Tori Darke ProfileThe songs that make up Tori Darke’s latest EP, Who I Am, have been waiting a long time for their moment.
Written over the span of a decade, the collection brings together different chapters of her life and career in a bright, country-pop release that feels firmly of the moment but also carries a nostalgic feeling, specifically in the earlier tracks.
Who I Am was released last Friday, November 6th, and is Darke’s first full body of work in 11 years. It’s a home for songs she’s carried with her over this time, alongside new material written specifically for the project. The result of this is an EP with a clear progression of maturity and songwriting.
“It was a little bit crazy, to be honest, because a lot of these songs—at least two of them—were written 10 years ago,” Darke explains.
Those older tracks include songs written in Nashville with Morgan Evans and The Wolfe Brothers. When Darke decided to release an EP this year, she scoured through her catalogue of hundreds of songs and found the starting point in Prettiest Wreck and Who I Am (Without You).
Prettiest Wreck had always been one that stuck out to her, but it needed some new life breathed into it. Rather than leave it with self-described ‘sad-girl-country’ vibes, Darke and her team reshaped it into something with a little more bite. Making that change gave Darke a clearer idea of where she wanted this project to go, with the second track establishing its emotional thread.
“This was just meant to happen. It was just meant to take a little while, and that’s totally fine… Sometimes everything just comes together seamlessly, and that’s kind of what happened with this EP,” she says.
The EP takes listeners from the end of a relationship through to a more independent, self-assured place. The tracks aren’t intentionally in chronological order by when they were written, but naturally it has ended up this way, with the earlier songs carrying the immediacy of someone working through a difficult moment, while later tracks sound a little more comfortable.
“There’s a chronological order of how this story is being told. I’ve never done that with an album or an EP or anything before…this is the cool order to listen to them in,” Darke explains.
Sonically, Who I Am sits comfortably in country-pop, with bright melodic hooks and playful confidence that will appeal to fans of early Taylor Swift. It’s fun without losing that country music storytelling, and the production gives the EP a really natural, cohesive flow.
While Darke is clear about where she comes from, she doesn’t want to be stuck inside a box when it comes to genres. There’s no doubt that country music is creeping its way into the mainstream with artists like Ella Langley crossing over into mainstream radio, but Darke is careful to not let the genre determine the size of the audience she can reach.
“Country music is absolutely where my roots are, and I will always be a country artist,” she says. “But I just want to be known as a musician, not necessarily pigeonholed.”
To achieve this, she’s putting her music in front of people who might not typically attend a country festival, playing events like Sydney Mardi Gras and pursuing commercial radio and media opportunities. Social media is another essential way she’s reaching new listeners.
“It’s just part of the job. It really is,” she says of having to constantly create and share content. “I think a really important part is to embrace it rather than hate it… the discovery that can happen through social media—we’ve seen it with artists like Mack Geiger and James Johnston, who have had viral moments and all of a sudden there’s a new audience that they didn’t have before.”
Playing city venues is important, too. At recent EP launch shows, passers-by came in without knowing who was performing- something you don’t usually get a whole lot of when you’re playing a rural show, giving Darke the chance to introduce her music to a new crowd.
This willingness to take matters into her own hands shapes how Darke navigates her career. She has spent years operating independently, booking shows and managing the moving parts of an Australian country music career.
These days, her husband Jeremy manages her, but the operation remains a close partnership, with Darke still heavily involved and hands-on in the day-to-day decisions and overall creative direction.
“Having it all in-house between myself and Jeremy has been a bit of a game changer,” she notes. “There’s been a real shift in the last 18 months and a lot of that’s just been us going ‘Where we are at now and where we are going and what do we want to do?’”
Day to day, Darke might be filming content, packing EP orders and writing notes to fans, while Jeremy handles contracts, venues, festivals and booking conversations.
He also works as a Qantas pilot, so their schedules are hectic to say the least, but having someone close who can offer an objective second opinion has helped Darke make more intentional, considered decisions when it comes to which opportunities she should take.
Of course, doing it independently brings pressure. Darke is candid about the difficult days, but has come to value the control and determination the arrangement gives her.
“No one’s gonna fight for me harder than myself or even Jeremy,” she says.
This approach is already opening doors. Darke booked three international festival appearances this year without a booking agent, and has more international shows and major Aussie festivals, including CMC Rocks, on the calendar for next year. It takes persistence, plenty of emails and the courage to hear ‘no’, but she believes artists shouldn’t wait for someone else to make the first move.
“Don’t be afraid to ask a question, don’t be afraid to send an email, don’t be afraid of a ‘no’,” she passionately shares.
Who I Am really is a celebration of who Tori Darke is. It brings songs that have travelled alongside her for years into the present, celebrating her country roots while expanding in both sound and ambition. After 11 years without a full body of work, it’s a long-awaited project and a confident next step.
Who I Am is out now.
