If you know anything about Gordi — real name Sophie Payten — you probably know she makes stunning music, has worked as a doctor, and has been in a long-term relationship with fellow musician Alex Lahey.
That last point isn’t gossip; it’s especially relevant when discussing Gordi’s latest single, High Line.
The two songwriters worked together on the song, and it’s safe to say it ended up differently from how they had intended.
Hear Gordi’s full chat with Michael Hing here
“Alex and I wrote the song originally with entirely different lyrics for her,” Gordi tells Double J’s Michael Hing.
“She wanted to write a particular kind of song, so we wrote a song that was the same melody, same chords, but a completely different story. And, I don’t know, we weren’t totally in love with it.
“So, I basically took the melody and the chords and stole it with her consent.
“I completely rewrote the lyrics on a 45-degree day in LA in someone’s back house with no air conditioning. I revisited the song because I was so in love with the melody and made it into this new thing.”
Dating within a competitive creative industry is common, but it can be fraught. Even the strongest among us can be struck by jealousy: comparison is a joy thief, after all.
“We both feel that the world is big enough for the both of us and we sort of have our own lanes that we’ve really carved out for ourselves,” Gordi says.
“If one of us got like, I don’t know, a Taylor Swift support or something like that, I feel like that’d be the day that might break the camel’s back.
“For now, we both churn out a lot of creative material.”
Churning out material is one thing. Knowing when something’s not working — and being willing to change it — takes more maturity.
“I think in a way we feel not too idealistic about it, you just gotta go with your first gut instinct,” Gordi considers.
“The first gut instinct on the first rendition of that song was, ‘Eh, it’s not quite right’. Then I had rewritten it and showed it to her, and she was like, ‘Yeah, this is awesome. It’s a you song.'”
While Gordi wanted the song for her third record, Like Plasticine — one of the best albums of 2025 — it just wasn’t working.
“When I was sequencing the record, I just kind of couldn’t find a place for it to fit,” she explains. “I thought that it could kind of stand on its own two proverbial feet.”
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She had a plan, though, and the perfect moment for it.
Gordi is back out on tour currently, playing a string of intimate shows around the country, and she knew some new music would help make that jaunt around the country a little more special.
“I knew I wanted to be touring Australia again. I felt like I wanted some new stuff out before I went on tour.
“It’s a really special song to me, so I’m glad it’s out in the world.”
Humbled in Katoomba
Her latest tour takes her to parts of the country that don’t get much live music. Venues in towns like Coorabell, Castlemaine, Milton, Port Kembla and Orange will host intimate shows through April.
She will keep a close eye on her speedometer while on the road, having learned a hard lesson after playing a gig for $50 at a restaurant in Katoomba a decade ago.
“I set up my stuff in the corner of the room, and there’s one man eating by himself in the restaurant,” she recalls. “As I start playing, he puts on noise-cancelling headphones.
Gordi announces 11 intimate live shows for 2026
“You know when people win awards and they’re like ‘I’m truly humbled’. I’m like ‘Bullshit. You are not.’ What is truly humbling is playing in a restaurant to one person who’s wearing headphones.”
It got worse from there. Payten jumped in the car and set off back to Sydney to try and make the end of her friend’s 21st birthday party.
“I’m tearing through the Blue Mountains and [reach] one of those zones where it goes to 60 for like 200 meters, otherwise it’s 80 everywhere,” she says.
“So, I’m going 83 in a 60 zone. I pull up at the traffic lights, look in my rear-view mirror, and there’s police sirens behind me. It’s double demerits because it’s close to the Christmas holiday period. So, I pull the car over, I lose eight points and the fine is $600.
“So, to play that bloody gig in Katoomba it cost me $550 plus petrol. I just cried so hard. It was so grim. It took me three long years to get those eight points back, but I did.”
These are the character-building moments that shape better performers and stronger people. Gordi is proof that staying the course can pay off.
“It was around a year later that I finally, like, got a song on the radio, which then actually turned this extremely expensive hobby into a career.”
Gordi plays Brisbane on April 10 before dates in Coorabell, Castlemaine, Melbourne, Ballarat, Sydney, Milton, Port Kembla and Orange. She then supports Of Monsters and Men throughout May.
Hear Michael Hing on Double J Mornings weekdays from 9am on ABC listen