Greta O’Leary : Interview + ‘Year of the Dog’

KATIE BROWN - 19 AUG 2026

Photo: Adam Rohe

At the beginning of winter this year, Tāmaki Makaurau artist Greta O’Leary released intriguing romp of a single “Year of the Dog.” And now, nearing the end of winter, we’re delighted to share our interview with her discussing the single, ahead of her Whammy show in Tāmaki this evening.

With a rhythm akin to a merry canter, “Year of the Dog” sets off on a seemingly nonchalant journey that somehow manages, quite masterfully, to touch on life, death, and everything in between. The clever beauty of the energetic track is that, captivated by O’Leary’s sweet-yet-piquant vocal, the listener scarcely realises the treacherous grounds they’ve traversed, reins in hand.

“Year of the Dog” follows O’Leary’s breakthrough debut album, River Dark, released to great acclaim in 2025. The breakthrough album was a firm flag in the ground establishing O’Leary as a strong musical presence and a rising figure in the Aotearoa music scene, landing at #9 on the Aotearoa Album Charts, and touring across Australia and Aotearoa. Produced by Jol Mulholland at LAB studios, it features musicians Cass Basil (Tiny Ruins, The Veils), Alastair Deverick (Come Together Band), Callum Passells (Hans Pucket, Aldous Harding) and Anita Clark (Don McGlashan, Nadia Reid).

If O’Leary’s string of singles released throughout the early 2020s served as something of an amuse-bouche of her musical style, River Dark was her glorious expansion into main course fare with depth, variety, and an unmistakable signature flavour. And lest the listener become lulled into a well-fed complacency, in the album there’s a surprise just around every corner, whether in the chipper instrumentation change in “Baptised at the Desktop Computer,” or the well-placed and wry barb of a clever lyric throughout.

“Sometimes I can’t hear things unless I see them,” O’Leary says in the interview below, and it’s this sense of colourful and transporting imagery both her lyrics and vocal style conjure that is a foundational part of the artist’s charm. “Year of the Dog” is no exception, and its accompanying music video, shot and produced by Adam Rohe, brings those images out from the imagined and into the real.

“Year of the Dog” is an invigorating follow-up to a standout debut album, and sets the stage for exciting work to come.

Watch the music video and read our interview with O’Leary below.

And if you’re in Tāmaki Makaurau, make sure to secure tickets to the Greta O’Leary Year of the Dog show this evening. Tickets available here through UnderTheRadar.

Find Greta O’Leary on Bandcamp | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | Apple Music

---

Katie: Firstly, congratulations on another fantastic single. How does it feel to release new music after last year's debut album?

Greta: It is so lovely, exciting, fun! I love the energy of this song and what it represents.

Would you consider “Year of the Dog” a follow-up to River Dark, or does it feel like different territory?

It is an emerging, you could say from the river dark, from somewhere... It's new but they're all connected because they're all me and of me you know?

I love that you've released it in a Fire Horse year: it feels like a symbolic - and wry - bucking of the trend, especially as you write about loving to ride horses, but those horses dying! What inspired you to write the single?

Horses are big for me. This is very much a year of the horse song but it's an ode to the dog. It's all about renewal and energy and momentum, all of which is alive in me now. People do get caught on the dead horse thing, but that's just a mere detail, and a facet of fragile life, but I understand it is intense, maybe even upsetting.

There's this wonderful sense of landscape conjured up by your lyrics and production. Where did you grow up? How did this influence your writing?

Thank you! I am a visual writer, and sometimes I can't hear things unless I see them, does that make sense? I grew up on a rural property but went to school in the outer suburbs, it was a strange thing to live on the edge of two realities. I spent a lot of time in imaginary worlds alone in the paddocks as a child.

You've written about being taught to be quiet, being a child 'shy and unclear', playing make believe longer than most. How has this factored into your musical and creative journey?

I was thinking recently about how although I was such a creative kid, I didn't really understand what music had to do with me. My lens on music was very male, very dusty, and the kind of assertion getting into the grit of music young would have taken just wasn't bred into me. I was very polite, deathly shy. I got there though.

What (if anything) has changed for you since beginning to release music a few years back? How have you found the process?

It's been a big few years learning how music careers work (or don't) in current times. It is very challenging, but I am so happy to be part of the community here, it's a good one! I love to generate work, it's very life-giving.

What has been the best part of your musical journey so far? And the hardest?

Community! Having supportive peers in your field is crucial, as is supporting them. Hardest part - I'd probably say those early couple years when I just stepped in blind and had to just keep singing, keep showing up.

Finally, what's next for you?

There's various things up my sleeve, but I am writing. I'm always writing, but there's something meaty about this time. I'm slowly learning to give each phase its space and not rush. Winter is not a time to rush. Hopefully I don't, but I still might.

Photo: Adam Rohe

---

---