Jen Cloher airs sprawling new single "Regional Echo"

The title of "Regional Echo" is inspired by Australian poet Les Murray. It joins up with "Forgot Myself" to preview the singer/songwriter's upcoming record, released next month via Cloher and Courtney Barnett's Milk! Records.

"I grew up in Adelaide, a town in South Australia with a population of one million," Cloher explains. "In summer you could feel the heat blowing in from the desert. There was a remote feeling of not quite being a country town but not being large enough to be taken seriously as a busy metropolis either. Life had a strange amnesia. No-one taught you to dream big."

"Our bass player Bones Sloane was raised in Goulburn, a regional centre nestled between Canberra and Sydney along the Hume Highway," Cloher adds, speaking of the song's accompanying visuals. "Famous for its pastoral industry, most people will know it for the Big Merino, the world’s largest concrete sheep. I asked Bones if we could go home to visit his family and film him. I’ve used small town life as a larger metaphor for small time thinking - there’s something in our national psyche that keeps us small."

Cloher plays a string of European dates this autumn, with shows at London's The Lexington and Margate's By The Sea Festival in September. Find out more.