Dear friends, I present to you the closing chapter for the Tangled era; My Own Shoes, a collection of the singles I've released since 2021, when I first began making music for myself and by myself as Tangled.  An end in a way - but also a beginning (see the end of this post to find out why!). 

You can find My Own Shoes on streaming services … here is a link to Spotify but it's on all the usual suspects as well as Bandcamp.  

I didn't set out to write and record an album.  This is the product of an organic process of writing songs, recording them and then - for want of anything better to do with them - publishing them.  If I had thought about it I would never have imaged that I'd do it without anyone's assistance.  But that is what I did.  I wrote, performed, mixed, mastered and released 11 songs* - enough content for an album.  Every little piece of what had to be done to turn an idea into a finished product and get these songs out into the world was done by me, alone.  I taught myself as I went.  I did the album art, I made the videos.  I learned how to programme drums and write bass lines.  I did it all with my hands (and no AI :)).  I'm pretty proud of that.   

Why have I done this?

It's a little bit of a line-drawing exercise and marks a change of musical direction and approach for me, to go along with my change of performer name.  Wrapping up what was done as Tangled into a package - to make way for what comes next.  Two things really.   I have after a long time learned how to trust again in collaboration (thanks in no small part to those listed below) after a previously not so great experience.  Plus I want to stretch my wings.  Doing everything alone, while very satisfying, is inherently limiting.  I cannot, alone, produce the guitar solo I hear in my head - or that tom groove I KNOW has to go with song so that it can be the best version of itself.  So alone, I make the version that I can make - which sometimes isn't what I actually wanted.  

So - the next thing I am going to do is make an album that is exactly what I want, not just what I can.  Or at least, an EP.  I will be working with the supremely talented Mr Nathan Gaunt to do that.

Although I've said I did it alone, I didn't do it without support.  Some of you may not have even realised how much your support meant.  So, even though I've not won an Oscar, here is my list of thank you's.

Duncan.  For believing in me and telling me you did.  Before you said anything to me, I honestly didn't think anyone else would be the least bit interested in what I was making.  To have someone I respect as a person, a player and a connoisseur of music in general say that they liked my tunes and provide the encouragement you did, meant so much.  I think my foray into original music would probably have ended without you.  Thanks matey, I owe you big time.

Ivan.  Having you travel from a place of not being keen on original music - and definitely not mine!  to saying to me that you genuinely appreciated and liked what I'd made - that made a difference.  Now you know words matter … and I know that the parts between and around the words are just as important to a song.  Win, win for both of us in our musical growth.  Thank you.

Bod.  Always honest and kind, my musical litmus tester.  Thank you for being there, my friend.  You are such a talented person.  One day we will get on a stage together again, I promise.

Patrick G.  Having someone I met through music and an accomplished musician in your own right - appreciate my stuff (i.e not just because you were a friend or family member and had to be kind!) was a new thing for me.  You have always been so kind and supportive - and full of really insightful suggestions about mixes and arrangements when I was very green and learning the ropes.  Thanks buddy.  So glad our paths crossed all that long time ago. 

The crew. I have been beyond lucky to be surrounded by a bunch of people who are just always there for me - and it, whatever I do, all the time.  You lot are a gift.  To my posse (Edgar and Denise), my Ceduna family (all of you lot, you know who you are), to Shon and my Aquino family - thank you.

I hope you enjoy these little stories I made and let loose into the world.  And please stay tuned for what's next, I'll keep you posted.  I'm really excited to see what comes of it.

___

*Apart from Beautiful Sweet, of course which is a collaboration with the awesome and talented Meg Travers.

Musically, I'm like a child in a sweet shop.  Or a guitarist at Billy Hydes.  I want to try EVERYTHING.  Concurrently, preferably.  Cover bands, tributes, solo, duo or trio.  Lead or BV's.  Write and produce originals, play guitar, make orchestral versions of pop songs … you name it I'll give it a try.

This has it's pros and cons.  

Big pro is that it's heaps of fun and I've met a ton of really cool people doing it.  Have been part of a huge variety of different shows as a result and learned sooooo much.  I'm so incredibly grateful for the experiences I've had, proud of (most) of the things I've been part of and humbled by the appreciation people have expressed for what I do.

