitely in the thick of it when you're writing about some of these experiences. How do you each approach turning such personal experiences into music? And has this process helped you move through things in a way that like talking or like communicating with other people about your problems couldn't?
Scarlett: I personally, I'm a pretty big talker. So, I do find a lot of help in talking to friends and stuff like that. But I do think that writing music, focusing in on exactly what I think is probably the best thing for me in terms of like, this is the final say of how I'm at right now. So, I think when you speak to people there's just 100 million opinions you can get, obviously. So, I think, also you go in circles, kind of thing. And also, it's really helpful. Like I have written even not even songs, like diary entries that I've written diary entries. And then like, three days later, read them back and gone, Oh, my God, like, I was crazy. Like, what was I talking about? Something was huge in my head that night and then I woke up like the next morning. It was like nothing. But yeah, I think that like writing music and just writing in general is very good in terms of letting it leave, like leave your brain and leave your psyche and then just having it there. And then because sometimes when you speak, you just it goes in circles.
Yeah, same thing over and over.
The Stamps. Photo credit: Michelle Pitiris
Sofia: But yeah, I think I'm a little bit different in the way that like, writing, like comes to me in that I'm not as good as expressing myself to people with words. And I often like, find it really difficult to understand how I feel. And writing is just like, I started writing when I was like 15. And it just somehow was like a really natural thing for me to process things that were happening in my head and things that I didn't even realise I was feeling. And I also feel like I find meaning from things that I write after I write them. Like at the time that they come out, I'm not really sure exactly what I'm trying to say. But then yeah, let it marinate and then come back to then realise, oh my gosh, like that is so relevant to what was happening to me that way. You know, it really gives me clarity, I think, and how I feel sometimes.
Jordan: That's so special. Like, as you said, like having a space where maybe if you can't express yourself when you're speaking, you can pour it into a song.
My next question is that I mean, I couldn't interview you guys without asking about your musicianship. Truly, when I was listening to this album, my jaw kept like dropping. Your harmony, insane. Like the guitar work, insane. Synths, insane. The 6/8 time on Holy Verse too, like, insane. What's been your favourite sound to explore or like a little sonic rabbit hole to go down while making the album?
Sofia: I think we can't go on without crediting Tom Joseph and all the incredible musicians that played on that album. We had so much support with this album. And like, we had the songs that we'd written and we brought it to Tom. But he was so incredible in creating like the worlds for each song. And they played instruments on all the songs. But one thing that comes to mind or memory is, I'm pretty sure we like made like a DIY rubber bridge guitar at one point, where we stuck like a piece of rubber underneath the bridge. And like, that's how we got like those like staccato plucking sounds. I can't even remember which song it was in. I think it might have been Bitter Place. And then also we played guitar with like paintbrushes. To get like a really like Lizzy McAlpine kind of like really airy kind of guitar sound. And I think that was might have been In All The Ways I Am. But yeah, I think we had like a fun kind of experiment.
Rubina: Yeah, we did lots of experimental stuff. Yeah, I'm thinking like, I like how more like stripped back our stuff is in Holy Verse. But then on the other side, I feel like, especially for this album, I mean, it was hard to put Move Me On onto like into recording instead of live. So, like after we got it after a while, it's pretty like, um, more difficult song for us to sing all together, I guess. Or like it's got, yeah, different parts in it that can be a bit more like challenging. But I like the outcome of that one. The way the harmonies worked in that one.
Scarlett: I liked it kind of, I feel like I went through a point where I was like a week or so before we went up to actually record the album, or maybe it was while we were recording it, where I was like, Oh, my God, we're like making up where we can actually do whatever we want. And I was like, this is crazy. Because it was like, oh, this is a body of solid work. Like it's not just an individual song. You can actually make it how we want. And I remember I found a voicemail of one of our best friends, Ruben, shout out Ruben. And I was playing this voicemail while we were rehearsing one of the songs. The last song In All The Ways I Am. And I was like, this is so cute. It was such a cute voicemail. I don't remember what he was saying.
Sofia: It was like a joint one. A joint voicemail.
