Sally Seltmann

MusicOMH's Michael Hubbard noted "[it] is a slow-paced affair of 1950s sci-fi movie effects, cut-back rhythm section ... what we end up with is something that's not quite a soundtrack, not quite a pop tune and really not quite anything".

Sally Mary Seltmann (born Sally Mary Russell, 11 September 1975), is an Australian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Record producer.

Sally Seltmann was born as Sally Mary Russell on 11 September 1975 and grew up in Sydney as the fourth of six children.

As a child she had piano lessons learning classical music and later "used to love singing in little jazz ensembles, '20s and '30s style songs".

One of her inspirations was listening to Marilyn Monroe's show tunes.

In the early 1990s, she was the vocalist and founder of power pop group Lustre 4 alongside Lara Meyerratken on guitar.

Other songwriters for Lustre 4 included Nicholas Devenish and Richard King.

The band's six-track extended play, Double Happiness had "significant airplay" on national radio station, Triple J, where the group's music displayed "[s]himmering guitars and songs of young love".

While still a member of Lustre 4, Seltmann briefly replaced Liz Payne on guitar in indie rock band, Spdfgh, in mid-1995.

She had co-written the track, "You Made Me" with Spdfgh's Tania Bowers (aka Via Tania) for their album, Leave Me Like This (1995).

Seltmann continued her work with Lustre 4 and was replaced in Spdfgh by Christina Hannaford.

In 1996, for her 21st birthday she shared a party with fellow indie singer, Ben Lee (ex-Noise Addict), who turned 18 on the same day (11 September): each had a special cake made by Meyerratken with icing as a painting of each individual.

In 1997, after Lustre 4 disbanded, Seltmann moved to Melbourne where she attended an art school and worked as a photographer and waitress.

In early 1999 she worked with Bowers again to compose a track for the latter's debut solo EP, Sunday.

Seltmann provided backing vocals on "Electricity" for Melbourne-based electronic band, The Avalanches' 1999 single – it was later on their debut album, Since I Left You (2000).

From 2000 to 2009, Seltmann used the stage name, New Buffalo.

By 2000, Sally Seltmann had re-invented her musical style to create New Buffalo: she adopted a sound that replaced guitars with keyboards over smooth paced bass and soothing beats.

In February 2000 Seltmann's debut release as New Buffalo was the track "16 Beats", which was available as an MP3 download via Ben Lee's web site.

Of her musical transition, Seltmann said "I used to be in an all-girl punk band called Lustre 4. We were very, very loud... There were four of us [...] touring and having fun [...] Now I make dreamy pop songs [...] I like cutting up orchestral strings, but not plain-jane style".

As a songwriter, Seltmann has won Australasian Performing Right Association awards for Professional Development – Pop/Dance Music in 2001 and Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year in 2008.

In 2001, Seltmann (as Sally Russell) won a Professional Development Award for 'Pop/Dance Music' from the Australasian Performing Right Association.

That year she signed with Modular Recordings and released her debut five-track EP, About Last Night, featuring "16 Beats".

The EP was produced by her fiance, Darren Seltmann of The Avalanches.

The EP was also released in the United Kingdom through Heavenly Recordings, which saw New Buffalo invited to tour throughout the UK supporting Ed Harcourt in 2001.

In 2002, Seltmann recorded tracks in Los Angeles with Jake Davies, but after Heavenly withdrew their financial support, she decided to set up her own home studio, The Lonely Studio, in Melbourne.

In 2003, Sally Russell had married Darren Seltmann and they lived in suburban Yarraville.

Under that name, Seltmann wrote, performed, arranged and produced her debut album, The Last Beautiful Day in September 2004.

There she wrote and arranged her debut album, The Last Beautiful Day, which was released in Australia on 20 September 2004 by Dot Dash.

The album features special guest appearances by Beth Orton on backing vocals and Jim White of Dirty Three on drums.

However, Seltmann performed the vast majority of instrumentation on her own as well as engineering, mixing, programming and producing the work.

Her second album, Somewhere, Anywhere appeared in March 2007.

Seltmann and Canadian singer-songwriter Feist, co-wrote the song "1234" (originally "Sally's Song") which was featured in a 2007 iPod Nano commercial.

It became a Top 10 hit on the United States Billboard Hot 100 for Feist.

Seltmann is married to Darren Seltmann formerly of electronic music group, The Avalanches.

At the ARIA Music Awards of 2007 she was nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Album for Somewhere, Anywhere.

In April 2010, Seltmann released her third solo album, Heart That's Pounding.

Late that year, she formed an indie rock trio, Seeker Lover Keeper, with fellow Australians Sarah Blasko and Holly Throsby.

They issued a self-titled album in June 2011, which peaked at number three on the ARIA Albums Chart.

In 2013, Seltmann released her fourth solo album, Hey Daydreamer.

In April 2018, Allen & Unwin published Sally Seltmann's debut novel Lovesome.