Out now: Carla Geneve – Don’t Be Afraid

Carla Geneve today releases her incredible new album Don’t Be Afraid. A raw and honest exploration of fear, acceptance, and love, Don’t Be Afraid was inspired by Seamus Heaney’s final words. The album weaves vulnerable piano-driven melodies with intimate storytelling, inviting listeners to embrace flaws and find strength in compassion and courage.

Unlike her previous albums, Don’t Be Afraid is a true collaboration with producer Dan Carroll, who has shaped the soundscape with his own intuitive touch, adding layers and nuance to Geneve’s stories. Together, they found freedom in letting go of perfection and control, allowing the music to breathe and evolve naturally. Tracks like ‘The Saddle’ paint wistful rural scenes with bittersweet undertones, while her focus track ‘Passing‘ reflects Geneve’s ability to turn pain into something tender and resilient. Speaking on the single, Carla shares, “A song about a kind of forgiveness that takes a long time. But if you can be brave enough, it will come.” ‘Here, Look’ challenges the culture of blame and invites empathy in an increasingly divided world, and ‘Woman Like Me’ confronts the double standards faced by strong, self-driven women.

The record was born from a rare period of stillness in Geneve’s life. In 2022, she settled into a permanent home for the first time in years and bought a piano, an immovable presence that became her sanctuary and muse. Through the hours spent exploring subtle emotional textures on the keys, she unlocked new depths in her songwriting, creating songs that weave vulnerability with strength, subtlety with rawness.

Throughout Don’t Be Afraid, Geneve holds space for complexity, forgiveness, fear, love, shame, all with a delicate balance of honesty and grace. Her fourth studio album asks us to look closer, to accept our scars, and above all, to live unafraid.

Geneve’s debut Learn To Like It (2020) was AMP-nominated and followed by Hertz (2023), a record shaped by major life changes and her ongoing commitment to unflinching self-expression. With Don’t Be Afraid and new single ‘Passing’, Geneve continues to expand her voice as one of Australia’s most distinctive songwriters.

Carla Geneve will be launching her album tonight at Mills Records in Fremantle, Perth from 6:00pm – 7:30pm local time.

Purchase / stream Don’t Be Afraid here.