Casting our minds back to what life was like a decade ago, much of it was filled with the simple pleasures of MySpace, MSN and YouTube. Laced within those sugar-sweet memories, you will undoubtedly find the melodic sounds of Cody Simpson, whose music helped us through various teenage crushes and heartbreaks.

Ten years, a new country and a career flip later, Cody Simpson announces his first full-length album in six years, along with the poignant leading single, “Let Go”. Coined during a break from his gruelling swimming schedule, Cody’s new album leads us down a path of nostalgia, equipped with heart and soul.

Talking on the 12-track record, Cody explains, “Producing this album not only was a chance to reclaim some innocence — which was temporarily lost in America — but it has an ever so subtle sense of time and place. I’m ready for a new chapter in my life. Recording this album and the studio we did it in, with all this richness of history there, was a real cathartic and intrinsic experience.”

While “Let Go” appears to be a post-breakup guitar ballad on the surface, much of the track is underpinned with the comforting sentiment that just because something doesn’t last forever, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth experiencing. While a warming symphony washes over the song’s chorus, we are reminded of the comfort and alacrity ingrained within Cody’s songwriting.

To celebrate the release, we sat with Cody to discuss his busy schedule, the making of his album, the personal meaning behind “Let Go”, and his hidden alter ego of a hopeless romantic.

To stream “Let Go” and to read the full interview, scroll below…

Hey Cody, how are you doing? Where am I speaking to you from?
I’m very well thank you! I’m actually home in Australia at the moment — it’s in the Gold Coast which is beautiful.

So, I guess we should start at the very beginning. Could you tell us a little bit about how you first got into music all those years ago?
Yeah, it’s definitely a long way back. I think I picked up a guitar when I was maybe six or seven. That’s my sort of bread and butter instrument, and I just kind of started learning and writing songs and it just developed from there. I was playing in bands in middle school, and I started to learn a ton of covers and write a ton of music. So I started to put it online and I just started to gather a following out of the blue. I was originally posting these videos just for me, so it was very shocking and kind of unexpected. But I’ve been playing music for a better part of my whole life. It’s always been there for me.

And you were incredibly young when you started out, is there anything that you would have done differently if you had the chance? Especially now you’ve got the insight you do now?
It’s hard to say, that’s a really good question. There are things I maybe would have changed or I would have maybe listened to myself more, or not always taken what everybody said as gospel, or trusted certain people. But those are all sorts of learning curves and things you have to go through and experience, you have to make mistakes to grow and learn. So, I had do a lot of that, and it took a lot of adjusting. Especially coming from Australia with a family of swimmers and athletes that just knew nothing of the industry I was in. You’re just like prime fresh meat to take on a ride, and I was definitely taken on a ride, but I also come out of it wiser and stronger and better and I know a lot of things now. So I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I think if I had to go back to the whole thing again, I would have made the same decisions and done the same things. And it’s all led me to where I am now. So, I couldn’t be regretting that.

So growing up around swimmers and athletes, what would you say is your musical inspiration?
I’ve always been a real researcher and explorer of artists and songwriters. Ever since I can remember, I’d be scouring the internet for songs that I hadn’t heard and performances and things from artists that I liked. So in terms of naming a specific musical inspiration, that’s kind of tough for me to do I have a fair few. But, I make music and write from a place now of almost wanting to make those people proud. The people that really took music to a different place. Songwriters are people that really stay true to themselves. So, over the course of their careers, that’s kind of what I’m after more so than intense commercial success. I’m really after creating a massive discography that I can look back and be really proud of. And so, trying to model myself after artists like that, I have Ben Hopper on this upcoming album, who’s a pioneer of that singer-songwriter acoustic kind of music, and to have him on there is really cool.

I think that pretty much answers my next question, because as we all know within the creative industry, it can be difficult to find moments of inspiration or creativity. So would you say that your mission to become an artist you would have once looked up to is what motivates you? Is there anything else you’d say that keeps your creativity flowing?
Totally, that’s it. Just the fact that I really enjoyed doing it. I really like creating things I feel. When I feel myself creating things, I feel at peace when I’m doing it. So, I do it for me as much as I do it for the people that like it, and that pay attention to it and want to listen to it. So it’s a win-win situation. I do it because it’s a huge part of who I am. And it always has been, and I don’t know what else I’d be doing otherwise, to be honest.

And now you’re training for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Congrats! Is that something you always wanted to pursue? Did you always have Olympics in your sights?
Aw, thank you! Yeah, that was my first ever goal and dream in life, to go there and get in for swimming. Both my parents were professional swimmers, and I just sort of grew up in that environment. And I grew up training and competing from a very young age, and probably got to the highest level I could get to at that age. And so, it was sort of a shock to my coach when I said I play music on the side and I’ve gotten a record offer and a contract offer and I’m going to go to the US and see if it all works out for the next six months. And, I may be back I might not. And, you know, I never did go back. A story that I haven’t really told much is the fact I just up and left at the height of the sport. I left it in a good place in my head, so I never really felt like “oh I have unfinished business there”. My plan was always to go and pursue music and become a musician after, but it kind of happened the other way around. So, yeah, I’ve just kind of come back to really see what I could do in the sport, before I’m too old to really have a chance to do it. And that’s kind of what I’m in the middle of right now, I’m on that sort of grind back up to where I want to be. So we’ll see how we go, I’m sort of still in the middle of it, it’s an ongoing journey, so far.

