Missy Higgins Is 'Letting Go Of That Story' She Had For Herself

Now entering The Second Act—creatively, but also in life—imminent ARIA Hall Of Fame inductee Missy Higgins has established herself as an artist with longevity and no longer feels like she has to “get anyone's approval” or prove herself.

In March 2023, Missy Higgins shared a tattoo appreciation post on Insta. Her new ink immortalised Wonder Woman – “a symbol of inner strength, independence and self-love,” according to the caption.

Missy’s confessional post also referenced the breakdown of her marriage, which informed The Second Act – her forthcoming sixth record – as well: “I still find myself winded with sadness and disappointment that somehow I wasn’t able to make my marriage work. Like it was something I just should’ve tried harder at. Like it was my fault. I’m bored with that narrative, and I want to move on.”

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So, has Missy added any more fresh ink to keep Wonder Woman company? “Yeah, I got a love heart with my kids’ initials in it, and we all got matching tour tats.”

Higgins leans closer to the camera while rolling up a sleeve and then rotates her arm so I can have a proper squiz at the design, just above her elbow, while explaining, “So we all got scars.” It’s a visual depiction of a scar – a straight line broken up by four neat, evenly dispersed ‘stitch’ marks – rather than the word itself, which also represents Missy’s chart-topping smash hit debut single from 2004’s The Sound Of White album.

“We all got tattoos in Darwin ‘cause it’s just been such an epic tour, and we’ve all become so close,” she continues. “I mean, we were very close before, but we just wanted to mark the occasion. Because nothing like this is ever going to happen again, really: the 20-year anniversary of my first album and my new album kind of colliding. It’s just been such a huge, beautiful experience.”

Missy’s 12x Platinum-certified debut record, The Sound Of White, was released exactly 20 years ago on 6 September, which is also the release date of The Second Act.

When asked to share a “standout moment” from The Sound Of White’s ongoing 20th Anniversary tour to date, Higgins offers: “There was one show in Brisbane where I played The Sound Of White, which is a song about my cousin who passed away when he was quite young.

“Everybody in the audience put up their phones with the lights on and started waving them around. No other [audiences] had done that before, and I was so overcome with emotion because I’d told the whole story about how he passed away and how difficult it was and how I had coped with it by going and sitting in the little school chapel to talk to him in my mind. And it felt like everybody who was waving around these lights was kind of inviting their own lost loved ones to join us in the room.

“So, it felt like all these beautiful little spirits in the air, and it was really, really powerful… And then, when the set finished, I just burst into tears, and my whole band held me, and we all cuddled on stage.

“Then we played the ICC in Sydney the next night, which is a huge venue, and everybody did it again! And it was just gorgeous – a really special moment.”

So, did crowd members raise their smartphone torches unprompted? “Yeah.” How incredible! “I know.” It must’ve felt like her cousin was in the house, then. “It really did,” Higgins smiles, savouring this recollection. “And it was a long time ago that it happened, so, yeah! It's amazing that emotions can still be held in you after so long.”

Higgins recently performed The Sound Of White’s title track at the Logies during the In Memoriam section, which was moving beyond belief.

“Before I started this tour, I don't think I had any idea of the impact that The Sound Of White had on people, and just to see how many people came to the shows and how many people still wanted to hear that album…” Missy trails off, letting it sink in, before adding, “Then other singer-songwriters have reached out and told me how much that album meant to them.”

Angie McMahon, a loud and proud Missy fan, recently joined her onstage at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre to perform Where I Stood. And while Missy was Double J’s Artist In Residence earlier this year, she brought Angie in for a chat, revealing that one of the songs from Light, Dark, Light Again – Angie’s brilliant second album – inspired a The Second Act track.

When asked which song she was referring to, Missy enlightens, “It was The In-Between. I can't remember which song of hers it was, maybe Exploding, but she's got quite a few songs on the album that have really driving guitars, like, really quick strumming. I listened to her album a lot and I was towards the end of writing for the album, and I was so inspired by that – it's really emotive.

“A lot of her songs have got this kind of four-on-the-floor beat and driving guitars, but also these beautiful, delicate vocals. It feels hopeful, I think – like things are moving forward and progressing, and there’s potentially really exciting things up ahead.

“And, yeah, [rather than a] specific melody or chord structure, I was more inspired by the feel, the vibe that I was going for. It wasn't very conscious, but as I was writing it, I was like, ‘Wow, this feels like an Angie song!’ Which makes sense, ‘cause I'd been listening to her album a lot.”

Now more than two decades into her career, Missy acknowledges that her own second act looks starkly different from the one she’d imagined. “After my separation, it took me a long time to be able to write,” she reflects, “because it was just all too painful. But after a year, I decided – well, I didn't decide; I just found myself feeling like I was kind of ready. And so I sat down and, I mean, the beginning of the process was pretty raw and emotional; I was just crying into my piano.

“I sang the phrase, ‘It was never meant to be like this,’ over and over and over again, because that's the first line of the first song I wrote, which is called Story For The Ages, and I just sung that line and cried,” she trails off laughing as if her mind’s eye conjured a cringey visual. “Then I slowly made my way into the rest of the song. It took me many weeks to write that song, and then I kind of sat with that for a long time, and then I felt ready to write again – from a different perspective, about something else that I was trying to tackle. So, yeah! It was all a really, really huge part of the healing process for me.”

