With an impressive resume of singing with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra and performing with the likes of Martin Phillips (The Chills), Shayne P Carter (Straightjacket Fits), Nadia Reid and Anthonie Tonnon,  Molly Devine is definitely one to watch for.

Darryl Baser from Muzic.net.nz recently spoke to Molly about her new single Wanderer and what the future holds.

Firstly, where does inspiration for the words to Wanderer come from?

I was thinking about my relationship with my heart and how it reminded me of some romantic relationships I’ve been in where you feel this unexplained distance, like you miss them even when they are in the same room. When I was alone during lockdown I felt so in love with the easefulness and simplicity of how I was living, but I knew that love was easy to forget.

It's the first you've produced from scratch after a few years of working with producers, what's prompted that?

I was just locked in my studio with all my gear talking to my music students on Zoom about how they are capable to produce their own music and they should go for it, then I just heard what I was saying I guess! I was quite clear at first that I didn’t want to release any of it, I just wanted to create it. When you work as a musician everyone is telling you to wait all the time, the mantra is “wait till it’s perfect, you want to put your best foot forward, etc etc” which makes sense, but I did feel like I was living in a constant state of unreadiness and not enough-ness which was… just not very exciting! There is a lot of pressure to be flawless, or to craft some sort of guru status… I had a moment of clarity where I realised I’m just a human who likes creating music, so I found the most sustainable and exciting way to go about it, which was just sitting down and doing it myself.

Musically it's a lot more downbeat than your previous releases, how come?

It was just what came out at that moment in time I suppose. I was lock downed by myself at first waiting for my boyfriend to get out of quarantine and everything was so quiet that it just made sense. When I write a song I like to visualise it and then recreate it from the image inside my head and that was what I was seeing.

Now that guitar part from Jayendra Birchall, damn that's good, how did that come about?

I met Jay in America a few years back I was so enchanted by his beautiful guitar playing. We were like “we should collab some time!” and then he went back to Australia and I went back to NZ and we got busy… we we’re like “we should do that soon!” and it just never happened. During lockdown Jay finally managed to get us together on a software called NinJam where you set up sessions and Jam with people live all over the world. We were jamming with Italy, and Brazil, and Canada… everywhere! It inspired me to send Wanderer to him and he sent back the beautiful guitar part which quickly became the base for the track.

For the musically less educated, or tech savvy, can you explain how Ninjam works?

Honestly I don’t know… Jay is amazing he was sending me all this stuff… we had many technical issues but he magically fixed them! I understand music gear but when the internet comes in to it my eyes start to cross! It was complicated but definitely worth it, everyone should try it!

I've gotta know, just how many of your vocal tracks are on the recording?

9 for the lead vocal and doubles and the rest are backing vocals and a pad I made out of "oohs."

Is this song a hint of what we can expect from you musically, or just a leaning towards more of a ballad?

I think yes, the next few songs will be similar. This it’s definitely the most relaxed of all of them, the next few have drums!

How has Covid 19 Lockdown [at its various levels] affected your music?

It’s hard to say because I feel like it is still all unfolding. I feel like there is so much healing to still do, it will be interesting to see how art and music fit in to that.

So the single is out on September 25, how's the album or EP coming along?

Good, I think I’m just going to release a single every 6-8 weeks for a while, maybe do a LP or an EP someday but I quite like the idea of just releasing them as they are finished.

Photo Credits: Main Image: Petra Zoe. Final Image: Nik Brinkman.

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  LOST BiRD @ Space Academy, Christchurch - 15/12/2024
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  The Phoenix Foundation @ Meow Nui, Wellington - 14/12/2024

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