You definitely found a lot of success quite early on within the music industry, but you also had a career in swimming laid out for you. A lot of people in that situation find themselves pressured to choose one lane. What do you think helped you keep both of your passions alive?
Yeah, it’s so true. And that’s sort of how I was always was growing up. I’d train in the morning, then go to school, play music in the music room at lunchtime, and then I’d go to training in the afternoon. I always did it all. And not that I’m able to sort of do them both 100% at the moment, but my swimming takes precedent and priority in my life and I am fortunately able to still release all this music at the same time. I’m very lucky to be able to do both. I was talking to mum about this yesterday, how I just think that if me at 12 could see what I was doing now, he’d be shocked. So that’s always a nice thought, it’s like doing your younger self-justice.

I love that! And here you are now releasing your first full length album in six years! What do you think prompted you to decide now is the time to do it?
Yeah, I think it might even be seven years now? 2015 was my last full length record. My first album came out ten years ago. It’s crazy. I chose now because I literally had it all. I recorded the whole thing with my producer Adrian Cota. We did the album together, we put a group of musicians together in a room and we cut this album in like eight days before I came down to Australia. And I’ve just had it ready to go ever since. I just didn’t want to wait any longer. I knew I was going to be swimming and wouldn’t be getting any less busy. So, I was like, let’s just do it.

And you’ve said producing the album was a chance for you to reclaim some innocence. Could you elaborate on what that means?
This album for me is a bit of what feels like a homecoming, especially because I kind of moved back home. I hadn’t been back in ten years. It’s almost like a coming-of-age album for me, as its my record released as an adult. I hadn’t been able to sort of sit down and really throw myself into an album like this. And I always find that when that happens, I feel like a child again. I kind of feel like I’m re-kindling that thing that I feel like we all lose, as we grow up, and is often lost in the goings on in the hefty, heavy, political, social world we live in all the time. It was just an escape for me to be able to reclaim some of that innocence — what I felt like I’d maybe lost over the years. I feel like I’m sort of re-aligning with that person. I think a lot of people out there are attempting to do that. And that’s because we’re at our happiest when we’re in that place. I think a lot of people that are the happiest and most kind of fun, and creative and content and things are the ones that still keep a piece of that in them — that playfulness, that creativeness, that openness to things. So, it’s kind of where I was going with it, you know, trying to inspire that in a world that just can be so heavy.

Now let’s talk about your new single “Let go”. It definitely had me reflecting on all the messy situations I’ve been through from past relationships. What was going through your head when you made it?
Yeah, I’ve been through a few of those in the last couple of years. In terms of relationships, I’ve been through a few different life transitions. I’ve had a 180 career shift, moved countries, and that really affected some serious relationships, and that’s hard to navigate. So, that song was inspired directly from that. I wrote it about the times where you know it’s time to call it, and instead of being overly devastated by it, you just sort of accept it. That’s life. We’re so quick to want to hold on to those things and attach ourselves to those things. That’s kind of why I like the song so much, it feels quite positive and hopeful, yet you listen to the lyrics which are the opposite. It’s talking about the times where you need to lay your cards down, and accept this is over. So the juxtaposition of that is kind of interesting. That’s what I’m getting at, knowing when to move on and when to turn pages. It’s something I’ve had to do and had to come to terms with a few times over the last couple of years.

It definitely feels like it was some of your most truthful and vulnerable music, it’s very personal in a sense. Is this something that threads throughout the entire album?
Absolutely, like the first song we put up called “Nice to Meet You”, which is the first track on the album, it plays on a similar theme. It’s all like a push and pull of old love, new love, old pages, new pages. It’s a new phase of my life and musical career.

And just by listening to the tracks, you can tell how much your artistry has developed and matured over time. Can you think of any learning curves, be it in your music or within your life, that has helped you develop as a person and as an artist?
First of all, thank you so much. And yeah, I think I just like looking at things from a really broad perspective, and cultivating a witness in yourself to say, “Okay, well, will I be proud of this in ten years? Was this something I really want to do? Or is it something someone else wants me to do?” I had to learn how to ask myself those questions over the years, because I’d end up doing something or doing a project and then looking back and thinking, is that really where I was? Was that where everyone else was at around me, you know? I’m starting to really find my groove, as well, as you do when you get older. You just become more cemented in who you are and what you like, and you’re not as easily swayed or as impressionable. You kind of figure out what works for you and what you like best. And you have to really want that for yourself.

And going back to “Let Go”, it comes with a beautiful music video. I loved it. It’s so simple and unfiltered. What do you hope that your fans can take from it?
Yeah, with the video I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted to do for it at first. I knew I wanted it to be fairly minimalistic and to let the song breathe and exist. I was taking inspiration from a few different shows and movies that I really liked. One was this Wes Anderson movie called French Dispatch, and they had a scene where they’re in bed upside down talking to each other. AndI really wanted to remake that. There was also a quick scene from Euphoria from the first season, where the camera goes around the bed. So, I was taking inspiration from different things I’d seen and rolling them up into the story lyrically. I hope people enjoy it. It’s a fun and easy watch.

That’s definitely the vibe I got from it, and I’m very happy to hear your Euphoria fan too! Now I know you do countless interviews, but is there anything you haven’t shared already that you’d love people to know about you?
Yeah I definitely love a lot of TV shows. But there’s quite a few different things. It’s probably already evident in music, but I’m a pretty hopeless romantic, to be honest. I don’t often open up about that because it’s a very vulnerable thing for a man to say. I don’t know how best to say it, but it’s almost like if I’m into something, it’s almost debilitating to me. I guess it’s a really good source of inspiration for music as well, but like, if I’m that into something, I won’t be able to fucking sleep or eat. And I love that, you know, I think people need more of that. But I’ve never said that before. I also really like old films, I really like romantic comedies. I think this album is a pretty hefty reveal of all that too. Oh and I also cried watching The Notebook. I hadn’t seen it until like two years ago. I was on this long flight, and I was “Oh shit, now’s the time”, so I watched it. I was sobbing, and the lady next to me on the plane looked over and was like “The Notebook?” And I was like, “Yeah”.