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Mix Susanna Kaysen with Alabama Worley and you have Claudia Forever. Confessional and hyper-focused, this is the project of Australian artist Claudia Schmidt. Co-produced alongside Sydney’s James Christowski, this forthcoming bedroom-penned collection of songs combine the crystalline clarity of pop with an underlying DIY approach. Released via Mandatory Music and Believe AUNZ, first single ‘Even Cowgirls Get The Blues’ traces a map of existential anxiety against a backdrop of raucous television cowboys and death personified. You may recognise the voice of Claudia Schmidt from indie bands Lorelei and Betty & Oswald, but Claudia Forever marks the first time hearing the Sydney-based artist on her own. ​Channelling her gaze on knotted relationships and a hyper-connected world around, these songs unfold in scenes both real and imagined, documenting a post-internet existence, equal parts romantic and tragic. When I scroll down I see everyone’s talking / Too much noise I can’t hear what they’re saying,” she sings on ‘When It Gets Late’, a song punctured by the compulsive desire to see someone’s green active status turn on. With a background in classical voice and an MA in creative writing, Claudia’s influences come from unexpected places – essays from a 19th-century French sociologist, a 2001 Drew Barrymore film about teenage pregnancy, a 1976 Tom Robbins novel about a hitchhiking cowgirl with overgrown thumbs – a pastiche of literary and pop culture references that embody the over-saturated, over-stimulated world the songs document. Dripping with glistening hyperpop moments, while other times retreating into lush art pop landscapes, the synth-driven tracks skirt between different shades of pop, Claudia’s pastel vocals blending softness and auto-tune, all the while retaining a raw, indie sensibility.