Last year Melbourne singer-songwriter Dom Italiano released the album The Hurt Party, featuring the outstanding duet ‘The Arsonist’, performed with fellow Melburnian Gretta Ziller. Italiano has now paired with another female singer, Rosie Conforto, to form the duo The Anywheres. They released their debut EP, Some Folks, earlier this year and will release their debut album next year. Their new single, ‘Bitter Tears’, is taken from that album.
‘Bitter Tears’ was written by Italiano as part of a project to write a song every week in 2020. He sent it to Conforto saying that they didn’t yet have a ‘real heartbreaker’ on the album, and she agreed that it should be recorded for the album. The only problem was that Melbourne was almost continually in lockdown; Italiano’s solution was to record almost all the instruments, and his vocals, himself. Conforto’s vocals were recorded during a break in lockdown. Once everything was laid down, they sent the track to producer Damian Cafarella (who is also a member and producer of The Wildes), who added drums and did the final mix.
The result is a true duet, with Italiano and Conforto singing each line together but apart, which is also the story of the song, which deals with the pushes, pulls and pains of a relationship. The lilting pace of the song suggests that tenderness remains, even if there are regrets. It is, perhaps, the musical expression of forgiving but not forgetting.