For former Wollongong duo Cry Club, their number one goal for 2021 was to be named on the line-up for the esteemed Splendour in the Grass festival, which they were.
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Then COVID-19 happened.
But Heather Riley and Jonathon Tooke still have grand visions for their music and a pandemic is not going to stop them.
They've just released their debut album, God I'm Such A Mess, (albeit six months behind schedule) and are free to start touring again now borders have reopened to Melbournians - where they are now based.
Riley said isolation down south was difficult, especially having moved house in the middle of it. But with a home studio at at the new pad, the creative juices flowed. Now they're ready to crank the volume and "step on the gas".
"We had it really good compared to a lot of people in Melbourne because we could write as much as we wanted and it didn't matter," the vocalist said.
"The blessing and the curse of COVID-19 meant we weren't able to do a lot of things we kind of previously hung our hat on .... but I was able to do Cry Club full-time," added Tooke.
The musicians both have day jobs which were paused during lockdown, and joked Cry Club was the love project they "throw money at".
Regardless, the last couple of years have seen the best friends join together as a musical group, get signed to a record label, and tour quite extensively.
Tooke said their relatively quick success is because they know where they want to take the band, so it's easier to "throw everything you've got" at it if you have direction.
"Even if someone's bought a ticket we still need to convince them they spent their money well," he said.
"If someone in the audience isn't paying attention that's not on them, it's on the performers - like it's your job to make it something worth watching," added Riley.
Cry Club will play their new album cover to cover at the University of Wollongong's UniBar on December 5 with support from Georgia Marley.
Tickets on sale through www.Moshtix.com.au
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