Missy Higgins, who hails from Melbourne, Australia, released her debut, The Sound of White, in her native country last fall and earlier this month in the U.S. Now, in my accompanying review for Earvolution that was published several days ago, I gave The Sound of White three-and-a-half stars. That’s hardly a shabby rating. But within a week's time, and after giving her CD many more listens, I have changed my mind: I'm now going to give it four stars. Unfortunately, upper management at Earvolution has duly informed me that, owing to the technological eccentricities related to revising articles and reviews that are simultaneously and irretrievably sent out elsewhere into the world (apparently we are still living in the Stone Age of Internet news feeds — through no fault of Earvolution of course), the original rating coinciding with last week's review will have to remain.

So permit me to revise my position by way of words, not stars. To recap: last week, when I was a cement head, I mistakenly thought that The Sound of White was very good. This week, now that I'm a week older and that much wiser, I now think — no, insist — that The Sound of White is great, possibly bordering on tremendous. And so with that mea culpa out of the way, let's go to the interview. Missy Higgins spoke to me from Woodstock, New York, one night before her terrific performance at the Mercury Lounge in downtown New York City.

Given that you're probably a new name to most Americans, let me start with an obvious first question. Who do you see as your predominant influences long before you started writing songs?

I don't think I have predominant influences really but I did listen to a lot of jazz in my early teens.

Yes, I was going to ask you about that. I hear a lot of jazz inflections in your music.

My brother is seven years older than me, and when I was 13 he was in jazz band. When he heard me sing he got me to sing in his band with him on the weekends. So he got me into all sorts of people like Billie Holiday, Natalie Cole, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Sara Vaughan. So I really got into all the classics. And when I was in high school I studied jazz.

I recently saw an interesting interview with Aimee Mann where she talked about influences such as Rod Stewart and Neil Young, people I don't normally associate with her music. So it's interesting that you mention people that I get wisps of but don't necessarily seem to be strong influences.

I think I get wisps of inspiration from many people. Definitely with certain songs of mine I can hear a bit of Aimee Mann or Sarah McLachlan or I can hear the Fiona Apple influence. I can hear the Gillian Welch influence. I also listen to people like Radiohead and the Doves.

You're all over the map!

Exactly. I listen to several styles of music.

Any Beethoven in there?

No, but my Dad was always playing classical piano in the house.



I love your lyrics. I love that word "scrupulous." When I saw the lyric sheet I thought, let's see what she does with this, and it was great. I'm going to assume that with your love of poetry you must be a voracious reader as well. Am I right?

I go in and out of phases. Usually when I'm in a relationship I don’t read much because I'm usually more occupied when I'm involved with someone.

I think that applies to all of us. But do you have any favorite books?

"Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. And then there's "The Godfather." Ben Elton is another one. "Dead Famous" is one of my favorites.

I like that many of your songs seem less about standard love songs and more about searching for emotional intimacy. On a related point, in one of your other interviews you talked about looking for the meaning of life when you were about 12. You implied that not many kids are that introspective at the age. Where do you suppose such introspection came for you?

I had a lot of insecurities as a child. I know that most people go in and out of such phases, but for me I had a lot of dark stages when I was young. And not for any logical reason I can think of because I had one of the happiest upbringings you could have. My family is so happy, stable and secure.

Sometimes such insecurities can be great for an artist.

Yeah, another theme that runs through my songs is this a feeling of a kind of detachment, which has been a theme throughout my life. It's also like you said a yearning for a sense of emotional intimacy and an awareness of real emptiness and loss.

You mentioned that words generally come to you first and that the music comes second. But do you find, now that you've done your first record, that music comes first or is it always a mixture?

It's always a mixture actually. I usually write songs by playing my instrument alone and sometimes words pop into my head and then the song grows from there.

When you work on your songs, do you arrive at the studio with ideas for arrangements or is it a case of ideas being knocked around in the studio?

The thing is, when I went into the studio, I had never played any of my songs with a band before. I had always been a solo artist. So I went into the studio not having a clue as to what the instrumentation might be like. So I got into the studio with some really great studio musicians and we just played through the songs with everyone just feeling their own way through them. I wanted this to be an organic experience. I didn't want to tell people what to do. I've learned a lot about what I do want instrumentally on my songs, and I've been playing with a band ever since I've recorded the album. For the next album I'm going to have more ideas about what I will want for my songs.

In an earlier interview you talked about how some musicians can burn out easily. Do you find that these people might be overwhelmed by the music business or that they may not be prolific writers and can't keep up with the demand by labels?

I think for most of them it's probably mismanagement. I think a manager has a lot to do with how an artist is presented and marketed. Sometimes a record company pastes an image on people and skews them in a certain direction, and then puts them in every possible thing they could be in, Pepsi ads and things like that. It's just inevitable that the artist is going to lose touch of the reality of why they started writing music in the first place and why they became a musician and that’s because they loved it. I just think the best thing is to have the people who are around you, the record company and the management, to have faith in you as an artist and work with you rather than to steer you in their direction.

You seem to have an idea of where you would like to see your career go. Elsewhere you've spoken of wanting to look back 20 years from now at a great and satisfying career. Do you look on at people like Joni Mitchell or Bonnie Raitt and see them as people to emulate in terms of having a long and thriving career?

I really respect people like them who haven't jeopardized the little girl inside them or their dignity. They seemed to have gone their own way.

And they have navigated the shoals of the industry.

Exactly. It's so easy to follow because everyone around you is telling you that they know more about the industry than you do. So yeah, I've always respected people who never put their integrity on the line.

So I guess we won't be seeing a Pepsi commercial from you anytime soon.

[Laughs] I doubt it.

(images from MissyHiggins.com)