Artist to Keep an Eye On: Melbourne’s GUTHRIE Uncovers Beauty in the Struggle with “Adrenals,” a Soulful Anthem of Resilience and Surrender - Atwood Magazine

      Intensely raw, luminous, and transformative, GUTHRIE's lively "Adrenals" converts burnout and breakdown into stunning catharsis – a profound confrontation with failure, recovery, and the unique beauty of starting anew. The Melbourne singer/songwriter (and an artist to watch according to Atwood) shares insights about the path that brought them to this moment of clarity – a hard-earned awakening that discovers tranquility amidst turmoil, transforming surrender into survival and survival into song.

      For fans of Gordi, Alex Lahey, Bon Iver, The Japanese House

      Listen: “Adrenals” – GUTHRIE ft. Feelds

      “Feeding my adrenals broken up glass, don’t look at me like that.”

      A line from GUTHRIE’s new single hits like a punch to the gut – vivid, disconcerting, and quietly enlightening all at once. “Adrenals,” marking the Australian artist's first release in three years, is a dreamy, gently poignant track that feels both like a confession and a cathartic release – a representation of discovering beauty in the midst of breaking. It’s both raw and radiant, a tender storm of self-discovery and liberation. Rich, measured guitars paired with dynamic drumming complement T's evocative vocals, crafting a unique, soul-stirring experience that resonates deeply and stays with you well after it concludes.

      Well it turns out what I wanted

      Was reading rightness into all my faded terms

      And trickle down to where my heart is

      I couldn’t hear it if it said a word

      Live life feeling like unburdened

      I want you like that, I want you like that

      Returning the perfect person

      To sew one of the scraps we had

      Adrenals – GUTHRIE

      What stands out most about “Adrenals” is its duality – the coexistence of pain and peace, fatigue and joy. The instrumentation flows with a slow, intentional rhythm, reflecting the body's own natural cycles: heartbeat, breath, the ebb and flow between collapse and recovery. There’s a sense of delicacy, but also an undeniable resilience – the type that arises quietly from within.

      Written in the wake of burnout and self-reinvention, “Adrenals” encapsulates what T Guthrie describes as “a moment of euphoric realization that not only is it acceptable to fail, but occasionally it’s through being shattered that we truly understand who we are.”

      Prior to this epiphany, Guthrie was living life at full speed – dividing their time between their band and a venture-backed social enterprise they had built from scratch. Their existence was split between two seemingly contrasting realms – one rooted in creativity, the other in data. “My friends and I create alt-folk music with the occasional ‘80s synth for good measure,” they express. “I grew up playing guitar with some pet goats about an hour and a half from Naarm (Melbourne), and after high school, I moved to the bustling city to study pure mathematics and philosophy. While I do appreciate a lengthy proof devoid of numbers as much as anyone else – I was eager to tackle the issues that kept me up at night, particularly concerning various forms of inequality.”

      Those two interests – art and activism – ultimately converged.

      “I began playing music again with my band, and I started working in data activism,” Guthrie explains. “The common thread was communicating in varied ways about topics that can be difficult to discuss. With the band, we appeared on Triple J several times and performed at some of my favorite festivals, including St Kilda, Happy Wanderer, and Gaytimes MF. One song I penned, ‘Dickhead Song,’ which addresses leaving abusive relationships, reached the finals of the Music Victoria Awards alongside artists like Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin, and Baker Boy.”

      Simultaneously, Guthrie launched a social enterprise centered around data activism that evolved into a venture-backed software startup. “It was a complete rollercoaster for a few years,” they recount. “Some of the biggest names in Australian tech invested in us, we received coverage from Forbes, the ABC utilized the software for their data analysis, and one non-profit leveraged it to conduct the largest study on period poverty in history, drawing data from 153,000 individuals.” However, such success came with a price. “I grew increasingly disconnected from the initial reasons why I wanted to create something in the first place,” they confess. “Ultimately it didn’t work out, and we shut down, leading me to become severely burnt out. My co-founder once rushed me to the ER because I could barely walk, and when we closed up, I spent a significant amount of time on the floor of my apartment.”

      It was a true “how did I end up here?” revelation – one that compelled Guthrie to slow down and reflect inward. “Songwriting became a valuable tool for understanding,”