Interview + Single Feature | Tamara & the Dreams
On growing into your skin, realising the power of your femininity and feeling beautiful
Tamara & the Dreams returns with the new single, Beautiful Woman on the Coast in Portugal and joins Tempo for a chat and to announce her debut album, Too True To Be Good, due out in November 2026. From her dad getting her first guitar from Harvey Norman to expanding out from catchy songs to an indie buffet when she realised it’s OK to go in different directions.
Hello Tamara, you have just dropped your brand-new single Beautiful Woman on the Coast in Portugal, which is the first new music from you this year after we got a nice taste from last year’s two single gems in, Successful Bisexual and Fleetwood Mac. It must have a cool travel story attached to it with a song title like that. Can you give us a snapshot?
Hey tempo! Thank you!
There’s definitely a cool story about me aimlessly wandering around the coast near Lisbon, staying in a hostel and meeting some guy, but I guess the meaning of the song is, sometimes the person you meet travelling is just a memory, a story or a mirror to your own growth or expanding self awareness.
This song is about solo travel but it’s mostly about growing into my skin, getting confident about myself and meeting others, realising the power of my femininity, feeling beautiful.
For keen listeners, it could almost be a sort of sequel or an offshoot to Successful Bisexual which I also wrote in the same backpacking trip :-)
Not only do we have the new single to get excited about you also have some big announcement news regarding your long-awaited debut, can you share with us all the details?
Yay! My album is gonna be out at the end of this year and it’s called Too True to Be Good.
Going back to Beautiful Woman on the Coast in Portugal. It is quite the shift from indie pop into stripped-back folk, which I believe defines the upcoming album. Can you tell us about your love for the genre and what inspired you to go in that direction?
Since I was a kid I was always writing folky singer-songwriter stuff and I think back when I started the band thing I thought that wasn’t cool and so I sort of stuck to rocking popping chart topping crazy catchy bangers only...
but then I realised I’m allowed to just be a singer-songwriter that goes in all sorts of directions.
When I write songs they’re always just me, my stories and the guitar and this album is pretty much that, across slightly different flavours. like an indie buffet...
Can we go right back to your musical beginnings as I am intrigued to know how you first become interested in the creative form and a bit about the journey to arriving at Tamara and the Dreams?
I was writing songs as a very small child. Very corny songs. And then over the years the songs became less and less corny and more good and
I learnt how to play chords and my dad bought me an electric guitar from Harvey Norman
and I started going to gigs in the inner north of Melbourne and we arrived at Tamara & the dreams :)
Speaking of dreams, do you believe in the idea that what happens in your dream state informs your creativity? Or are you more interested in the idea of following dreams? Or it’s just a cool name!?
Funnily enough, I don’t have sleeping dreams a lot, I’m more interested in dreams as aspirations, visions, imaginations, perceptions.
Tamara & the dreams is my dream that I can make come true myself, to play music and connect with people <3
Do you have any plans to launch the single at this stage or are you building towards something special when you release the album?
The single is being launched in classic tamara style with a solo show at the tramway this coming Saturday.... a week before I leave on my next travel adventure, so it doubles as a show and a goodbye party :) My friend and amazing musician Jacob Diamond is supporting and playing a few songs with me, it’s gonna be really special.
Finally, who are your favourite local Melbourne artists right now and who would you like to see interviewed for Tempo?
I scrolled through your homepage and it seems you’ve interviewed so many cool people in Melbourne, but I’d love to see interviews from Margo Mann, Romaeo, Milly Strange, Hannah Mccittrick, Clover Blue, Romanie, Maya Toakley....
My favourite Melbourne bands.... I could go on all day and I could watch them all play every night of the week but a few faves off the top of my head.... forever Maple Glider... Freya Josephine Hollick, Leah Senior... Mika James... and anything Jordan Oakley is in.