Across a string of glittery sing-along singles – ‘Fool’s Gold’, ‘Ballroom’, and ‘Fault Line’ – Jack River has constructed a dreamy sonic landscape for listeners, and herself, to escape to. But turns out her high fantasy has a tragic origin story, one she’s ready to tell in full with the release of her debut album.

Jack River (real name Holly Rankin) dropped by triple j Breakfast today to announce her first full-length is coming late June and is titled Sugar Mountain, named after her favourite Neil Young song (and not the Melbourne festival or the classic Simpsons moment). It's a “beautiful, quaint little song about visions of his youth and leaving it all too soon."

“I’ve had this name for about five years and realised how much it meant to the songs and me. It’s part of a greater story of all this music I’ve created and why,” she tells Ben & Liam, a 13-track musical “vision of a youth that never eventuated.”

11 years ago, tragedy befell a teenage Rankin and her NSW coastal hometown of Forster when her younger sister passed away in an accident.

“It was a crazy shock to mine and my family’s world. I threw myself into writing and poured my brain into writing and then music and then production. As I finished the album I started to realise what was going on in the [music] and I kind of figured out that I’d been creating this sparkling, amazing alternate reality for about five years.”

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Thus, Jack River was born, and Rankin realised over time that her artistic alter-ego was a way of making sense of her world and finding a path out through the trauma and loss.

“I never actually got anything that I was writing about in these songs and meanwhile, IRL, things were pretty dark for quite a long time as I was growing up from 14 to 23. This album was a way of self-medicating and getting through a really crazy time. It’s really nice to be able to tell people about that now and share this greater vision of why I’m making the music I’m making.”

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Described as a “self-written bible of crawling toward the light amidst one of the greatest darkness’s a family can endure,” Sugar Mountain was written, produced, and performed by Rankin alongside co-producers Xavier Dunn and John Castle. Adding the finishing polish was legendary mixer Spike Stent, who’s blockbuster CV is dotted with names like Frank Ocean, Beyonce, Muse, U2, Madonna – you name it.

Despite the superstar circles Stent frequents, “he’s actually the most down to earth guy,” Rankin says. “We were texting throughout the whole mixing process… and I think that’s what makes it so great. He’s so in touch with every detail and the artist’s intuition, asking ‘how does this feel?’.”

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Currently in the midst of a sold out national tour, Rankin is also keeping busy with her duties as a festival booker, advocating for equality aiming in responsibilities as director and booker of Grow Your Own festival in her hometown of Forster, and as co-founder of Electric Lady, who are presenting another kick-ass all-female show at this year's Commonwealth Games 'Festival 2018' on the Gold Coast.

Sugar Mountain is out Friday 22 June via I OH YOU.

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