Interview - Tori Darke: Finding Her Own Way

Ten years of songwriting, a new EP, international festival appearances and a return to the Australian outback.

Tori Darke talks to Denim Is Good about finding confidence, knowing her worth and discovering that sometimes the experiences you'd rather forget are the ones that make you who you are.

There's something interesting about revisiting songs you wrote ten years ago. They can take you straight back to a particular place, a relationship or a time in your life when things looked very different. For Tori Darke, bringing together the five songs on her new EP, 'Who I Am', has been a chance to look back at the woman she was, acknowledge everything she's been through and recognise just how far she's come.

When we catch up, Tori is preparing to release the EP after what she describes as the biggest and busiest year of her career. International festival appearances, Australian touring, songwriting and the constant demands of running an independent music career have left little time to catch her breath. She's looking forward to a break from the road, although there's already another album taking shape, with a trip to Nashville planned for more writing sessions and recording to follow.

‘It's been the craziest, best year I've ever had’, she tells me. ‘But I'm definitely at that point now where I creatively need to have a break’.

That break won't necessarily mean doing nothing. Tori and her husband Jeremy handle much of the business themselves, with Jeremy taking care of management while Tori continues to juggle the writing, promotion, social media, rehearsals and everything else that comes with being an independent artist. It's a familiar situation for anyone working in the music industry, where finishing one project usually means you're already well into the next.

For now, though, there's an important chapter to close.

'Who I Am' brings together songs written across almost a decade, beginning with ‘Prettiest Wreck’ and ‘Who I Am (Without You)’, both written during an earlier period of Tori's life. Those songs sat unreleased for years, partly because of the emotions attached to them and partly because she wasn't quite ready to share those experiences with a wider audience.

‘It's almost like going back through your journal and going, “Oh wow, I've been through a lot, and I've come a long way”’, she explains.

The EP follows that journey from heartbreak and uncertainty towards a much more confident and independent place. It's not simply a collection of five songs that happened to fit together musically. Each represents a different point in her life, and together they tell a story that only became clear when she began considering which songs belonged on the record.

There were hundreds to choose from, including material she'd already recorded, but Tori wanted something that had a beginning, a middle and an end. As she worked through the possibilities, she realised the songs were telling a story about personal growth.

‘These were my stories and my songs, and they helped me get through a chapter in my life that I needed to move past’, she says. ‘Now it's like I'm drawing a line in the sand. This EP is done, it's out, and now they're everybody else's anthems and everybody else's songs’.

The decision to revisit the older material also gave her an opportunity to approach those songs from a different perspective. ‘Prettiest Wreck’, in particular, underwent a considerable transformation.

Originally written as what Tori describes as a sad country song, it became something far more defiant. Rather than dwelling on heartbreak, she wanted the recording to reflect the strength that comes from getting through difficult experiences and finding a way to carry on.

‘We really flipped that one on its head’, she explains. ‘How can we make this have more backbone to it and be empowering?’

It's a feeling she knows well. Like most working musicians, Tori has experienced times when things in her personal life were falling apart, but there was still a show to play and an audience expecting a performance.

‘You're dealing with something in your personal life, but you've still got to go out on stage, you've still got to show up, you've still got to put on that great show’, she says.

That experience became part of the song's new identity, turning something that began in sadness into a celebration of getting through the night and moving forward.

The EP's latest single, ‘You Ain't It’, takes that confidence a step further. Written in Melbourne with Michael De Lorenzis and Michael Paynter, it's a playful, direct song about knowing what you want and recognising when something, or someone, isn't right for you.

But when I ask Tori about the inspiration, she makes it clear the message goes well beyond relationships.

‘I think this song, for me, is not just in terms of a relationship’, she says. ‘There's definitely an underlying meaning there, whether it's about a relationship, or about my career, or just about life in general’.

Years of navigating both personal relationships and the music business have taught her the importance of knowing her own worth. She's experienced the heartbreak, the disappointments and the compromises that come with trying to make things work, whether that's with another person or within an industry that doesn't always make life easy.

‘There are so many instances in life where you really sell yourself short or settle for something that you shouldn't because you feel like you have to’, she says.

That includes the less glamorous side of being a musician, such as driving ten hours for a poorly attended show, or finding yourself in professional situations that no longer make sense.

Eventually, she reached a point where she was comfortable saying no.

