Introducing Stella Bridie, the Naarm/Melbourne, Australia-based songwriter-vocalist who emerges with the arresting new single ‘He Didn’t Mean It.’ Arriving with music video directed by Olivia Fleming & Kii Belling, ‘He Didn’t Mean It’ visually stokes the flames of deliverance.

Stella Bridie’s music leaves a lasting mark. A potent musician and creative across forms, she writes for the long walk home from the party where mind games dance. Balancing the catharsis of indie rock with etchings of pop-impulses — think boygenius crossed with Ethel Cain — she conceptualizes disillusionment with gripping imagery. Her seemingly simplistic turn of phrase is sung with captivating, stop-in-your-tracks delivery. “Usually the process of writing for me is about capturing the feeling so I’ll remember it when it fades,” she explains.

Her incisive new release ‘He Didn’t Mean It’ shies away from vindictive intent. Growling instrumentation, though stark in form, bellows through its clear and focused lyricism: “Am I meant to say what’s honest until what’s honest gets too hard?” Poking holes at the excuses and witnesses who avoid your gaze and stand in deafening silence, Stella takes focus on bystanders in the face of discomfort. Produced by Gab Strum (Gretta Ray, Mallrat) and Gene Argiro of Sunfruits, the instrumental build, which feels unable to give in to release, meets its break through the repetition of the song’s title.

In Stella’s own words, “’He didn’t mean it’ is a phrase I’ve heard many times throughout my life in many different contexts, describing behavior that ranges from a little careless to entirely abhorrent. What it implies is that the person being harmed, the ‘it,’ is not worth the discomfort of confrontation or conflict. This song argues that it is; that it has to be. People seem to find it a lot more comforting when women sing about self harm rather than when they express anger, even just metaphorically.”