Stella Donnelly Confronts the Uncharted Grief of Lost Friendship on New Album, Love and Fortune
The ache of romantic heartbreak is a well-trodden path in art, but Stella Donnelly’s new album, Love and Fortune, delves into the less-explored territory of platonic loss, offering a resonant soundtrack for anyone grappling with the silence left by a former friend. Donnelly, the Welsh Australian singer-songwriter, initially resisted writing about the painful dissolution of a close friendship, but found the experience persistently surfaced in her work.
Donnelly’s third album, set for release on November 7th via Remote Control/Dot Dash Recordings, captures the “dull ache of being rejected by a friend who once knew her best of all.” It’s a record poised to become a touchstone for those navigating the unique pain of being “ghosted” by someone they once intimately knew.
The experience left Donnelly feeling powerless, realizing “no amount of questioning or reaching out is going to work. I’d never come up against that in my life.” Unlike previous friendship conflicts that could be resolved through conversation, this felt like a one-sided severance. “It’s so heavy and, for me, never resolved,” she admits.
Despite her initial reluctance, the subject matter repeatedly emerged as she wrote. Tracks like “Friends” explore the weight of unsent letters, while “Ghosts” details the avoidance tactics she employed to avoid potentially encountering her former friend at gigs. “It’s as much an offering as it is a journal, in a way,” Donnelly explains.
The album’s creation was deeply personal and geographically rooted. Stella Donnelly wrote Love and Fortune while cycling around Melbourne’s northern suburbs, a process reflected in the album’s introspective tone. A keen ornithologist, Donnelly also weaves symbolism of birds and evolution throughout the record. On “Please Everyone,” she recalls birdwatching with her former friend, incorporating recorded chirps into the track, and sings, “Wherever you may be, I hope it’s kind to you.” The album closer, “Laying Low,” finds a sense of calm acceptance, acknowledging that clinging to what’s lost is futile.
Donnelly acknowledges the difficulty of discussing the album, admitting she’s been “trying to protect the other person in all of this.” A brief sun shower offered a welcome respite from navigating those sensitivities during a recent interview. “I was giving politician answers,” she confessed, explaining her desire to avoid exacerbating the situation.
The path to Love and Fortune wasn’t without its challenges. Following the success of her 2017 debut EP, Thrush Metal, and its breakout single, “Boys Will Be Boys” – a song that resonated powerfully with the Australian #MeToo movement – Donnelly found herself overwhelmed by the demands of the music industry. She toured internationally, received the inaugural $25,000 Levi’s Music prize, and earned multiple award nominations, including an Aria nomination. “I was just like, ‘I don’t care. I’ll just say yes’,” she recalls, describing the period as “a little bit crazy.”
The inevitable crash came after years of relentless work. Colleagues noticed she was “at [her] wit’s end,” and she experienced burnout, illness, and ultimately, the cancellation of shows. Her label, Secretly, later dropped her. The creative spark proved elusive during this difficult time, serving as a stark warning sign. “I’ve always championed honesty. So it was hard to have a bit of a tough time and not be able to give very much.”
In an effort to regain balance, Donnelly took a job at a local bakery, embracing a more grounded routine. She cycled to work before dawn, surrounded by fellow musicians working in hospitality, and immersed herself in community radio. “I could not escape music if I tried.” She found renewed joy in playing bass in friends’ bands alongside her husband, Marcel Tussie of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. “That’s where Marcel and I really, really connect,” she says. “It’s my favourite context to be in with him because we are just there together, supporting someone else’s music, and it’s not about either of us in that moment.”
This shift in focus extended to community involvement, including a fundraiser gig for chef Aheda Amro, a Palestinian refugee. Through these experiences, Donnelly rediscovered the essence of a musical community. “That’s when I started writing more songs again, because it was just like, ‘Oh, I love this’.”
Even the eventual news that Secretly wouldn’t pick up her next record felt liberating. “I cried for a day, and then the next day felt really, really free. I felt like that little kid in overalls again, who wanted to write an EP. It was that feeling of ‘No one actually cares about what I’m doing – so what am I going to do?’”
Six months ago, Donnelly received a diagnosis of neurodivergence, providing a framework for understanding her sensitivity and needs. “It’s just understanding that I need a little extra help here and there with things, and that a motorcycle riding past really loudly on the street can be a day-ruiner for me. I’m just a lot kinder to myself now, about everything.” This self-compassion is reflected in songs like “W.A.L.K,” where she sings, “Take back my little life … I set myself on fire for someone else’s game,” a testament to prioritizing self-care.
Donnelly now approaches her past with “hindsight kindness,” accepting the versions of herself that struggled and pushed through discomfort. “Finally allowing myself to just write a whole fucking album about this big thing that had happened to me made me accept that that’s kind of who I am: I’m this annoying person that writes songs about their personal life. I had to reconcile with the fact that that’s who I am, and grow to love that person.”
Love and Fortune is out on November 7th (Remote Control/Dot Dash Recordings). Stella Donnelly is touring Love and Fortune around Australia from February 19th to March 6th, then in the UK and Europe from March 19th to April 2nd; see here for all dates.
