Born in Australia to South African parents, she began playing with her sister Kim in vowel-free, noise-pop outfit SPDFGH around Sydney in the early Nineties, opening for the likes of The Breeders and Bikini Kill even before she was legally allowed to drink.

Post SPDFGH she worked on a spare, thoughtful self-released EP under the name Sunday. Relocating to Chicago at the end of the Nineties she set about piecing together an album as Via Tania, with producer Casey Rice and various Chicago musical luminaries, with a focus on production, electronics and sound, and the songs acting as vessel for said sounds. The album Under A Different Sky was released in 2004 to acclaim, on the underground hip hop label, Chocolate Industries.

Her sophomore release, Moon Sweet Moon sees a change in direction for Via Tania, dictated from the very seeds of the songs upwards. "I was remembering my first ideas, and ideals, of songwriting from my teens," explains Tania. "I wasn't thinking about production or any aesthetic for the recordings, I was writing more like I used to when I was a kid, listening to Suzanne Vega."

The recording of the album began in earnest in Australia but took many surprising turns with musicians and sessions in the US, Europe and Australia. "I had a lot of moving around and trying to find out a place where I really want to be. When you write songs it becomes really apparent that whether they are fiction, non-fiction or somewhere in-between, these songs represent your years. This record went through so many changes, stages, and re-inventions because the last five or so years I moved countries twice, and worked with different people."

Ironically it was back in Australia at a chance meeting at a show that Tania met Texan producer Craig Ross, a key figure in the thriving Austin music scene who has worked with many artists including Emmylou Harris, Daniel Johnston, Patty Griffin and Spoon.

Hitting it off Tania assembled the various sessions and went to Austin to work with Craig. "I had no idea how much more we were going to re-record. He is different in that, he brought out the songs in a new way for me. We got really into harmonies and vocal tracks. He would say that the whole point is to make the music as 'Tania' as possible. At first I didn't really get it, I thought it was Tania because I wrote it. He really wanted to shift the focus and didn't want me to hide behind anything particularly stylistic."

And so we have Moon Sweet Moon, a musical statement of intent, an album filled with, as Tania describes it, 'moon pop'.

From the into of 'The Beginning' to the last lines of 'Songs of Love', Tania's hushed vocals and distinctive songwriting are the centrepiece of the album, with Craig and Tania painting musical palettes around them. With the Tim Burton-esque creaks and moans of 'In Light Years', the campfire balladry of 'How Come' and 'Everyworld' to the 70s Scando-disco of 'Our Wild Flight', the album ebbs and flows in beguiling harmony. Moon Sweet Moon features contributions from an array of skilled players including members of Tortoise, Lara May (Ben Lee's band), Shearwater and Melbourne's Ground Components, to name but a few.