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5 Albums that influenced
‘BLOOD MOON’
by MONTANA SHARP

(23rd January 2022)

Rock is Dead – Dorothy (2016)

I stumbled across Dorothy on a Spotify playlist when I was 19, and her voice astounded me. There was an edge to her vocals that I had never heard before in a modern age, and I wanted to sound like her, and write songs like her. I used to power walk to this album everyday, and it made me feel unstoppable. I think you can hear the influence of Dorothy’s badassery in the first two tracks of my EP, Way of the Whiffler and Power.

Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette (1995)

I’m a broken record, because I feel like I bend people’s ears off about this album whenever I get a chance, but I can’t help it! It’s just so good! It changed my life, and it is so honest and eloquently written. Jagged Little Pill not only influenced this EP, but probably every song I’ve written. Alanis’ vulnerability inspired me to write about the scary stuff, and I hope the rawness is palpable.

25 – Adele (2015)

You can’t fault this album, there wasn’t one bad or dud song on the whole listing. They were all heart-wrenching, monumental, captivating and catchy! Adele taught me that if a song is great enough, it doesn’t need too many bells and whistles in production – it can just be voice and piano. I took this as inspiration when producing Enough, the barest song on the track.

Into The Wild Life – Halestorm (2015)

Lizzy Hale’s vocals are unparalleled. I’d venture to say they sound almost impossible. They’re angry, desperate, and technically flawless. I’ve seen workshops where teachers try to explain how she pulls off that growl, but no one can sing like she can. This album was daring, and it inspired me to be daring in recording the vocals for my EP. I listened to ‘I Am The Fire’ on repeat while writing my songs in my early 20s.

Some People Have Real Problems – Sia (2008)

Sia’s early albums were pivotal in contributing toward my own musical identity while I was a teenager and discovering songwriting for the first time. While she did inform my own vocals and lyrics, it was the instrumentation and unusual chord progressions that really grabbed me. I even based my VCE/Year 12 music subject on studying these earlier works of hers, and how they were so different to anything else I had heard in pop music. You can hear how Sia’s cinematic pop has led to my tracks such as Greenhouse and Blood Moon.

Press Release 5th August 2021 (below) HERE

MONTANA SHARP
shares new single
‘WAY OF THE WHIFFLER’

& Announces debut EP
‘BLOOD MOON’ 

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Eccentric, unapologetic art-pop connoisseur Montana Sharp has today announced her breathtaking new single Way Of The Whiffler, a clever exploration of the Old English word whiffler as it pertains to the confusion and ever-changing opinions of youth, out today, January 14. Way Of The Whiffler precedes the highly-anticipated release of Montana’s debut EP, Blood Moon, to be released on February 11 – pre-save here.  This highly trained, highly skilled ‘musician’s musician’ marries complex, classical chord structures and motifs with modern, innovative pop songwriting conventions – and audiences can’t get enough.

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Way Of The Whiffler is just the kind of artful, bold track listeners have come to expect from Montana Sharp.  It feels pulled directly from Eurovision; evocative of Amanda Palmer, Kate Miller-Heidke and Australian pop artist Montaigne, yet still completely unique to Montana.  Orchestral swells swirl underneath Montana’s all-powerful vocal; her voice is incomparable, her performance and control impeccable – and she’s in fine form on this single and all throughout the EP.  Speaking on the inspiration behind Way Of The Whiffler, Montana explains, Around the time I wrote this song, I used a word of the day dictionary app every day to find cool words that would inspire future songs and lyrics.  One day, the word of the day was “whiffler’’, an old English word meaning ‘a person who frequently shifts opinions, attitudes, interests, etc.’   I thought that was emblematic of everyone’s predicament in their early 20s – where everything around you is sort of impermanent and ever-changing.  At that time of my life, I was set on projecting a completely different version of myself, to hide the true one, who felt hurt and vulnerable.  I think I wrote the lyrics from the lens of someone who wanted to keep people at a distance.  After all, what is the point of attachment if the only constant is change? That was my view at the time anyway.”

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The overriding theme of the EP Blood Moon is the immense period of growth that occurs during one’s early twenties; listeners can track Montana’s mentality shift throughout the tracklist as she grapples with heartache and personal development, as she describes, “We start the EP with songs such as Whiffler and Power, written from a protective and unconscious place.  We then move into songs Greenhouse and Enough which is the very raw soul searching and painfully honest conversations with our egos and fears.  We then arrive at the Blood Moon, which ties together the story of how falling apart is very key to falling together.  For me, these succession of songs is really a time capsule of my early 20s – the battle in removing my outer shell, and all the unanswered questions that pop up in that tumultuous time.”

The EP has it all – breathtaking singles Power and Greenhouse, where Montana’s vocal and production prowess is in full, mighty form, passionately punctuating various life-changes, while softer, more introspective offerings Enough and Blood Moon allow audiences to lose themselves in Montana’s beautiful, cinematic world.

Way Of The Whiffler is out January 14. Blood Moon is out February 11.

Pre-save Blood Moon

Listen to Way Of The Whiffler HERE

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Follow MONTANA SHARP
YouTube – Facebook – Spotify – Instagram

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AMNPLIFY – DB