Australian singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly unveiled her debut full-length, Beware of the Dogs, on March 8 via Secretly Canadian. After breaking through with her debut EP Thrush Metal last year, the album sees Donnelly cleverly continue to break down complex sociopolitical issues through neatly constructed indie pop gems.
This is best displayed on today’s Song of the Day, “Old Man.” Donnelly voices the feelings of victims and accusers of the #MeToo movement in the song's chorus, singing, “Oh, are you scared of me, old man?/ Or are you scared of what I’ll do?/ You grabbed me with an open hand/ The world is grabbin’ back at you."
Donnelly shares more about the song:
"I came up with the chords and chorus to this song in 2017 around the time when Woody Allen called the #metoo movement a witch hunt. It was a very strange feeling for me watching the world change right before my eyes and to see that these men who had exploited their power for so long were actually being held accountable for their actions.
"It made me look back on my experiences as a young woman doing music and certain powerful men who tried to manipulate me and exploit other young women. I needed to write this song for myself because if I hadn’t I would still feel quite angry about things that I probably let slide in my younger, more naive days. I have no intentions of publicly calling out these people but it’s a nice feeling to me knowing that they may hear this song one day and feel perhaps an inch of the humiliation and powerlessness that they inflicted on me back then."
The song comes with a video directed by Fiona Jane Burgess that whimsically integrates a lesson on self-defense. Donnelly is currently on tour behind Beware of the Dogs and will be in Seattle on Tuesday, April 2 to play Barboza. Watch the video for “Old Man” below.
