Music, Pop
On August 29th Molly Devine released her EP titled 'Rain in the River'. Chontalle was lucky enough to get to ask her a few questions about the process and EP itself – check out the interview below.
If you haven't already you should definitely check out the EP on all streaming platforms here!
Q: Hi Molly, congratulations on the release of 'Rain in the River', I read that your wrote the lead single 'Rain' while thinking of a friend, how did react when first listening to the track?
A: Thank you so much! They love it, I'm not sure that they know it's about them but some lines in it are pretty direct so they may well have worked it out … It's also about so many people that I know, including myself in a lot of ways. I find it comforting to remember that I might not be the centre of the universe and actually just a small part of a much greater whole. So many people I love are carrying around an insatiably high expectation of themselves. I love playing it live because it's always the favourite, it's super fun to dance to and people seem to really relate to the chorus.
Q: Collaborating with the likes of Nigel Stanford and Nik Brinkman must have been exciting! How was that creative experience?
A: It was really special. I'd been writing pretty out there, dark indie music prior to meeting them, and they were excellent guides to brightening and refining the sound. It was my first official collaboration and I brought in a whole lot of lyrics. We started with the Sculptor, which was originally a behemoth of a poem that Nik and Nigel gently refined down. I was hooked from day one!
Q: What was the process of the building the track list like for the EP? Was is hard to narrow down the narrative to four tracks?
A: Well actually the EP is only a bite sized nibble of what we've already got in the pipeline. Nik and I have been quite prolific this year and we've got another EP amounts worth pretty much set to go. Rain in the River is just the first 4 tracks we made and we are really happy with them so we've let them go. I write a lot of lyrics, so before going in to the studio I already knew what I wanted to say and I guess that meant the tracks naturally worked cohesively.
Q: What is the general process of songwriting like for you?
A: I love lyrics so ideally I will bring in a solid lyric idea before the music happens. From there my goal is to paint the words with music. I feel like the words already dictate a lot of where the music is going to go. A lot of the process for me involves turning off that part of my head that hates all my ideas. I sometimes go for a walk or meditate or do some dancing to jiggle the "no" voice out of me.
Q: What advice would you give to artist such as yourselves coming up in the scene who are wanting to release their music and collaborate with other artists?
A: Don't take anything personally. You will hear a lot of harsh truths about your music, and the further you progress the harsher they get I find. I always tell people to be "brutally honest", whether I'm sending them a demo or writing a song with them, it's a great way to progress. I try to be really grateful for harsh feedback. Also they might be wrong, people are wrong all the time so try not to dwell on things. If you're afraid of hearing no, I'd recommend working on that because you will likely hear it a lot.
Q: When enjoying the EP what's the number one thing you hope listeners take away?
A: I want them to feel loved and know they are enough right now. 🙂 And also dancing, I'd love for them to turn it up really loud and dance!
Q: Lastly thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! and all best with the release of the EP and we hope to catch you live very soon!!
A: Thank you so much, I'm in the process of lining up some shows so see you there soon 🙂
Chontalle MussonEPFeaturedInterviewMolly DevineRain in the River
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IN REVIEW: Lewis Capaldi @ Town Hall, Auckland