A longtime champion of the Australian music industry, and an equally talented artist and storyteller herself, Melbourne’s Emily Ulman returns with a raw yet charismatic new single Mountains Mountains Mountains, which also serves as a peek into her upcoming full-length album set for release later this year.
Channelling the serene confessional qualities of Julia Jacklin with the poetic beauty of Big Thief and the folksy charm of Pinegrove, Mountains Mountains Mountains is a cinematic and tender ode to life’s juxtaposing moments, with Ulman lyrically wearing her heart on her sleeve while also delivering a mesmerising performance rooted in softly blurred indie rock, folk and pop hues. “I love the Japanese proverb: The reverse side has a reverse side”, shares Ulman. “Nothing is ever just one thing. Beneath every surface there is something else waiting to be seen; it reminds us to look deeper, to question first impressions. Mountains Mountains Mountains is about the beauty and the rot, about pleasure and grief, and how even the most pristine places carry traces of what came before. We live in the layers. In what is visible, what is hidden, and the quiet charge in between.”
“This song came out of a moment that felt both intimate and expansive,” Ulman adds. “A parked car. A sweeping view. A private undoing. It’s about renewal, about sexuality, about finding awe in the aftermath. There’s tension in it. Between what’s pristine and what’s overgrown. The beauty lives not in the separation, but in the merging of the two to become something new.”
Produced and mixed by Bonnie Knight (Amyl and the Sniffers, Angie McMahon, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers), and mastered by Simon Berckelman (Courtney Barnett, Passenger, Lime Cordiale, Cate Le Bon), Mountains Mountains Mountains expands on Ulman’s most recent single, the softly amiable Every Hillside which unveiled back in March, with the latest track also featuring contributions from Gab Strum (Japanese Wallpaper, Mallrat, Gretta Ray) on piano, bass and synth, Soren Maryasin (Stella Bridie, Chitra) on drums, and Alex Lashlie (Closet Straights, Loose Tooth) on guitar and backing vocals.
To celebrate the release of Mountains Mountains Mountains, we presented Emily with half a dozen questions to ponder …
Tell us about your main songwriting instrument … what it is, where you got it and why it’s special to you
I mainly write on a Martin 000 body acoustic which suits my smaller frame, or a Japanese Strat when I want something a little brighter. But honestly, I’m far from a gear nerd. Without sounding too earnest, I’d say the space I’m in is my main instrument. The mood it creates, the energy it holds, and ideally, the lack of people around to hear me loop the same chord progression and lyric phrase over and over and over ad infinitum.
An album you never tire of hearing?
I’d love to say something local because I’m such a devotee of the Oz music scene, but D’Angelo’s back catalogue, especially Brown Sugar, is my go to, my go back to, my on repeat to.
Your dream collaboration?
A dream collaboration would be with someone like Caroline Polachek or Fiona Apple. Closer to home, I’d love to work with Gordi or Sally Seltmann, or honestly anyone who knows their way around a melody and a feeling. I love artists who aren’t afraid to be lyrical and layered and a little unpredictable. Anyone who’d let me write something slow and sad while they make it sound slightly less devastating.
Your first band t shirt?
A probable little-known fact, but I was such a soft metal head as a kid, (when I wasn’t listening to the Jackson 5), so it was likely Def Leppard, Gunners or Poison. My dear friend Charlotte says she can hear these influences in my writing, and that gives me endless pleasure to think about.
Artist or person that has had the biggest impact on the way you make music?
Very early on in my career, Angie Hart told me not to worry about the notes I could hit or how loudly I could sing. She said my job was to be unequivocally me. That sentiment is never not on my mind. It’s my Roman Empire, so to speak.
Tell us about the new single Mountains Mountains Mountains and your plans for rest of 2025
Mountains Mountains Mountains is inspired by the Japanese proverb “The reverse side has a reverse side.” Nothing is ever just one thing. Beneath every surface there is something else waiting to be seen. It is a reminder to look deeper and question first impressions. I am not going to labour the point, but I don’t believe there is only ever one fixed truth. It is ok to question, to delve, to debate with others or with yourself, and still sit in the uncomfortable grey areas. Two things can coexist. They do coexist. And that is not just ok, it is beautiful.
As for the rest of 2025, more releases, more shows, more D’Angelo, and hopefully more Bulldogs victories.
MORE ABOUT EMILY ULMAN AND SINGLE LAUNCH GIG
For over two decades, Emily Ulman has been a driving and defining voice in Australian music, both on stage and behind the scenes. Through her lengthy tenure championing artists, Ulman has curated and programmed lineups at some of Melbourne’s most iconic venues, including The Prince Bandroom, The Gasometer Hotel, and The Toff In Town, and has also programmed some of Australia’s most significant music events, including Brunswick Music Festival, White Night Melbourne, the CHANGES summit, and her own award-winning online festival Isol-Aid, which was awarded Best Festival at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards. Most recently, Ulman served as Executive Program Director for ALWAYS LIVE, a Victorian state-wide celebration of contemporary music that spans emerging artists through to international icons, with everything from sell-out stadiums to intimate venues playing home to these one-off, exclusive and community-focused events.
A key force motivating the Australian music scene towards a more progressive, inclusive and artist-first future, Ulman’s musical output is as revered as her work behind the scenes, renowned for her raw and evocative songwriting and infectious melodies that bewitch the soul. Releasing her first new music in over a decade in 2025, Ulman’s latest single, Mountains Mountains Mountains, is a delightful step closer to the long-awaited release of her brand-new album, with the follow-up to her 2015 album WEAR IT WELL set to release later this year.
“I think of songwriting as emotional archaeology,” says Ulman, “digging through memory and feeling to see what might still be living underneath. I’m drawn to the quiet intensity of a moment or phrase and the way a single word can unearth something you thought was long buried. I write to excavate. I sing to preserve. I make to stay awake to the mess and the magic of it all.”
“Releasing Mountains Mountains Mountains, and music again in general, is both a relief and a revelation,” Ulman concludes. “It feels like returning to a part of myself I almost forgot I missed.”
Mountains Mountains Mountains is out now
EMILY ULMAN – UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
MON 2 JUN | MERRI CREEK TAVERN, NORTHCOTE VIC
Tickets
Stream: Mountains Mountains Mountains
Emily Ulman TAPLINK