ReeToxA is the musical project of Melbourne songwriter Jason McKee, who has spent decades turning real, lived experience into songwriting rather than treating it as a distant source of inspiration. His new release, “Double A Side 2 (Akaroa / Erica And The Stars),” pairs two songs pulled from especially difficult stretches of his life, produced, mixed, and mastered by Simon Moro, with Luke Crouch engineering the band sessions at The Avenue Recording Studio in Cheltenham, Victoria.
Akaroa / Erica And The Stars
“Akaroa” carries a genuinely unusual origin story. The song first came to McKee through a vivid dream during an especially hard chapter of his life, and the name stuck with him for years even though he had no real connection to the actual town of Akaroa in New Zealand. It wasn’t until he visited during a cruise stop years later that the dormant idea returned with full force, and he finally finished the song on the spot, giving the track a strange, almost fated relationship between memory, place, and instinct.
“Erica And The Stars” comes from a different kind of struggle, written as a way to hold onto creativity during a period when everything else felt overwhelming. What sets the recording apart is the Budapest Orchestra, brought in to realize an arrangement McKee had only ever heard in his head, giving the song a genuinely cinematic scale as it moves through imagery of escape, confrontation, and eventual release. Both tracks pull from an impressive group of musicians, Terry Hart on piano, James Ryan of Men At Work on guitar, Kit Riley on bass, Peter Martin of Jet on drums, and Jessica McPherson-Riley of The Voice Australia on backing vocals, with McKee handling vocals, songwriting, and arranging throughout. The EP also includes karaoke versions of both songs, giving listeners a chance to hear the underlying arrangements and musicianship without the finished vocal takes layered on top.
Final Thoughts
What makes “Double A Side 2” work is the contrast built into its two halves, “Akaroa” intimate and mysterious, “Erica And The Stars” reaching outward into full orchestral scale, both rooted in real moments that clearly left a mark. Following his earlier album Soliloquy, ReeToxA continues building a catalogue where lived experience does the heavy lifting rather than just supplying a lyric or two. It’s available now on Spotify. For more, visit reetoxa.com, or follow ReeToxA on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, and YouTube.
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