Emerging from a lengthy self-imposed retreat from the recording industry, Melody Pool returns this month with an exquisite, dreamy collection of songs titled LOST IN TIME, which is released today 17th February.
Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips sat down with Melody Pool via zoom to chat about the creation of her new EP Lost In Time, her career hurdles, the upcoming tour and the future.
More about Melody Pool
For an extended period Melody was in fact finding herself – taking time to focus on her beleaguered mental health, a subject she has openly written and spoken of throughout her career. This enabled her to explore music in a more creative and intuitive way, and ready herself to relaunch her recording career on her own terms, as a wholly independent artist.
Lost In Time is an EP of six sensitive and exploratory songs recorded in just two days on her 160-acre farm in rural NSW. It features some of Melody’s best writing to date and showcases an artist fiercely dedicated to her craft and walking to the beat of its strides. “I follow where the muse leads,” she says. “I don’t ever want to make an album filled with pop hits. It’s always going to be me playing guitar and singing the truth.”
From bearing the scars of heartbreak on her critically acclaimed debut album The Hurting Scene in 2013, through to the aching depression that imbued her stunning sophomore release Deep Dark Savage Heart in 2016, Melody has continued to put forth vulnerability with raw honesty through her songwriting and live performances. Never shying away from wading in the darkest depths, she consistently shows audiences around Australia how freely one can lay their soul bare.
Following the release tour for Deep Dark Savage Heart, in 2017 Melody shared a more literal account of her experiences when she featured on ABC Television’s Australian Story. At that time, she announced she would take a break from music to focus on rehabilitating her mental health.
A few years ago, with her life and music partner Christopher Dale, she began performing live again and looked for ways to record her growing list of new compositions that dealt with the subjects of resurgence and empowerment, as well as exploring a more peaceful approach to music and existence. Self-producing in a pared-back acoustic folk style, Melody and Chris emerged with the six songs on Lost In Time as a prelude to a planned album release, which will include even more new songs, later in 2023.
The critical acclaim for Melody’s previous releases included Iain Shedden in The Australian proclaiming The Hurting Scene to be 2013’s Album of the Year, calling it “one of the most accomplished debuts by an Australian singer-songwriter for many years”. The Herald Sun’s Cameron Adams described Melody’s music as “beautiful and passionate but not dumbed-down for easy digestion”, while Rolling Stone listed it as one of the 50 Best Albums of 2013, stating, “Pool’s voice is sublime, her lyrics propelled by heartache”.
She has been compared to Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, opened for the Eagles on their 2015 Australian tour and recorded in Nashville, but with Lost In Time, Melody has returned to her roots, making music for herself, on her own terms, in her own time.
The single “Lost In Time” was released in December 2022. The six-track EP will be released on 17th February 2023 and Melody’s new tour begins in Maitland on 8th March, with shows around NSW, QLD and VIC.
Australian Story – Melody Pool
Tour Dates:
March 8 Maitland/Wonnarua – Grand Junction Hotel
March 17 Coffs Harbour – Archive
March 19 Brisbane/Yuggera – Junk Bar
April 1 Melbourne/Wurundjeri – Chapel Off Chapel
April 2 Albury/Wiradjuri – 2 Fingers
April 13 Sydney/Gadigal – Camelot Lounge
April 15 Canberra/Ngunnawal – Smiths Alternative
April 21 Adelaide/Kaurna – Trinity Sessions
For tickets and music visit melodypool.com.au