Scarlett: Yeah, so Ruben and our other friend Jackson was on it as well. And so, Ruben's like, Hello, hello? And then I was like, Hello? The's like, is this a joint voice? They were just all laughing. And it's just in the background of the intro to one of the songs. And it's super faint, you honestly can't really hear it that much. But it's just at the very beginning of that song. And yeah, when I realized that we have the free will to do something, I was like, that’s going in, this is so cool. And such a nice like, thing to do to honour that, you know, those friendships, because they're people who we have known since we started playing music together. Like, childhood friends, I guess, or teen hood. I don't know. But yeah, it was like, it's really nice, because it might not mean anything to anyone who's listening. But I feel like it's something that we all know. So, it's like a little like an Easter egg.
Jordan: Gosh, that's so special. That like free will realisation to like, oh, I can literally do anything. I could add my friend's voice message. I'm literally going to have to go back and like, listen out all these little...
Scarlett: Yeah, it's there. It's quiet.
Sofia: There's also more things at the end of that song that are even more quiet. You can barely hear them. But like we went through, I think this is the last day we were like, let's just do like a miscellaneous day of recording. And we recorded like, Rubina's like stomping on the ground, you know, heavy boots. There's like one person like flicking a lighter.
Scarlett: Yeah. I was like, I was scratching paper.
Sofia: Yeah, it's just the most random little noises. Kind of like a lot of Scott Street by
Phoebe Bridges, the ending of that.
Jordan: Oh, amazing. I have like a visual of you guys in there, like with the lighter.
Scarlett: We might have looked delirious by that point. Yeah, like cabin fever.
Jordan: But you guys are going on a bit of tour in August, which I'm so excited for. How are you guys feeling heading into some of these run of shows? And what are you most excited about too?
Sofia: Oh, excited. Excited. It's our first like debut, it's our debut headline tour, like Australia tour. We've been working really hard on like the set and making it really like as solid as we can. We've also been doing a lot of new songs, a lot of writing. So, we're gonna probably throw in a couple of new songs in there and we're working really hard to get them ready.
And yeah, yeah, just very excited. We're also going back to Perth, which would be nice.
Scarlett: Yeah, we'll do a show like a homecoming show in Perth, which will be really nice because people can, we can see everyone again.
Jordan: Home shows are always like, you know, you guys since moving to Melbourne, like maybe haven't gotten back too much, but home shows are always the best because all your friends can come and your family can come. It's a nicer like whole time. But that's so crazy that you guys are touring for your debut album and like already have new stuff to share with audiences, like truly.
Sofia: I think it's a very Stamp thing though to always be writing.
Scarlett: Yeah, you never stop writing.
Rubina: It's crazy.
The Stamps.
Jordan: I love that, just that like creative flow. But my last question for you guys is that, you know, this is such a like quietly tender, powerful album. And I was wondering if you could send it back to your younger selves, you know, these ones that were like scared about seeming like needy on a phone call and like sending letters. What do you think they’d hear?
Scarlett: Probably nothing. I'd be like, shut up, girl. You don't know anything. Probably not.
Sofia: I mean, I think my younger self would just be like, shocked that we have an album out.
Because honestly, I never wanted to pursue music as a career when I was young, when I was young, and I never expected to. So, I think for me, it would just be crazy. I'd be like, what do you mean?
Rubina: Yeah, same with me, too. I feel like this album that's coming out is very much something that I would have liked. But it would be songs that I probably would have sang when I was a teenager. Like ones that I would have like aspired to be like those sorts of people. So yeah, I probably would freak out as well.
Scarlett: Yeah, probably the same as me. Yeah, I think it would be very weird. But I think, kind of what Rubina is saying, like, there's a lot of influences. I feel like there's a lot of that, yeah, there were so many songs just over such like a longish period of time that there's a lot of different things that I can hear that were, you know, what I was listening to at the time of writing it. And I think she’d be proud. And yeah, all this stuff, like, it’s cool when you, if she were to hear that and be like, oh, I guess like it did the thing that I was freaking out about did end. And those feelings, they, you know, they got better. And like, that guy doesn’t matter. And you’ll be fine. You know, your world didn’t end, you know, at like 16.
Jordan: Yeah, cool. That like clarity. Yeah, I was literally gonna say like, it sounds like your younger selves would just be so like, proud. And so thrilled. And, you know, would look up to someone who is literally just you guys now. That’s so awesome to hear. Well, huge congratulations on your debut.
Sofia, Rubina, Scarlett: Thanks so much.
Listen to In All The Ways I Am below.