Sarah Mary Chadwick

Sarah Mary Chadwick fronted the post-grunge band Batrider across the 2000s before redirecting her efforts toward increasingly intimate and personal solo recordings. Her raw, anguished vocal style defined the debut solo album Eating for Two, which appeared in 2012. She departed from minimal instrumentation on the full-band release Please Daddy in 2020, then reverted to bare piano-and-voice settings for the emotionally stark Me and Ennui Are Friends Baby in 2021. Another intense collection, Messages to God, arrived in 2023, now augmented by electronics, woodwinds, and further instrumental accents.

Originally from New Zealand, Chadwick launched Batrider in Wellington with guitarist Julia McFarlane, bassist Toby Morris, and drummer Tara Wilcox. The group’s first recordings surfaced on the 2004 EP They Said You're Hideous, followed by the 2006 Take Me Back EP. Sam Featherstone, who had replaced Morris on bass, appeared on the 2007 Pink Guitars, Yellow Stars EP. After relocating to Melbourne and signing with Remote Control, the quartet issued its first full-length album, Tara, in August 2007. Further lineup adjustments ensued, with Chadwick remaining the only constant member throughout the band’s run; its angular, confrontational indie rock also surfaced on the 2009 albums Why We Can't Be Together and Bag Wine Forever as well as 2011’s Pile of Lies. By that point Chadwick had grown less engaged with collaborative work and had started composing in a more candid, autobiographical manner for herself.

Eating for Two reached listeners in 2012 on Bedroom Suck Records, relying on electric guitar and keyboards while rarely using drums, and then mostly samples. Hit and Miss: B Sides + Demos, Vol. 1 compiled tracks recorded between 2012 and 2014 when it appeared in 2014. Siltbreeze Records released the non-compilation 9 Classic Tracks in 2015, and Rice Is Nice Records followed with the plaintive Roses Always Die a year later. Chadwick issued two projects on Sinderlyn in 2018: This One's for Me: B Sides + Demos, Vol. 2 and her fourth official solo album, Sugar Still Melts in Rain. The latter centered on electric piano and was recorded and mixed by synth pop artist Geoffrey O'Connor. The next year’s The Queen Who Stole the Sky featured Chadwick accompanying herself on a 19th-century pipe organ. She expanded her palette further on Please Daddy in early 2020, incorporating a guest rhythm section, trumpet, and flute while preserving an intimate tone. Chadwick reduced the arrangements once more to piano and vocals alone for Me and Ennui Are Friends Baby, issued by Ba Da Bing Records in February 2021. Broader accompaniment returned on the dramatic Messages to God, released in September 2023 as her debut for Kill Rock Stars.