INTERVIEW: Carla Wehbe releases new EP 'Dark In The Light': "It's exploring the darker parts of me, not necessarily dark in a bad way, but just the edgier, angrier parts of myself"
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Published: 5 June 2025
Australian alt-pop rising star Carla Wehbe today releases her third EP, Dark In The Light.
Featuring the singles ‘Life's An Awful Mess,’ ‘OCD,’ and ‘Gentle With Me,’ the six tracks on the EP traverse a broad soundscape - from rock through to electronic pop - and explores relationships, self-discovery and anxieties, with Wehbe saying it is a reflection of how life is never black and white - as the title suggests, there is always darkness in the light and vice versa.
“Dark in the Light is an exploration of duality — a raw, emotional dive into the idea that light and dark coexist in all of us,” she says. “Inspired by the balance of the universe, the EP is a sonic representation of yin and yang and the songs came from moments where I didn’t know if I was breaking or healing — but it was probably both. It explores the idea that darkness and light aren't opposites, but companions.
The EP lives in the in-between: the heart ache beneath the smile, the flicker of hope inside despair, the beauty in contradiction, even the darkness inside of joy,” she continues. “It's not about choosing sides — it's about learning to live with both. Light bleeds, shadows breathe, and somewhere in the blur between the two, these songs found me. Maybe they’ll find you too.”
The EP opens with the first single, ‘Life’s An Awful Mess’, a still addictive slice of jangly pop that looks at the perhaps sometimes uncomfortable truth that life is generally an unpredictable mess, but is ultimately worth every minute: ‘You're happier the less that you know / We're all fucked so just laugh about it…life’s an awful, wonderful mess’
‘OCD’ has a harder, more rock sound which compliments the frustration of the lyrics where Wehbe details the anxiety of having OCD (‘Trying every day to shake it / Cause I’m tired and I can’t take it’), while ‘Gentle With Me’ is a emotional love song that grows from a low key electronic ballad into a powerful, rock ballad. Wehbe sings of finding a relationship where she finally feels safe and secure to express her feelings: ‘Cause breaking down’s not a big deal / You validate how I feel / Nobody’s ever been so / Gentle with me’
The second half of the EP is arguably the more sonically adventurous, which an intriguing serving of sounds. ‘Heart For Dead’ begins as a electro-synth pop track which brings to mind Wehbe’s earliest 1980s-synth inspired songs. It brings it snarls of guitars but always reverts to its electronic foundation. Wehbe’s voice takes on a plaintive tone as she sings of a relationship that ended against her will “It wasn’t really over for me / But you were so afraid of yourself / So now I need to learn how to grieve’.
‘DOGFIGHT!’, and EP highlight, starts with a glorious, summery synth and acoustic guitar line that at times brings to mind the house sound of late 1990s,. before transforming into a more darker, stripped back staccato chorus. It sees Wehbe feeling trapped in a lifestyle she wants to break away from: ‘Look at my self, somebody else…I’m living in hell’
The EP ends with the gloriously titled ‘Fuck It I’ll Be My Own Best Friend’. It also has a faintly nostalgic soundscape that feels comfortably familiar while remain completely contemporary. It switches between gentler, electronic verses to louder, guitar driven chorus, with the sonics reflecting the nature of the lyrics - in the quieter verses Wehbe ponders her friend circle with a sense of sadness and self-pity - ‘my so called friends are having fun / I haven’t heard from anyone / Tell myself I don’t mind’ - while the powerful chorus allows Wehbe to fully vent her rage and come to her own empowering resolution: ‘who needs enemies when I’ve got friends like these? / God damn your plans I hate crowds anyway…fuck it I’ll be my own best friend’
Wehbe has always been an artist of undeniable charisma and talent with an ability to create genuinely exciting and connective music across multiple genres. Dark In The Light is arguably Wehbe at her absolute best and in many ways encapsulates her artistry in one collection. Across her five years of releasing music, Wehbe has expertly travelled through synthpop, indiepop, rock and ballads and we see elements of absolutely all of it on Dark In The Night, making it a truly special collection and something you want to listen to end to end. Women In Pop sat down with Wehbe just before release day to find out more about the creation of the EP.
Carla, it is lovely to see you again. Congratulations on Dark In The Light, it is such a good listen. You know what I love about it? The rage! Some artists quite often do it playfully, and apply it in a cutesy way, but you’ve gone ‘I'm fucking furious’! What does this collection mean to you?
I'm definitely getting some rage out, it’s in there! It's exploring the darker parts of me, not necessarily dark in a bad way, but just the edgier, angrier parts of myself.
Do you think maybe that comes from the fact we're living in this society where everyone has to be so mindful and grateful, and catch themselves? We've got to be good, we've got to be kind, and we've run out of room to just throw a tantrum.
That's exactly it. I'm famously a people pleaser, so that for me is my life. So I guess the music has been a way for me to chuck a tantrum. It's been kind of nice.
I want to talk about the beautifully titled ‘Fuck it I'll Be My Own Best Friend’. It starts off like we're getting ready to go dancing and then you kick the mirror down - rage with a beat. Talk to me about this track.
