Tamara & The Dreams on turning raw emotion, wanderlust, and wit into glittering indie rock anthems.

Tamara & The Dreams makes music for anyone who’s ever felt too much, too soon, all at once. Hailing from Naarm/Melbourne, she distills the chaos of youth—lust, loss, FOMO, and fleeting euphoria—into indie rock that’s as emotionally candid as it is playfully self-aware. Whether she’s describing herself as “woman with guitar and feelings music” or diving headfirst into themes of grief, desire, and adventure, Tamara brings a diaristic charm to everything she touches.

Her latest single, Successful Bisexual, captures a moment of liberation on a ferry in Greece—equal parts exhilaration and existential dread—wrapped in shimmering melodies and lyrical honesty. In this Q&A, Tamara opens up about backpacking across Europe, writing through heartbreak, and how a lust for life continues to drive her creativity.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

I’m Tamara, I’m from Naarm/Melbourne Australia. When I’m in Melbourne I describe myself as ‘indie rock singer songwriter like everyone else’. When I’m travelling and people ask me I say ‘woman with guitar and feelings music’ because I think it sort of leaves room for all the different genres available within that.

"Successful Bisexual" captures such a vivid mix of exhilaration and anxiety. Can you tell us more about the moment you wrote it while backpacking in Greece?

I think travelling was the thing that gave me the strength and confidence to be myself. I guess leaving Melbourne and being independent and not having the baggage of old friends and old places. There’s a rawness you feel when you’re alone on public transport right, like you’re a character in a book or movie. I had just flown from London to Athens, and was on a boat from Rafina port to the Island of Andros, to a hostel where I’d actually been the previous year and it had changed my life, I met amazing friends there, I hitchhiked and got invited to a stranger’s wedding, I walked in feeling so shy, and got properly drunk for the first time at the open bar, losing all my inhibitions and just had the greatest time, I finally felt like I was living in the exuberant way I’d always wanted. So I was going back to the same place hoping for more of that, chasing those experiences.

The song explores the urgency of youth and the fear of time slipping away. Has your perspective on this changed since writing it? You’ve experienced profound loss in the past year. How has that shaped your relationship with music and creativity?

My biggest fear used to be turning 30, not ever finding the love of my life, not having enough friends or whatever. Then my actual biggest fear came true, my mum suddenly dying, and all of that stuff became obviously very whatever. Now I’m living in this reality where the thing I was most scared of has already happened, that just being happy and content day by day is the greatest achievement that I’m proud of, and I know she would be too. I still haven’t lost all my FOMO and need to be out doing a million things all the time and I guess that’s sign that I’m still me.

When my mum died I described myself as a nuclear wasteland, my inner world was just decimated, I felt dead inside. But I’m back to myself now, I started writing songs again, and travelling has really helped. I just wrote a song about my mum being gone that I wish she could hear.

You’ve described "Successful Bisexual" as a song about embracing desire and experience. What does that idea mean to you now?

I think I’ve spent the vast majority of my life feeling held sort of held back, feeling shy, insecure, waiting for a day to come when I started feeling brave and open and the day finally came, it just took time.

The phrase “lust for life” comes up a lot in how you describe your outlook. What does that mean to you in practice?

Having a lust for life I guess means enjoying the small things and also the immediacy of doing things in the moment. Don’t spend your whole life worrying or preparing or waiting, because you miss your actual life which occurs in the day to day. Soak every last drop from the opportunities life gives you.

Your music blends wit and sincerity so naturally. Do you find that balance comes instinctively when writing, or is it something you consciously work towards?

Thank you for noticing! That’s so cool. I think my writing comes from me being very ADHD, wanting to be all poetic and lovely but being absolutely allergic to being boring to myself or others. So whatever I write has to be a little funny, a little surprising or brash or quirky. Kind of like telling a story at a party and you have to keep people engaged.

Backpacking and hitchhiking across Europe sounds like an adventure in itself. Did any other songs or ideas come out of that experience?

I’m addicted to writing songs about how places make me feel and namedropping the places in the songs. I think different sorts of light and water and buildings and environments make me feel emotions that no human could ever make me feel. I love travelling in a super raw and spontaneous way, giving myself to the mercy of the environment, staying with strangers, meeting people. I like romanticising that sort of rock star / vagabond / folk singer / poet / artist / troubadour thing. I have another song I wrote in the same summer as Successful Bisexual, a sort of sequel, when I went to Portugal. I keep travelling, I keep being inspired, I keep writing songs. I

Your music often feels deeply personal. Do you ever feel a sense of vulnerability when sharing it with an audience?

I feel like it’s impossible for me to be anything other than totally raw and real to an audience, I’m obsessed with being perceived and feeling seen. I feel like everyone either wants to be seen by others or hates to be seen. As Britney Spears said, ‘there are two types of people in the world, the ones who entertain and the ones that observe’. A friend once told me ‘your vulnerability is your strength’. Someone’s gotta do it.

If someone could take just one message away from this song, what would you want it to be?

All your anxieties and hopes and insecurities and desires, you’re not alone with them, you’re not the first to have them and you won’t be the last.

And as one direction once said, ‘live while we’re young’.

What do you love right now?

I love hanging out. I never want to not be hanging out with people.

I love Aotearoa, New Zealand - I just came back from there. It was incredible. Such a healing, fun, kind, amazing place to spend time.

What do you hate right now?

War, death, transphobia, evil politicians.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

The first that comes to mind is Pure Heroine by Lorde but that’s too predictable. I’ll say something really niche - ‘Lights Out’ by a band called Big Deal who I found through a free iTunes track. I still listen to it all the time, every single song hits, the poetically angsty yearny writing, the shoegazy guitar textures. I wanna make music like that but they already did it so well.

What’s next for Tamara & The Dreams? Is this single a hint at a larger project to come?

I’m almost finished my debut album, it’s gonna be really really good.

Start Listening To: Tamara & The Dreams