

It would be really lovely to be able to just wave a wand and end all suffering.’” The song is like, ‘I wish I could start world peace. “Caroline was in lockdown at the time in London and she was hearing all the sirens outside. There’s a healthy array of collaborators, including Caroline Polachek, who sings on the cinematic “Sirens.” “I’m really proud of that song,” Streten says. The sounds and style Streten is known for flings itself into new places, big and small, heavy and tender. Then COVID happened, and I had two years to just be a normal human. When I was 19, I started touring and it just didn’t stop. “I got on this train, it started speeding up and getting faster and faster. “This time has been really good for me, mentally-it’s just really given me a chance to slow down,” he says.

The next few years were packed with touring-until the pandemic hit. His 2016 release, Skin, was built on the warped, unique production style he’d become known for and earned him his first Grammy. The producer’s first two albums propelled him from Sydney’s nightclubs to festival stages around the world. I have a snake that lives in my roof that sometimes crawls down to my front door.” It’s about as far removed as you can get from the bustle and drama of the city that placed him into “not in a particularly productive space or good space.” It’s here that he set up a new studio and got to work on the pieces that would become his third album, Palaces. “I’ve got property, I live on an acreage, I just live a simple life,” he tells Apple Music. He moved to Byron Bay in Northern NSW and set up a new, quieter life for himself. After the pandemic hit, Harley Streten left his adopted home, LA, for his real one, Australia.