I was obviously pissed off with my friends at the time that I wrote it. While I love them, I was obviously feeling a kind of way. I worked with Aidan Hogg on that one, and I just wanted to get out a bit of that anger, frustration, and do something that was super fast paced. I don't have many songs that are that kind of upbeat and I thought anger feels like it goes well with an upbeat song. That's how it was born.
I was curious to know, it almost feels like a follow on narratively, from [2022 single'] ‘introvert (with extroverted expectations)’
Yes! That's kind of where it stems from. I get seen as someone who doesn't want to go out all the time so maybe that's why I don't get invited to things. If you're my friends, listen to the song! I want to be invited either way!
This is what I love as well, because there are things you can't say but you've put them into your songs. Usually they're cloaked in metaphors, and there's easter eggs, but I don't know how you could be any clearer in any of these songs!
I'm quite literal in a lot of aspects of my life, so why should my music be any different?
There's another song on the EP that I'm a huge fan of, and again I love the title - ‘DOGFIGHT!’ Talk to me about this one.
’DOGFIGHT!’ is one of those more metaphorical songs, it's a little bit more lyrically ambiguous. I wrote that one with Logan, he's another artist who's so incredibly talented, and Robby De Sa. Simply put, it’s about the dog fight that life is, but feeling something is better than nothing. Even the the terrible feelings or experiences are a reminder that we are living, and that is a good thing.
How have you found creatively going into this? This EP is almost a completely different angle to your previous work and I'm curious to know how that felt for you. Was there concern of ‘is this the me that I need to get out? How are listeners going to relate to this?’
Honestly, I don't really think of that when I'm writing, it's just kind of whatever comes out, comes out. But it goes back to the whole light in the dark thing, I was allowing for more of that to come through with these songs, and just letting it see where it went on its own. It was nice having the contrasting sound to what I have done in the past, a bit dirtier, a bit grittier, a bit angrier. Even if the song's not angry, you can still get some of the anger out in it!
We're saying all these things like anger and dirt and grit, but it's pure pop as well.
Yeah, I think so. Angry pop!
It's angry pop! We love that. As we progress, and we get a little older, not just as creatives, but as humans, you start to say no a bit more and you also get more confident in the kind of music you're putting out, and the sound of your own voice. Not to throw shade on any of your previous work, but how do you feel you've progressed with this EP?
I think I'm always learning things about myself musically and I feel like my voice has such a long way to go. I'm discovering things that it can do all the time, and I’m trying to push the boundaries of what it can do. Songwriting wise, I always thought I was really bad at lyrics, and I never knew how people could write such beautiful, ambiguous lyrics that weren't so direct. So that's been a journey for me. And working on myself as a person and gaining that confidence that you're talking about has allowed me to experiment more with just creating in general. And I think that's why these songs have come out a little bit different to the previous works.
You have had a mammoth year. Singles, tours, TikTok awards, tours with some incredible artists, G Flip, The Chicks, Peach PRC. What has all of this been like?
Honestly, that's my favourite stuff to do. I love being busy. I love playing live. I love meeting new people. The busier I am, the happier I am. Being able to perform with the people that you mentioned, and having shared the same stage as them, I'm so grateful for those opportunities. The Chicks specifically, I learned so much from how they carry themselves, and they were so giving of their time to me. They were about to walk on stage, and they stopped to have a chat with me and take photos, and they were like, ‘we love your music videos’. It showed me an element of the kind of artist that I want to be. I always want to give people my time. It's been such a great musical journey, but also, just life journey in general.
I think that's beautiful. Even though you have your band and you have your team, you're still a solo artist, and as many people as you have around you, that output is still on you. Historically, mainly women, but also other people in the industry, society has trained them to be pitted against each other. I imagine it can be quite a little tricky navigating those relationships and I was curious about the experiences you had finding those people like yourselves - ‘you're my people’.
Yeah, definitely. That is something that I do struggle with. Because I do find that some people, even friends, they struggle to support you or lift you up. I'm someone who likes to lift everyone around me up, and so sometimes that is a hard reality to face. But the people that I do have around me all amazing, and I just feel like the more we all support each other, the better we're going to go as a collective less dog fights.
Your tracks always lean into those massive hooks, emotional drops. It's very roller coaster, which is pop perfection. Clearly, that's where your heart is. ‘Gentle With Me’ on this EP is a really great example. What is it about those quintessentially dreamy pop hooks and bridges and beats that you can't get enough of.
it's so hard to put into words. There’s a certain type of melody that, I don't know, it's like a drug to me. And a lot of my favourite songs are not always my favourite songs because of the whole song, it’s because there's a moment in that song where that melody is just perfect, it's flawless. And that’s the thing that I'm trying to emulate in my songs. That perfect melody, or the melody that isn't just a melody, it actually hits you in the chest. Personally I am a melody person, so a lot of the time I don't even know what a song is saying or what it's about, and that's what speaks to me. So I think I'm just driven by my love for that.
We've now got your gorgeous EP. You've been touring with everyone. Your creative juices are filled and your rage has possibly been satiated. Where do you think your next inspiration rabbit hole may take you?
That's a good question. I mean, there's always some sort of rage to pull from, so who knows!
Something will make her angry!
I have a short fuse, so we'll see what happens!
Dark In The Light is out now via Warner Music Australia. You can download and stream here.
Follow Carla Wehbe on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
