Carla Dal Forno’s New Record Goes On An Unexpected Personal Journey

BusinessHollywood & EntertainmentCarla Dal Forno’s New Record Goes On An Unexpected Personal JourneyByDavid Chiu,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Chiu is a freelance music writer based in New York.Follow AuthorApr 28, 2026, 08:15am EDTCarla dal Forno.credit: Sanjay FernandesWhen the Australian indie singer-musician-songwriter Carla dal Forno started work on her fourth solo album, she initially wanted to make an abstract work in which she didn’t have to talk about her personal life. However, it didn’t turn out that way because the songs she was writing at the time didn’t connect with her, or she couldn’t tell what they were about. But amid this creative block came a breakthrough one day, when dal Forno was at home just mucking around and not even trying to write a song. “I was strumming some chords on a guitar,” she recalls. “Something clicked, and I thought, ‘Oh, this is really has got a mood about it.’ The words to “Going Out” started coming out of my mouth. The song basically wrote itself. And I thought, 'Okay, I'm going to have to reimagine what this album is about because this feels quite personal.’”Dal Forno’s new album — her first since 2022’s Come Around — is the appropriately titled Confession, whose intimate and introspective lyrics complement her otherworldly dream-pop sound. Perhaps adding to Confession’s chill vibe is that it was recorded in a studio housed in a partially abandoned hospital.“I live in a small country town in rural Victoria, a couple of hours away from Melbourne,” says dal Forno. “About 30 years ago, this hospital was decommissioned and they moved to another site. Since then, they’ve turned it into a space where artists and other practitioners can hire studios. But the infrastructure seems like it hasn't been touched since the '70s, honestly. There are orange and yellow walls, peeling paint and dusty carpets. So it's kind of creepy, but playful as well. It...