Fleetwood Mac is the perfect mascara-streaked, country-tinged ode to the wild ride of dating your bandmate
Melbourne’s indie-pop queen Tamara & the Dreams is back with ‘Fleetwood Mac’, a raw and witty country-tinged ballad about the highs and heartbreaks of dating your bandmate.
Following a run of sold-out shows and acclaim for ‘Successful Bisexual’, Tamara channels the messy magic of rock star romances with sharp lyrics and shimmering guitars.
Equal parts playful and piercing, the track captures the chaos and connection behind the music – from mascara-streaked post-gig moments to dreamy tour fantasies.
We caught up with Tamara – mid-London tube ride no less – to chat the real stories behind the song, why band love is never straightforward, and how the music scene shapes her world.
HAPPY: What are you up to today?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: Right now I’m actually on the tube in London, from Mile End to Marble Arch to see Sabrina Carpenter with my friend Gab! Not sure how I ended up here. Life is so crazy.
HAPPY: Tell us a little bit about where you live, what do you love about it?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: I live in Melbourne/ Naarm in Australia. As much as I’m having fun in London, Melbourne is the best city ever.
I feel incredibly lucky to have grown up there and to feel at home in the amazing cultural diversity, music, fashion and nature. I can rant on but really I just love bumping into people.
HAPPY: ‘Fleetwood Mac’ feels incredibly personal but also taps into this universal band-romance lore – was there a specific moment or relationship that sparked the idea for the song?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: I have to take a leaf out of Taylor’s book and not go into any details but really it’s a mishmash of a bunch of really dramatic / romantic / exciting / heartbreaking / cinematic things that I’ve felt interpersonally :)
HAPPY: You mention being fascinated by the “broiling emotions” behind the music. Do you think there’s something inherently dramatic about being in a band with people you love (or used to love)?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: I think when you’re making music with people there’s always a little bit of your soul that you’re leaving in the rooms and the studios and the cars and the stages and it rubs off on the people you’re around, you sort of live inside and become the songs and stories that you’re making.
HAPPY: There’s a country rock twang in this track that’s new for you – what drew you toward that sound for this release?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: I just love music that has a narrative. I’m a folk girly from day one, and a country fan since I was a child listening to Taylor Swift.
With this release I wanted it to be really turbo and camp, really lean into the rock star vibe of it all.
HAPPY: The lyrics balance tenderness with this razor-sharp in self-awareness. Do you usually write from emotional hindsight, or are your songs more in-the-moment confessions?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: This question made me think! It’s definitely both stuff from a moment and from far away from that moment.
For me songwriting is like having a baby or excreting a bodily fluid, I just have a big notes app mishmash of feelings and phrases and eventually it comes out.
HAPPY: The line “we could be in love just like Fleetwood Mac” toes the line between romantic idealism and emotional chaos — what does that lyric mean to you personally?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: ‘I like the turbulence/ at least I’m feeling something / I’d rather have a fight / than silence drift to nothing’
I guess those of us with unhealed attachment wounds just love the ups and downs! Finding someone that excites you but also leaves you questioning everything all the time, and being unable to let go.
HAPPY: If you could sit down with any member of Fleetwood Mac to talk about love and music, who would it be — and what would you ask them?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: Oh obviously Stevie, but I don’t think I’m cool enough to take up her time like that…
HAPPY: What makes you happy?
TAMARA & THE DREAMS: Living presently in the moment! I’ve just gotten off the tube and I’m walking into Hyde Park to see Clairo. Life is good.
Listen to ‘Fleetwood Mac’ here.
