Melbourne musician BATTS is consistently spellbinding, and whether this is your first time listening to the singer, songwriter and musician, or you had discovered her through last year’s release of 62 Moons EP, you can’t deny the intimate power of ‘Gun’. As the artist, whose real name is Tanya Batts, explains of the song: “I wasn’t feeling inspired by my own life, and didn’t feel any urge to become self-destructive like I had in younger years to create. I remembered how much I loved to write stories as a child, and thought I’d start writing fictional stories into songs, and creating the music to set the vibe and world around it.” She’s an artist who often looks outside herself for fresh inspiration, for example, she started out making indie-folk music, then moved onto working with a UK-based producer called Ficci for an electronic collaboration, and after all of that, she returned to the guitar and thus we have today’s blissful offering. Reminiscent of Joni Mitchell or Stevie Nicks, guitar and storytelling is at the forefront of the song, the reverb-soaked strings adding a mysticism to BATTS’ other-worldly lyrics and rich vocal tones. - Hannah Thacker