Perched on the release of her fourth studio album, Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs is certainly not running out subject matter.

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Following the critical success of 2014’s Nikki Nack, the musician creates her own unique sound – blending upbeat rhythms with inquisitive, darker words – and her latest LP I can feel you creep into my personal life is no exception.

Speaking to OUTinPerth from the States, Garbus explains how she landed on such an evocative album title.

“We went through a lot and I think that was the one that hit the most buttons, you know? It’s pretty rare to get a title that encapsulates a lot of the themes of the album and mimic our time on earth,” she chuckles.

“I was meditating a lot and I was looking at how these ‘-isms’ in the world manifest themselves in me. I think growing up white affects the way you are able, or not able, to hear the suffering and experiences of people of colour, of people who didn’t have the privileges I did. People who are different from me, and I was troubled by that.

It’s easy to say ‘of course I’m not racist’, ‘I’m not homophobic’, ‘I’m not xenophobic’, but it’s another thing to really think about the way these things might show themselves in sneaky ways, under the skin… I think it speaks to the way we affect each other without knowing it. Besides, privacy as a topic is on a lot of people’s minds these days.”

Garbus explains that while she recognises these issues, in the shadow of events such as Australia’s marriage survey, knowing how to move forward and improve is not so clear cut.

“I think that’s the million dollar question. There’s not an easy answer. Perhaps instead of calling each other out we should be calling each other ‘in’. It ought not be the burden of people who are impacted by these things. Let me not speak to my black friend about my misunderstandings around white privilege, let me talk to those who have done more work on that.

“We should have the vulnerability to investigate ourselves. We’re all changing and, hopefully, evolving. I don’t want to just assume I’m perfectly perfect, progressive and liberal, that’s certainly not true! In this fierce call out culture, admitting the places we need to grow and improve can be really vulnerable.”

Despite the more serious subject matter, tUnE-YaRdS’ latest has a dancy, upbeat sound which Garbus explains was very intentional.

“It’s intentional with all of my music. It’s gotta be dance-able, to me music is using harmony and rhythm to make a song and I focus on lyrics later. To me it’s more important to grab them with the danceability and entice people into asking themselves questions. There are a lot of serious things in the world we need to discuss, so it’s important to me to allow people to ask themselves question they might not normally.”

tUnE-YaRdS latest album I can feel you creep into my private life is out now.

Leigh Andrew Hill