PIPER Butcher jokes appearing on Australian Idol earlier this year has done wonders for her public profile.
"I went to the Maccas [McDonald's] drive-thru yesterday and I wasn't too hungry so I got a McHappy Meal and then I got noticed in the drive-thru and it was the most embarrassing thing as I'd ordered a McHappy Meal," she laughs.
"They [the McDonald's staff member] asked, 'you're from Idol, right?"
The West Wallsend product failed to crack the top 12 on Australian Idol season eight, but loved the opportunity to appear on the reality TV music show and work closely with US entertainer Harry Connick Jnr.
However, the biggest takeaway from the experience for the 18-year-old was that it reconfirmed her love of songwriting.
"It reinforced for me that original music is where my head is at," Butcher says.
"I'm so grateful for the experience, but after being in that for a couple of months and playing all these covers - they had so much diversity and power in them - but it drilled home that music is my career, but original music is where my heart lies."
While Australian Idol didn't allow Butcher room to showcase her own songs, it did improve her range as an entertainer.
During the TV show she performed everything from Radioactive by Imagine Dragons to Madonna's classic hit Like A Prayer.
"I really enjoyed the process of it and making those more atmospheric sounds and drawing on that pop background in comparison to what I've done in the past.
"I think it unlocked something in me."
Exactly what the experience unlocked will soon be clear to the public.
Next week Butcher will step into The Grove Studios on the Central Coast with producer Andy Mak (Vera Blue, Megan Washington, Boy & Bear) to record her next single Lover's Lane.
"It's about meeting someone for the first time and just seeing how much they had an imprint on you and wanting to wine and dine them," she says.
"Taking them on a ride on lover's lane to get to know them better."
The "cheeky little number" is expected to see Butcher move away from the blues and alt-country leanings of her 2021 debut EP September and her 2022 single Unconscious Mind, and adopt a more indie-pop sound.
"Lover Lane's, pardon the driving pun, is steering in a different direction," Butcher says.
"It's got more of that modern sound and I'm looking forward to what odd things I can create in the studio and then try to replicate them live. I really want to step outside the box and do something that's similar to that indie-rock sound in comparison to that country you've heard from me before."
Butcher and her backing band The Warning, which features Kingsley James (piano), Good Corn Liquor's Nick Wright (bass) and Josh Bentley (drums), are expected to have a busy spring with appearances at Old Bar Beach Festival and West Best Bloc Fest on the October long weekend.
But first you can catch Piper Butcher & The Warning at Lizotte's on July 6.
