TONTS. - TONTS. Season Four Introduction

Episode Date: February 18, 2024

TONTS. podcast is back for season 4. Launching tomorrow with the first episode of season 4. See you there :)https://www.clairetonti.com/https://www.clairetonti.com/eventshttps://play.acast.com/s/tonts/holly-ringland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, welcome to Tons, a series of in-depth interviews about emotions and the way they shape our lives. I'm your host, Claire Tonti, and I'm really glad you're here. Each week, I speak to women in diverse voices, writers, activists, experts, thinkers, and deeply feeling humans about their stories. Welcome to season four. It's been a long time since I've been back in the studio and a lot has happened. Since I last made one of these introductions, I launched my album, Atrescence, and toured my music both here in my hometown, Melbourne, Australia, and also across the UK and Ireland, and then back home to Sydney. It's hard to describe what a profound impact this road has had on my own story and perception of

what it takes to make art and to put it out into the world. Like a little beacon that says, here I am, here is what I've been through. Are you feeling this too? Confused by it all as well? Trying to figure it all out as we go too? It's been equal parts magic and messy and I've learnt so much. I called my album Matrescence, which is defined as the complex transition to motherhood, having no idea the world I was stepping into. Since I started writing these songs and even just before, I began more and more to feel like I had

been visited by someone or something. I really genuinely felt like these songs wanted to be written and that if I didn't write them down, someone else would. I set about the task of taking my commitment to them so seriously, knowing that I hadn't sung since my early 20s and really deeply feeling that this dream of mine to write songs was something that I held so close to the very core of who I am. So much of what I went through once I released them into the world was magic. I had no idea that what I thought was just my stuff about the complex transition to motherhood, the trauma, the joy, the all-consuming love, the loss of self and identity, the strangeness, the isolation, the confusion and the guilt,

all of it. I had no idea that that stuff was also shared by so many other people, particularly in our Western culture, where we are mothering in a broken system without the visible structures and supports and knowledge we would have once had in a village. I've learned that there is a real need to re-center the mother and the focus should not just be on our baby's health and well-being but also the health and emotional well-being of the human, the woman at the center of it all because when a baby is born so is a mother and she too is deserving of care and kindness and love. Knowing that in actuality, caring for mothers and centering their experience is so important for everyone, for our communities to thrive. I also had no idea the extent to which birth trauma

was so widespread. My own experience had been brutal, but I really didn't know just how many women were affected by the impact of birth in a system that is overwhelmed, under-resourced and lacking in correct information. Since releasing my songs, the state of New South Wales and Australia has undertaken a formal inquiry into birth trauma, and they were overwhelmed by the response from women and people who give birth all across our country. Hopefully, this is a sign that things are changing, that conversations are moving. And I think a deep understanding of the profound impact of matrescence is a really important starting point. So this season, Tons is going to deep dive into matrescence and really at the heart of matrescence

is the human condition. So not that much has changed. So as always, we're going to talk to women and diverse voices about their lives, about their emotions and about the way they see the world. At its heart, this show is a way for me to try and figure out what this human experience really is and get a little bit of the mystery of all things in. I'd love you to come and hang out with me and an extraordinary guest or two each week to have our hearts and our minds opened a bit. I don't know about you, but I feel like I've hit a midlife unraveling, as Brene Brown would say. And just when I thought I'd figured a few things out, my life has taken some big turns and shakeups. Thank you for listening, for being here with me. I can't wait to share some more stories with you this year.

Housekeeping things. I'm aiming to send out a regularish newsletter with updates of my music, live shows, podcasts, and other creative adventures for the year. So if you'd like to know where I am and what I'm currently reading, watching, and listening to, please sign up to Tons at the link in the show notes or at my website, claire20.com. This will not be a regular newsletter because I can't do that. My brain doesn't cope very well, but it will definitely be coming out now and then. I really love to visit communities. So if you'd like me to come and visit your women's circle or community and sing some songs, share some stories and have a cup of tea, please email shana at hello at claire20.com. At the moment, here are the places

you'll find me singing and telling stories this year. February 26th, I'll be in Eltham running a Music for Mamas class for expectant and new mothers with PhD Dr. Elizabeth McLean, who is an incredible music therapist. March 2nd, I'll be at the Mawayla Civic Center with Shani Dickens. March 3rd, I'll be in Shepparton at St. August's with Sharni and Tess from Nurture Doula Tribe. You should totally go and check out her podcast too. We do an interview together. March 22nd to 24th, I'm coming to Newcastle Fringe Festival. And then May 4th and 5th, I'll be in Geelong and in Colac.

And then I'm coming in June, June 15th to Every Woman Festival in Cardiff, UK. And there'll be some more updates on my UK and Ireland shows later on. But that's where I am at for now. Sending you a huge amount of love. I cannot wait to share these new episodes with you and please subscribe, write, review. And if you love any of the episodes from Taunts from the previous seasons, or if you haven't listened, I totally recommend going back. Holly Ringland, I've had so much feedback about the episodes I did with her. I just treasure that conversation so deeply as I do with all of my episodes, but that one has a special place in my heart. So if you haven't listened to any of them, I would go and check that one out first.

As always, thank you to Raw Collings for editing these episodes and for Maisie as well for running our social media. And I will talk to you very soon. Tomps out.