Owl & Mouse

The songwriting vehicle for talented young Brisbanite Hannah Botting now based in London, which began as a twosome with sister Jen, those early outings have quickly grown into something altogether more fully formed. “The name was kind of silly,” says Hannah, reflecting on the band&#39;s early days. “It came from a song I wrote years ago about an owl and a mouse that go to war together. In the beginning it was just Jen and I doing shows and people would always ask who was the owl and who was the mouse,” she reminisces, before adding with a certain dry humour, “we had to grow the band to avoid that question.” And grow the band has, with the addition of Tom Wade (We Aeronauts) and the prolific pairing of Emma Winston (<a href="spotify:artist:2flmlDxFN7cO5ixaz65XC4" data-name="Deerful">Deerful</a>) and Dan Mayfield (<a href="spotify:artist:1sd0vLkAE5VVIfvAux2voB" data-name="Enderby's Room">Enderby's Room</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7z1zIVirda43ep7aMRkXYH" data-name="Darren Hayman">Darren Hayman</a>&#39;s Long Parliament).

The extra additions – playing alongside star turns from Michael Collins (<a href="spotify:artist:0cygwaJypZFDlu4NLQTm7b" data-name="Allo Darlin'">Allo Darlin'</a>) and Paul Rains (<a href="spotify:artist:0cygwaJypZFDlu4NLQTm7b" data-name="Allo Darlin'">Allo Darlin'</a> , <a href="spotify:artist:2fmbX5GAKlPYbJc5byuV9V" data-name="Tigercats">Tigercats</a>) – have given Hannah&#39;s songwriting an added musical depth, complimenting the record’s overarching themes and ideas. Straight out of the same school of Australian songwriting as <a href="spotify:artist:4HCubdy7diarb4KZo8etrq" data-name="The Go-Betweens">The Go-Betweens</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2kTn692duPSkqN6czSilyk" data-name="The Triffids">The Triffids</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4OOlG5eBXSkSAAEeKjJb5Y" data-name="Courtney Barnett">Courtney Barnett</a>, Hannah&#39;s words follow her compatriots&#39; ability to be widescreen and personal at once, infused with an added degree of delicacy and poignancy.

Hannah is currently performing as <a href="spotify:artist:0ibqRci4cFFEMStXQKOyBV" data-name="Common or Garden">Common or Garden</a>, a solo synthpop project.