By Marcus Uhe
Xondra La Brooy is following in the footsteps of her talented Father Kerrigan with the release of her debut single “Butterfly”.
The 11-year-old released the single and music video in July and is making waves in the Tasmanian Country Music Charts.
“It’s about how sometimes in people’s friendships, someone thinks they’re better than the others so it kind of just ends,” Xondra said of the meaning behind the song.
It’s the fourth song that that the Berwick Fields Primary School student has written but the first to be professionally produced.
She has sung in choirs at school and has featured on Father’s tracks, along with her five siblings, giving her familiarity in the music studio environment.
Her process involves finding a tune or melody first, before crafting lyrics to fit the beat.
‘Butterfly’ was a week-and-a-half worth of writing.
Her father, Kerrigan, said he was blown away by his daughter’s talents.
“She brought it to me, I listened to it and I loved it,” Mr La Brooy said.
“She gave me three songs and I thought, this sounds really good. But I let her do it all, and then I took it to my producer and he loved it. She was very confident in the recording studio.
“Words fail me, especially because she’s so young and so confident, she’s so talented.”
Along with Billie Eilish and Alan Walker, she lists her father’s mix of country, rock and gospel stylings as one of her inspirations to write music.
“He’s the reason why I write music,” she said.
On Saturday 3 September the song reached number one on the Tasmanian Oz Country Music Radio Top 40 Chart, giving the La Brooy family two of the top 20 spots, with Kerrigan holding-down number 11.
To watch her music video head to youtube.com/watch?v=KRq8Wg00AKM