‘There's no point wasting my time on things that don't do any justice for what I'm trying to achieve, or they don't make me happy’.

It's a simple idea, but one that can take years to fully understand. For Tori, it also explains why the five songs belong together. They might explore different emotions, but they all lead towards the same realisation.

And despite the personal nature of the material, she doesn't regard writing the songs as particularly difficult. Songwriting has always been her way of processing life, something closer to keeping a journal than sitting down to manufacture a hit.

‘The way I see songwriting is very much like my therapy, my journal’, she explains.

The harder task was deciding what to include. She wanted each track to have its own personality, both lyrically and musically, giving listeners a journey through different moods rather than five variations of the same song.

‘You Ain't It’ brings a groove that makes her want to dance, while other tracks invite a more emotional response. There's also a ballad that provides a quieter, more reflective moment.

‘I wanted to have the light and shade throughout the EP, so that when someone was listening from start to finish, they felt all these different emotions’.

Listening to Tori talk about the record, what stands out is the affection she now has for the younger woman who wrote those early songs. There's no attempt to distance herself from that period or pretend the difficult experiences didn't happen.

Instead, she sees them as part of the journey.

‘I'm really proud of that girl, where she's come from, what she's been through and where she is now’, she says. ‘I wouldn't be who I am now without that’.

She admits there are experiences she'd rather not have endured, including heartbreak and some particularly difficult periods in her life. But looking back, she understands that those moments helped shape the confidence she now feels.

‘I know who I am, I know where I'm heading, I know what I want out of life’, she says. ‘It's really given me this sense of complete gratitude that I've gone through that, and I feel like I'm on the other side of it and completely thriving’.

That confidence has arrived at an interesting time for Australian country music. The genre is enjoying a remarkable period of popularity, with artists reaching audiences that might once have dismissed country music altogether.

For Tori, who's been involved in the scene long enough to remember when being a country singer wasn't particularly fashionable, the change has been extraordinary.

‘I grew up being picked on, being like, “Oh, you sing that country crap”’, she recalls. ‘Whereas now it's like, “Oh my God, you're a country singer. That's amazing. I love country music”’.

She laughs about attending a boxing class recently and hearing Luke Combs playing over the speakers, something she never would have expected a few years ago.

But she believes there's something more substantial behind the genre's growing popularity than simply changing fashions.

In a world increasingly dominated by technology, social media and artificial intelligence, Tori thinks people are searching for something that feels genuine.

‘People are craving genuine connections’, she says. ‘That's where country music is at the forefront, because country music tells a story. Country music has always told a story’.

It's the same quality that drew her to the genre in the first place. The ability to hear a song and feel as though it was written about your own life, or that the person singing understands exactly what you're going through.

That connection has also become increasingly apparent during her international travels.

In 2026, Tori performed at CMA Fest in Nashville, Country Jam in Wisconsin and Country Calling in the UK, experiences that have changed the way she thinks about Australian artists and their opportunities overseas.

She has always believed Australia produces world-class musicians, but performing internationally reinforced that belief.

‘We have some of the most talented artists in the world, but we're so far away from everywhere that breaking through is really hard’, she says.

The sheer size of the American market creates opportunities that Australian artists simply don't have at home. Yet Tori discovered something encouraging when she arrived overseas.

She had expected to be playing to audiences unfamiliar with her music. Instead, she found people standing at the front of the stage singing her songs back to her.

‘I never thought I would go overseas and people would be front row singing songs that were mine’, she says. ‘It was the most wild thing to me’.

The UK audiences particularly impressed her. Where Australian crowds can be rowdy and enthusiastic, she found British listeners remarkably attentive.

‘They're not there yahooing and carrying on. They're sitting there hanging on every word. It blew my mind’.

The experience has left her eager to return and convinced that Australian country artists have an opportunity to establish themselves internationally without necessarily changing who they are.

Back home, Tori has another major milestone approaching with her inclusion on the 20th anniversary lineup of CMC Rocks QLD in March 2027.

It's a festival that holds particular significance for her. She first appeared at CMC Rocks when it was held in the Hunter Valley, around 2011, at a time when she was still finding her feet in the industry.

Returning for its twentieth anniversary, alongside artists including Brooks & Dunn and Eric Church, feels like a full-circle moment.

‘It's pretty wild’, she says. ‘For a lot of artists, it's always a goal to get on the bill for CMC’.

