After graduating as a finalist from Triple J’s Unearthed High and being named the first winner of Unearthed High’s Indigenous Initiative in 2016, Tia Gostelow has gone on to do bigger things in 2017. Blitz contributor Kenneth Liong had the chance to talk to her about latest music video, her friendship with this year’s ‘The Voice’ winner, and travel plans for the end of the year.

I wanted to ask you about your music video for your latest single, That’s What You Get. When you wrote this song, surely you didn’t have a puppet love-fest in mind, did you?

No. No! We got sent in some different concepts from a few different directors and this one really stuck out, like no one else is doing it so I thought why not? It was difficult [having to ‘flirt’ with a puppet], I’m not gonna lie. I’m a horrible actress anyway, I could never do acting. But I guess you just have to do it; you have to get into the mindset that ‘if you don’t do it whole-heartedly, you’re gonna look like an idiot’ so you may as well get into it.

Fashionwise, I’ve read that you’re a fan of Yasmin Suteja. Have you seen the skits that she does with her brother?

Yeah, I think they’re really cool. I love how close they are as siblings. I love her sense of style and I’m just a massive fan. She followed me on Instagram and that’s what you do when someone follows you on Instagram, you go and look at their page and stalk them for a little bit, which is what I did.

I came across a cover you did in 2014 with Judah Kelly who is this year’s ‘The Voice’ winner. Do you guys still keep in touch?

Yeah! I’ve known Judah for maybe 6-7 years now and we’ve been really good friends. We used to do Country Music Talent Quest all through Queensland and we were really good friends and still are; we still keep in contact. He’s done really well, he’s very deserving of that. No [I have not spoken to him since he’s won], I kind of wanted to give him a little bit of space just because I know how hefty it must be. I’ll probably see him when I’m down in Sydney next though, it’ll be nice to catch up with him.

Other than touring and writing this year, do you have any plans for the rest of 2017?

Well, I’m going on my first overseas trip to Europe in November. I’m going on a Contiki tour which should be really fun. I know we’re going to 9 countries; we’re going to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, that’s all I can think of… France.