Con is - people get confused and sometimes disappointed.  Sometimes you're doing stuff that doesn't fit the picture they have of you.  Or the picture of what a ‘real musician’ does.  You're not cool.  You're “selling out” (I'm quoting a real thing someone said to me, once).  You're less credible.  You scramble your ‘brand’.  You get the idea.

For this reason, I've had this series of very separate musical “personalities”.  I separated all the different kinds of music stuff I do.  “Tangled” was supposed to be the place where I was a serious independent songwriter/performer/producer.  Tangled didn't wear ridiculous wigs and sparkly boots.  Noooo, she was strumming a beautiful acoustic guitar in some verdant setting, looking soulful and telling serious stories about life and learning.  Pfft.  Right on.  That was just as much a construct as any of the other personalities - and probably the least honest. 

In 2025 all the carefully curated and constructed boundaries between my various musical personalities started collapsing and blending together.  Not only that - but the careful line I'd put between my ‘musical personalities’ and the actual me (Tanya Aquino - mother of two, drinker of wine, lover of fairy lights, plants and cats) began to blur.   On the words of my song Queen, “How did you find me out?”  

So I decided fuck it all and I'm just going to let it go (see what I did there, one last Tangled reference .. :)) and I went with it.  And I write this in mid-2026, here we are, back here it started.  With me, Tanya.   

So that's why I stopped being Tangled.  It began to feel inauthentic, curated.  So now there's one persona, one place - from the most heartfelt and serious songs I might write … to the most ridiculous wig-wearing antic I feel like getting up to.  All mixed together, all the colours - no curation and no constructs.  No “brand”.

Let's see how it goes.  Maybe it'll make brown.  But then again, we might get lucky and it could be a rainbow.

My Dad loved Leonard Cohen.  

He played his music often and so I, in turn, grew to love Leonard Cohen. But it was my Uncle Peter who introduced me to Jennifer Warnes' album Famous Blue Raincoat, which is her interpretations of Cohen's music.  I would have been about 15 I think.  I fell in love with it.  I must have listened to it a million times. 

The album will be 40 years old in November.  How wild is that?  

Anyway, tonight I got home and put the album on - and then randomly felt like singing.  For no reason at all I sat down and bashed out a couple of covers.  

One take wonders, so forgive any blues and blips but here they are!

Fun fact, like an idiot it was only recently I joined the dots between the Jennifer Warnes who sang “I had the time of my life” and the Jennifer Warnes who sang this album.  No idea why I didn't clock they were the same beautiful voice.  Now have a whole new appreciation for that song.  

And why, I hear you ask,  am I waving a pencil around?  NFI - I wasn't even aware I'd picked it up.  

Chat later kiddies!

For <reasons> when I first started making music for and by myself, I decided I needed an artist name to operate under.  So I picked the name “Tangled” as a play on my nickname*.  

But now - it's time for Tangled to be laid to rest.

Why?  Because Disney. Well, mostly but not entirely. 

You can imagine.  If I appear at all in a search on social media - or even Google - it's at the very very very bottom of a really long to the point of unscrollable list of Disney and Disney-adjacent content.  Not to mention the covers of “Let it Go” that kept landing in my artist profile and I had to keep requesting be removed! 

So anyway.  I had a lot of chats about this with people.  Had some quite good suggestions for a new artist name (Untangled was one - which I quite liked - from my friend Lily).  But in the end, I am going to just use my own, actual name - Tanya Aquino.  Why?  And why now?  Well, that might be the subject of a blog post another day :) 

OK it's late where I am, and I have a day job to go to so I must away to bed.  Have a lovely day or night whatever time it is you're reading this.  Go forth and be happy.  As my friend (and awesome drummer) Andrew said to me today (and it made my day) - I appreciate you. 
___

* My nickname, if you're interested, is Tang and it was given to me by my dear friend Jason, who passed away suddenly, quite recently.  I miss him. And I won't go into how I got it, because it's not family friendly ;)