Missy Higgins’ Curtain Call
Ahead of her A Day On The Green tour, the 2024 ARIA Hall of Fame inductee unpacks her introspective sixth album, her thoughts on truth telling and finding hope in her second chapter.
Words by Zara Richards | Image by Tajette O'Halloran
Missy Higgins has always been able to pluck at heartstrings through her personal songs that somehow resonate as universal truths. We first discovered this on her runaway debut album, The Sound of White, which continues to define a generation of Australians today.
Now, 20 years later, the singer has released that record's sequel of sorts, The Second Act, where the Australian darling grapples with her place in the world following her divorce. Missy says the album's 11 tracks were unearthed from the same, introspective place as the songs on her debut. But this time, she's older, wiser and a mother. Honesty is her superpower on this album — welcome to Missy's 'midlife' LP that'll make you feel seen.
Congratulations on The Second Act. How have you found seeing people connect with it?
It’s been really gratifying to see people reacting so strongly to these new songs at shows and online. When I was writing them, I was in my own little bubble, trying to figure out how to put the pieces back together. It’s pretty scary putting [your] deepest, darkest thoughts into the world. Playing them live was particularly confronting – like airing your dirty laundry – so that makes the kind words all the more affirming.
It’s also made me realise that lots of people go through all sorts of big changes in midlife. It doesn’t have to be the end of a marriage. It can be the death of loved ones, career changes or even the arrival of kids. They all force you to reconsider who you are and who you want to be.
You’ve said The Second Act is almost a sequel to your debut, The Sound of White. That 2004 record introduced you to the world. What do you think it is about where you are in your life that allows you to re-open The Sound of White chapter?
It’s a sequel in the sense that it’s written from a similarly introspective perspective. As a teenager, I used songwriting to try and figure out who I was and who I wanted to be – like I was writing in a diary. As I got older, I wrote more about the world around me – characters and things that provided fresh challenges and were more ‘outward looking’. But The Second Act came from a period where I was writing songs for the same reasons that I’d written The Sound Of White. It had that same perspective, but 20 years down the road. There are a few more dents and scratches, but [it’s] basically the same car!
Sitting down to write this record, did you know these topics of love, separation and parenting would emerge?
I didn’t think about how other people would react to this album until I was pretty close to the end of writing it. Most of the songs were written as a form of therapy – they were how I started to rebuild things. Once I had most of them finished it was pretty clear that there was a thread and some of the last few songs were written with a mind to balancing out the album. For example, ‘Craters’ [provided] a more light-hearted moment and even the title track was about showing some light at the end of the tunnel.
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Do you find love – and the pain, grief and hope that falls out of it – a powerful topic to write about?
I’ve written lots of songs about other things over the years – refugees, climate change, writer’s block. But if you’re using songwriting to try and work through tough things then you’re going to end up focusing on the big questions of life, like ‘Who are we?’ and ‘Who do we want to be?’. Of course, the fact that those questions can never be answered means there’s always another song to write.
Songs like ‘A Complicated Truth’ feel like they’re written for your children. If they listen to this record when they’re older, what do you hope they take from these tracks?
Well, ‘A Complicated Truth’ was written for that reason. I had no answers for our daughter when she started asking some really tough questions. She was sitting in the back seat of the car asking why her Mum and Dad couldn’t live together anymore and I just didn’t have a way to explain it, so that song was a deliberate attempt to do that.
However, neither of my kids listen to my music – I don’t know if they’ll have any of my stuff on their playlists in the future! If they do, then hopefully, they’ll be able to reflect on the fact that even though this was a tough time, we all got through it together. When they have their own challenges, they might be able to take some comfort in that.
From the outside, it feels brave to be honest and open in your craft. Is there a certain clarity that arrives from truth in storytelling?
I don’t think it’s ‘brave’ for an artist to be honest – I just think it’s ‘the job’ and it’s often a privilege to always have a way to work through your stuff. Firefighters are brave, nurses are brave and school teachers are really brave! Artists have a contract with their audience to hold up a mirror and a magnifying glass to life. That’s the gig. The best creative work always taps into some form of truth. If you’re not doing that, then you’re missing out.
On the other side of this record, what have you learnt about yourself making this album that you think you’ll carry with you? Has this album re-wired anything inside you?
That’s a great question and I don’t know the answer yet. The one thing I can say is that I’m incredibly fortunate to have a loyal audience who are happy to share my public therapy sessions. Not only is that affirming for me, but it allows me to feel like my songs are a bit of a help to other people. It makes the whole experience much more purposeful.
You’re at Peter Lehmann Wines on December 7 for A Day On The Green show. What do you hope audiences take from this gig?
Hopefully, they’ll go home feeling like they’re not alone and have shared the night with people who are [also] going through stuff – just like I am. We’re all just trying to muddle through some difficult things and do the best we can. On this tour, we’re [performing] the whole of The Sound of White as the second act of the show, so there’s a nice nostalgic feeling to it, which is always comforting. So, hopefully, [people] leave with a nice memory of who they used to be and feel better about who they’re becoming.
See Missy Higgins perform at Day on the Green at Peter Lehmann Wines on Saturday, December 7. Tickets on sale now via adayonthegreen.com.au.