She's particularly pleased to be part of such a significant year for a festival that has remained a constant in Australian country music while so many others have come and gone.

There's also a practical advantage. It's one of the closest shows to home on her calendar.

‘I can come home and have a shower in between sets if I like’, she laughs.

While the big festivals and international appearances are an important part of her career, some of Tori's most rewarding experiences have come from travelling through regional Australia.

She's returning as a Queensland Music Trails ambassador in 2027, having enjoyed her first experience so much that she was reluctant to leave.

‘I didn't want to leave’, she tells me. ‘I just had the most wholesome week connecting with people, meeting new people, playing songs that I've written and telling stories’.

The appeal wasn't simply the opportunity to perform. It was the shared experience of travelling through the outback, meeting locals and spending time with people who might otherwise never have visited those communities.

For Tori, the journey reinforced how much of Australia remains unfamiliar even to people who have spent years touring the country.

She recalls visiting Longreach and experiencing the Qantas aviation heritage on display there, something that held particular meaning because her husband is a Qantas pilot.

Standing among historic aircraft, surrounded by the red dirt of western Queensland, was one of those unexpected moments that made her appreciate where music had taken her.

‘Without playing music, I don't know that I would have ever seen this or got to experience something as cool as this’, she says.

Not every memory from the trip was quite so comfortable.

While in Winton, Tori managed to stand on a nail shortly before soundcheck, resulting in an unexpected trip to the local hospital with the Queensland Music Trails CEO.

It's the sort of incident that becomes part of the story of a tour, although perhaps not one she'd be in a hurry to repeat.

What she remembers most, however, is the sense of community that developed among everyone travelling together.

People would emerge from their caravans in the morning, share a coffee, talk about where they'd been and what they'd seen, then meet again at the next town.

‘Everyone's got a different story in every town you go to’, she says. ‘It's really cool to get out there and support those towns and those people’.

In 2027, she'll return for the entire Outback Trail, travelling from Charleville to Mount Isa over two weeks. It's an opportunity she's looking forward to as much for the people she'll meet as the music she'll play.

After such a busy year, though, there's one journey Tori is particularly keen to make, and it doesn't involve an airport, a festival or a long stretch of highway.

When I ask what her perfect Sunday looks like, the answer comes easily.

‘Just going to the beach with the hubby and the dog, having our feet in the sand’, she says. ‘Having my feet on the ground for a little bit’.

It's an understandable wish from someone who's spent much of the year moving between cities, countries, stages and recording sessions.

There are still a couple of long-haul flights ahead, along with more songwriting and plans for a full album in 2027, but she's looking forward to spending some time at home and enjoying the life she's worked so hard to build.

‘Just feeling a bit grounded’, she says. ‘Going to the beach with the family and chilling out and enjoying the life that we have and the life that we get to live’.

Before we finish, I ask Tori the question that's becoming something of a tradition at 'Denim Is Good'.

Denim is good because…

‘It always looks great’.

It's a fittingly uncomplicated answer from an artist who's spent the past decade learning that knowing who you are doesn't have to be complicated either.

For Tori Darke, 'Who I Am' represents more than five songs and another release in a growing catalogue. It's a record of where she's been, what she's learnt and the confidence she's found along the way.

There's a new album to make, more international opportunities to explore and plenty of Australian roads still to travel. But perhaps the most important part of this particular journey is that she's no longer searching for the person she wants to become.

She's comfortable being the person she is.

'Who I Am' is out now, featuring the single ‘You Ain't It’. 

TORI DARKE UPCOMING LIVE SHOWS

Saturday 13 February 2027 - Howlin’ - Newcastle Foreshore - Newcastle, NSW
Friday 19 – Sunday 21 March 2027 - CMC Rocks QLD (20th Anniversary) - Willowbank, QLD

THE 2027 - QLD Music Trails: Outback Trail (Charleville to Mount Isa)  
Sat 8 May - Charleville (Saddle Up)
Tue 11 May - Blackall (Blackall Bush Dance)
Wed 12 May - Barcaldine (Outback Exchange)
Fri 14 May - Longreach (Dusty Days)
Mon 17 May -Winton (Diamonds)
Wed 19 May - Julia Creek (Dinner Under the Stars)
Sat 22 May - Mount Isa (Outback Sounds)