Via Tania could do without the hype of a record release. She is perfectly happy in the recording studio or volunteering her services behind the counter at Robin Richman, a Chicago clothing shop that sometimes stocks her textile creations.

"I feel like it's been a slow but steady process," she says of her music career. "Now I'm ready, and I hate the idea of pushing things and all the hype stuff. If that's supposed to happen, I feel like things have to happen naturally."

Of course, the 28-year old Australian producer and vocalist is getting used to the fanfare as she prepares to tour this summer in support of her full -length release, ‘Under a Different Sky’ (Chocolate Industries), an album blending her ethereal voice with bluesy keys and buttery electronic beats.

"I'm way more confident in the record-ing aspect than performing," she confides. "I am a songwriter. I don't consider myself some amazing performer. It's hard to get up there and perform by yourself."

Yet Tania is no stranger to the stage, playing out in bands with her sister out-side Sydney by age 16. By the time she was 18, Tania was opening for groups like Elastica, Bikini Kill and the Breeders.

"I think I always wrote songs by myself in my bedroom," she says. "Whoever we met and whatever bands we were hanging out with, I did stuff by myself. It was always a fundamental thing I needed to do."

Tania's move to Chicago in 1999 prompt-ed her connection to electronic-based work, including an EP she released under the name Sunday. She describes the 1999 release as "really natural and not premeditated."

These days, she continues to collab-orate with her partner, producer Casey Rice, dividing her time between Mel-bourne and Chicago. For Tania and Rice, collaboration consists of recording onto computers and engineering the record-ings with a program written by Rice. The duo's creations are cementing a steadily growing base of followers.

"A lot of people say the record grows on you in ways you never expect. By the fifth or sixth listen, it becomes totally different," she says, perhaps revealing something essential-louder than hype.

"I really had no idea it was so dark and complex."