Love hasn't disappeared from these records, but now it's the language artists use to talk about identity, anxiety, loneliness or the exhausting work of trying to stay emotionally present in a world that rarely slows down.

None of this happened by accident. Musicians don't observe culture from the outside; they live inside it. The generation making music today grew up with social media, permanent comparison, economic instability and algorithms shaping everything from careers to relationships. According to the World Health Organization, around one in six people worldwide experiences loneliness, while psychologists continue documenting rising levels of anxiety, chronic stress and emotional exhaustion among younger adults. Those numbers usually appear in public health reports. They also explain quite a lot about why contemporary music sounds the way it does.

If music has a superpower, it's this: it gives shape to emotions that are otherwise difficult to describe. A melody creates expectation, rhythm brings order and a chorus offers release. Long before people manage to explain what they're feeling, they often recognize it in a song. No record has ever solved someone's life, but plenty of people can point to an album that helped them survive a difficult period. Music rarely provides answers. Sometimes it does something just as valuable by making people feel understood.

That's one reason emerging artists have become so interesting. They're trying to make sense of the same world the rest of us are living through, one song at a time.
The best of these records don't tell listeners what to think. They capture emotions many people recognize but struggle to put into words.

That was exactly what we wanted to talk about. Our conversation with Baby Smith quickly moved beyond the album itself and into the realities of building a creative life today, moving across the world, protecting your sense of self and making music that helps people feel a little less alone without pretending to have all the answers.

THE OTO: Your album is called Lately, Love Is Dead, which is a pretty devastating statement. Do you genuinely feel that love is changing, or are we just becoming less capable of recognising it?

Baby Smith: Our feelings on this ebb and flow. We hope love is not changing, but it feels much less present and almost plastic in the present day and wider society and we find that really scary. It feels like we are less capable of connecting in certain ways and we are living in an extremely individualistic world. We are being pushed in a separatist direction by capitalism, social media and dating apps. It makes people and things in general feel disposable and we are covertly being told there is always someone better, or we need more etc.

We are being conditioned to compare ourselves to other people all the time via the internet. Not sure that we think love is changing but rather the value we place on love is changing. We hope we can start to change this culture but it’s something that was on our minds a lot when writing the album.

THE OTO: You both grew up in small Australian beach towns and later moved to Berlin. Did leaving one world behind help you understand yourselves better, or did it create a new kind of loneliness?

Baby Smith: We think it did both. Since moving to Berlin, we were able to discover and develop parts of ourselves which we might have been too afraid to do if we were in Australia. It has created so much space for us to grow our confidence and follow whatever path we want.

At the same time there is a strong disconnect from our family and at times that feels alienating. We find ways to make it work living far from family and try to stay connected with them. When we first moved here we didn’t know anyone. We didn’t even know each other but we have managed to find community and deep connection in this city, and that is invaluable to us. At the end of the day, we are really happy with the choices we’ve made and how we manage to live our lives. We live our lives in a way that prioritises creating art, and that gives us a huge sense of fulfilment.

THE OTO: A lot of people today seem exhausted by modern life, social media and constant comparison. Do you think this exhaustion is becoming one of the defining emotions of your generation?

Baby Smith: Yes, exhaustion, apathy, disconnection. The damage social media and the internet have done to young people is immense. We are constantly being tracked, surveilled and manipulated by algorithms from these corporations run by tech billionaires who see us as cattle.

People have been conditioned to care only about themselves, and this constant comparison just drives that even further. Instead of uniting in communities and showing up for each other, people are told they should only look after themselves and be competitive with one another, progress & profit at all costs! A lot of people feel really powerless and overwhelmed, most young people want to feel hopeful for the future but instead it feels like the governments are going against us and our futures. We think this has created a world in which so many of us are unable to imagine or see what the future will be like, between climate change, war and political extremism it’s hard to see a positive outcome.

We think this really contributes to people's feelings of exhaustion, it feels like there’s just too much going wrong to make any difference on any issue. There are so many problems, we are all arguing about which problem is the culprit and who is to blame. It’s hard to find anything we all agree on and that only serves the people in power. This hopelessness seems to also tie into the rise of fascism and the far right, people can’t see a future so they are obsessed with returning to the past. We think hope is pretty key to giving people a sense of mobilisation and we hope that will bring people back together!

THE OTO: You've said that modern society constantly tells us to want more and never be satisfied. Do you think artists are especially vulnerable to that feeling, given that creative careers often depend on attention and validation?

Baby Smith: Yes absolutely. We have worked very hard on our mental state so that we don’t constantly compare ourselves to others or seek validation on our art from others. It can be so easy to fall into a habit where you are only feeling good when you’re getting validation, whether that be getting nice bookings, growing at a rapid pace, getting radio plays, streams, views or whatever. It’s so incredibly easy to feel like you are not doing a good enough job as an artist and we have struggled with that in the past. These days artists have to be an artist, a booker, a website designer, a content creator, a marketing genius, a tour manager, a person who is very organised and adept at administration, really the list goes on and on!

It sometimes feels like there’s no time left to be an artist and it can make you feel like maybe you shouldn’t even keep going if you don’t have a label, fancy team members and loads of festival bookings. Last year we spent a year telling ourselves “No self doubt and no negative self talk”. It meant we didn’t allow ourselves to consider quitting or thinking “Well we didn’t get that booking so we might actually not be that good”.

It helped us so much and was really a game changer for our confidence and artistic output. To summarise, since we adopted the philosophy of putting our art first and making sure it was authentic to us, we haven’t struggled with seeking outside validation as much.

THE OTO: Many people describe contemporary culture as increasingly individualistic and isolated. What do you think music can still give us that social media can't?

Baby Smith: We think that not only can music give a shared sense of experience to individuals, knowing that other people have feelings similar to you but it also gives people shared spaces and communities. Music is the artist's interpretation of what it is to be human, whereas social media is a marketing and surveillance tool used to manipulate people and create profit - it is completely inhuman compared to music. Audiences and fans of music can have a very individual experience of music but the act of going to a show and singing and dancing with a bunch or other people is something social media will never give you. It’s so special to be able to appreciate music with other fans and come together in real life.

THE OTO: THE OTO often explores the relationship between music and psychology, so we'd love to ask: has there ever been a song — by any artist — that helped you survive a difficult period in your lives?

Baby Smith: ‘Blindsided’ by Bon Iver.

So, talking to Baby Smith, one thing becomes obvious: very little on this record exists by accident. Every lyric, every idea and even the album title have been thought through far more carefully than they first appear. Lately, Love Is Dead isn't another breakup album. It's a record about staying human in a culture that constantly encourages the opposite. That's exactly the kind of music worth spending time with, and if you're looking for proof that contemporary music still has something meaningful to say, this is a very good place to start.