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Change Is a Slow Moving Beast welcomes us into the rich inner world of Tāmaki Makaurau singer-songwriter Jessica Bailey, aka Fables. Image by image, the music documents the moments that forced her to reevaluate her life, and the hard-won personal growth that followed. Over twelve moody, vividly realised chambers of song, she navigates indecision, vulnerability, and self-reflection, before realising that the pursuit of artistic clarity is the journey and the destination.

There’s a popular misconception out there that the human body completely replaces its cells every seven years. While it isn’t strictly true, the idea serves as an apt metaphor for the distance between Bailey’s first EP, 2018’s Portraits and Change Is a Slow-Moving Beast. From the eerie opening atmosphere of her paean to absolution, ‘Forgiving’, Bailey’s debut album emerges as a patiently paced exploration of how life inevitably transforms us.

Previously released singles ‘Sundown’, ‘Enough’ and ‘Eyes Closed’ have all placed on the national Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles chart, featured in Spotify’s Tapestry (199,000k followers) & Fresh Finds Folk (96,000 followers) playlists and praised by Undertheradar.co.nz, Rolling Stone AU/NZ, RNZ, Coup De Main, NZ Listener, and The 13th Floor. The songs have commanded Aotearoa’s alternative airwaves charting on 95bFM, Radio One and the wider Student Radio Network. Now available exclusively on Vinyl LP via Te Whanganui a Tara label Home Alone (ahead of a digital release on April 24th), Change Is a Slow-Moving Beast brings Bailey’s deeply personal reflections into a cohesive whole.

Somewhere between diary entries, mood montages, and echoes of memory, songs like ‘Cacophony’, ‘Notebook’ and past singles ‘Sundown’ and ‘Eyes Closed’ delve into her relationships with grieving, yearning, and pining. These universal themes anchor the emotional landscape of the record. It’s been a long, slow rise, but for anyone who has ever made the mistake of not trusting their gut instincts, Bailey’s album offers catharsis, acceptance and release. By the time the album concludes as ‘Every time I find the Meaning of Life’ rings out, she’s come to terms with the relationship between the goal posts and mirages. The good, the bad, the ugly, none of it lasts forever, so best we live through all of it the best we can.

“I wasn’t sure if I was documenting a collapse or a becoming, I think it’s both.” shares Bailey. “There’s something very valuable and true in that, existing in the in-between.”

“I think of change as a creature, shaped by time, memory, and environment. It’s not clean or linear, it’s something you live alongside. Long before the album took shape, I created an installation in 2016 with the same name. At the time, I was exploring ideas of transformation, decay, and preservation through painting and sculpture. I didn’t realise it then, but those same ideas stayed with me and eventually found their way into the music.”

“To me, change isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s slow, and its work is never done.”

Recorded with a resplendent cast of session musicians – bassist Cass Basil (Tiny Ruins, King Sweeties), multi-instrumentalist Dave Kahn (Marlon Williams, Reb Fountain), and drummer Arahi (Te Tokotoru, Pony Baby) – Change Is a Slow-Moving Beast dresses Bailey’s confessional songwriting in the textures of alt-country, Americana, contemporary folk and sleek, minimal synth-pop. Mixed by Australian audio engineer and musician Dan Luscombe (of The Drones) and produced by Khan, the album is rendered in a vivid, cinematic style that complements the music’s unguarded emotional intensity.

Bailey reflects; “I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who helped pull these songs out of me and hold them in place. Finishing the album feels less like an ending and more like the start of whatever comes next.”

Change Is a Slow-Moving Beast is available now on Limited Edition Vinyl LP from all good record stores ahead of it’s digital release on April 24. Catch Fables on the road performing with Mali Mali at Waiheke (Artworks Theatre, April 18), Kirikiriroa (House Concert, April 19), Ōtepoti (Pearl Diver, April 23), Tāhuna (Sherwood, April 24) and Ohinehou (Wunderbar, April 26). Tickets are available now from iticket & undertheradar.co.nz

TOUR DATES
April 17th – OPEN LATE – Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland (Free)
April 18th – Flying Out – Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland (Free)
April 18th – Artworks Theatre – Waiheke^
April 19th – House Concert – Kirikiriroa/Hamilton*
April 23rd – Pearl Diver – Ōtepoti/Dunedin*
April 24 – Sherwood – Tāhuna/Queenstown*
April 26 – Wunderbar – Ōhinehou/Lyttleton

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Photo Credit: Ebony Lamb