When asked whether she’s ever written a song that feels way too personal to share, she doesn’t hesitate, “Um, no. That's never happened,” she admits with a chuckle. “And I think the whole idea with my songs is that I don't hold anything back… I think the power of my songs is that I am really vulnerable and honest, and sometimes that means saying not the most flattering things about myself or revealing not the most flattering perspective that I have.

“I think at the time, part of me was like, ‘Maybe I should be writing a song that gives advice to people who are in my position or maybe provide some answers to people who are going through something, and let them know that they're strong and they can stand on their own two feet, and give them that powerful single woman's perspective.’ But I wasn't there, you know? Like, I couldn't write an empowering album ‘cause I didn't feel empowered most of the time.

“I felt like I was really in the middle of this big, heavy mess, and all I could do was write from that space and hope that by writing about it, it got me out of it. And I think that that's probably why the songs ended up being as intense and powerful as they are because I didn't really hold anything back, and it's just all very honest.”

A clear fave when previewed during her sold-out national tour, A Complicated Truth was written for Missy’s daughter Luna (then aged five).

“I wrote that for my daughter in particular ‘cause she was the one that was asking all the questions. She's younger, and I think [she's] just a little bit more confused about it, maybe... She is a very curious little kid, but as far as certain topics are concerned, she will kind of store away the questions and ask them in the future when she's sat on them for a while and really thought about it.

“The song was more written for her to listen to when she's a bit older and able to understand that it was a really complicated thing and that love – when you're a grown-up – is pretty complex. And that we tried our best, and that's all we could do, and that, ultimately, we're just human. I think kids have to get pretty old before they realise their parents are human,” she considers with a laugh.

“It's only recently that I've started to really understand what my parents sacrificed for us kids and just the extent of their love for us, as well. I understand now that you would do absolutely anything for your kids. My parents still say to me, ‘You never stop being parents,’ and it's true in their case – they help me out so much. Without them, I wouldn't have a career, really.”

Her new record’s heartbreaking closing track, Blue Velvet Dress, transports us back to New Year’s Eve, 2021. Just before performing at the Sydney Opera House forecourt as part of the ABC’s live coverage, Missy realised her marriage was unsalvageable.

We can actually picture the gorgeous titular dress and hope Missy can still bring herself to wear it despite the painful memories attached to it. “I still really love that dress, and I still wear it all the time,” she reassures. “It's more that the dress is a metaphor for the relationship and my old identity and letting go of that story that I had for myself, which was really, really hard to do.

“The Second Act, the song, is about letting go of that sense of burden and responsibility, as a woman, to be the one that holds everyone together, you know? I feel like we put such high expectations on ourselves to make a relationship work or to keep things together – and keep the whole family happy and keep everybody happy and managed – and it's just too much.

“Then, when things fall apart, we just feel like absolute failures. And, I mean, I know men obviously get that, too – when a marriage doesn't work out – but I feel like women, especially for their kids' sake, feel a lot of responsibility to keep things ‘happy families’, and if things don't pan out how they envisaged initially it's like this huge sense of, ‘Oh, I wasn't able to do the thing that our culture tells us is what equals success, at what looks like a successful life’.”

Multi-layered female backing vocal harmonies have become an important presence in Missy’s work of late, including her previous release, Total Control: a 2022 mini-album containing songs she composed for the biting ABC TV political drama series of the same name.

“I've been adding more and more female harmonies to my songs in the last few years,” Missy confirms. “And it really helps touring with the ladies [Elana Stone, Sarah Belkner and Zoe Hauptmann on BVs], too, ‘cause I know that the songs will transfer really well to the live show.

“I tend to record my vocals myself at home and I do all my own harmonies. And I love harmonising; I've always had a real ear for it because I grew up harmonising with my brother and sister.

“When I started out, I was really underconfident for a pretty long time and felt pretty insecure in the industry. I didn't really know my place, and I felt like I had to prove myself for a really long time.

“I think I've only just gotten to a place where I don't feel like I have to prove myself anymore, which is a really nice place to be. And now I feel like I've established myself as an artist with longevity, and that's a bit of a relief, to be honest. Because I think when you get older, you just feel a little bit less like you have to prove yourself in general or that you have to impress anyone.

“I don't actually feel like I have to get anyone's approval for anything anymore, which is very freeing as far as creating art goes.

“There’s endless possibilities now, really. I mean, I was under the illusion, before, that I knew what the future would hold,” she admits, with a resigned laugh. “But now I am not under any illusion, so it's a good chance to surrender to that unknown.

“Still, in our culture, there's a slow invisibility that starts to happen to women once they get a bit older, whereas guys are kind of deemed to be ageless, in a sense. But I do feel like that's changing. I do feel like there's so many non-male, younger singers and musicians that are totally dominating the music industry at the moment. I have a lot of hope for the future that they're gonna still keep telling their stories well into their 40s and make sure that they stay relevant.

“I think post-MeToo movement; there's this new strength that we have to not take any bullshit anymore and to assert our importance as equal to men's. And I think a lot of us have this feeling now that we need to be super-loud with our stories because they haven't been deemed as palatable as men have over the years, and it's time that we all had our stories heard.”

Missy Higgins’ new album, The Second Act, will be released on Friday, 6 September, via Eleven/EMI Music Australia. You can pre-order the album here and catch her on the following tour dates: