Dropped on Friday and featuring Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, 'Sunrise' is a jazzy, synth-soaked, disco dancefloor bop, with bright splashes of colour and hypnotic surges of warped chords.

"When I started writing 'Sunrise' it was the middle of the Australian winter," said Alice Ivy, aka Annika Schmarsel. "I wanted to write something that reminded me of summer."

"When I showed Cadence the song in Toronto he was on the same wavelength and funnily enough Toronto had one of the hottest weeks on record, so that's how 'Sunrise' was born."

Ivy, one of the Victorian surf-coast's most celebrated musical exports, will be bringing the beats (and a rumoured special guest or two) to the boutique festival along the Great Ocean Road on Friday to perform her enviable back catalogue of killer collaborations.

"It's my first year playing Loch Hart and I'm so excited, I've heard amazing things about the festival," she said.

"I'm excited to be away from the city and want to make the most of being in this corner of the world.

"I definitely prefer boutique smaller festivals [like Loch Hart], I find bigger festivals generally overwhelming. It's really hectic backstage and I normally take off as soon as I play.

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"Whereas at festivals like this I like to stick around a bit more and check out the local bands. I'm a massive fan of Meredith, Hills Are Alive, and Panama in Tasmania is one of my favourite festivals in the world."

The last two weeks in the life of Ivy is enough to make anyone feel burnt out. Think: moving house, throwing in a quick trip to Berlin, a flight back to Melbourne via Helsinki and Hong Kong, then to Sydney for the weekend, topped off with a single release.

"It's been the craziest few weeks I've ever had," she said.

"A single release in itself can be pretty draining. It's like, you get so anxious whenever you release music because you put your heart and soul out into a song and spend so much time thinking about the concept and art.

"It's scary getting it out there in the open, but then it's also really exciting because you can't wait for people to hear it."

Ivy has collaborated with a range of artists since she made waves in 2015 when she released her debut single 'Charlie'.

But she found being a female producer isn't always easy in a male-dominated music industry.

Unconscious bias - and at times over bias - has made her all the more determined to champion fellow female and non-binary producers.

"It's like an every day thing for me, whenever I'm pitching music people will be like who produced this song, this is really good. And I have to be like, I produced this, this is me," she said.

"It may seem like a small thing but it does get really annoying, people assume I'm the top-liner because I'm female and it is f*cking pathetic because there are so many incredible female and non-binary producers who are smashing it. There's no shortage.

"So many people tell me they've never written with a female producer before, and I find that crazy. People need to open their eyes a bit more, we are literally surrounded by them."

With her ingenious production skills and ability to weave intricate sonic tapestries, she's stands tall alongside the likes of icons like the Avalanches and Flying Lotus, and holds her own with contemporaries like Golden Features, Japanese Wallpaper and The Kite String Tangle.

"I'm definitely a producer at heart, for me the music comes first and then I approach lyrics," Ivy said.

"I usually start with a sample, build the chords underneath and then it all comes together.

"I definitely prefer to collaborate, feel like I perform better, learn more and get more out of a song if someone else is in the room.

"The studio can be a really lonely place."

You can catch Ivy's set at 12am on Friday at Loch Hart music festival.

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