Shaped by an intrinsic connection to nature, Australian singer-songwriter Maddy Jane’s freshly released EP ‘Clear as Mud Pt.1’ takes a profound journey through self-discovery and feminine rage, while navigating the ebbs and flows of life post heartbreak.
Having already cultivated a dedicated fan base throughout her musical career, Maddy Jane’s highly anticipated new EP is an ambitious project, offering deeply personal insights into the artist’s psyche.
To mark the release of Clear as Mud Pt 1, Marx Music sat down with Maddy Jane for an intimate conversation about the creative intentions embedded within her music, nature as an influence and mystical modern day femininity.
MARX MUSIC: Maddy, congratulations on your brand new body of work, Clear as Mud Pt 1, the first piece of a larger project. What thoughts are going through your mind ahead of its release?
MADDY JANE: It definitely hits you! All the work and the journey to get here, it kind of comes back to you and you're like, "Oh, okay. This really means a lot to me" and I hope it can also mean a lot to other people.
When questioned on her personal pick from the six-track EP, which features fan favourites including popular Thylacine and anthemic A Woman is a Woman, Maddy’s heart lies within one of the collection’s quieter moments.
MADDY: A Woman is a Woman is a big one for me, but it's always the songs that are not picked as singles, or are somewhat quieter that I love. Dishes in the Sink is actually my favorite.
Adopting a more pensive, softer side, Dishes in the Sink speaks to the unavoidable components in life, delving into the complex emotional landscape of internal struggles and self-acceptance, symbolised in the form of inevitable house chores. The track makes for a robust and beautiful close for the EP.
MADDY: It felt right, that song is the oldest on the EP and I wrote that back in the pandemic when I was living on Bruny Island. It’s based around Winter, and winter in Tasmania is crazy, so it became about all the ebbs and flows of trying to build yourself back up and then the thought processes that come with that. So I think Dishes was really just the encompassing of, and accepting that things come and go. We can work it out in the end, but you know there's always going to be dishes in the sink.
Moving from the end, to the beginning of the collection, Clear as Mud Pt 1 opens with a deep dive into the steep learning curve that was the artist’s first queer relationship, as she unpacks the complexities of trauma bonds, shared pains and distinguishing genuine affection from these areas.
MM: It Can’t Be Heartbreak If It’s Not Love, the opening track on the EP, has a very poignant title and the song naturally mirrors this theme. Can you just give me a bit of a deep dive into what that song means for you and how that was birthed into the world?
MADDY: It came from my first queer relationship - which always hits you really hard and I feel like I lived a stereotype there, as much as I didn't want to. It was the realization of toxic relationships and how trauma can come into relationships and love, trauma bonds and dependency and all these things that we do as humans when you know we're not in the right place. It became a realization that you know love is different to just bonding with someone and feeling really connected to them. The point of It Can’t Be Heartbreak If It’s Not Love is trying to kind of deny my feelings. I can't be heartbroken if it wasn't love, but it was the avoidant in me as well.
Moving through soundscapes, the EP's second track, A Woman Is A Woman, released earlier this year, has found a home within fans as an anthem of bravery, speaking out, curiosity and feminine rage. A return to a grittier sound in which Maddy is known for, this track speaks to the importance of celebrating women and pushing the boundaries of societal constraints and acceptances.
MM: This song is such a testament to I can, so I will. The lyrics where you say “I climbed up the cliff face, just to look below” or then you sing “I burned all the bridges that I know I should have crossed,” I feel like you're really diving into reclaimed femininity there. I don't mean femininity in the sense where people think of softness, not pink and frills and all that, but it's that bravery and that innate curiosity that I think all women have; that fierceness. What was your intention with this song?
MADDY: I mean, exactly that. I'm really glad that that came across for you. I think coming out as queer played a part in that I was able to accept myself and then also let go of a lot of constructs. The intention of that song is really to be empowering. I've always been an outspoken, kind of loud woman and have always kind of struggled with that, in feeling like I shouldn't be. Then I realised I'd had enough and feminine rage is very important!
This song, it’s not just for women. It’s for anyone who’s felt ‘othered’, people of minorities, anyone who’s not a straight white man. That’s who it’s for.
An unexpected twist on the EP is A Woman Is A Woman Pt 2, in which Maddy undertakes an ambitious spoken-word piece which expands on its predecessor, delving into a defiant and almost mystical terrain. Birthed from a poem drafted in studio and layered with instrumentals nodding at Steve Nicks, the EP’s midpoint draws from a deep creative well within the artist.
MADDY: It’s the first time I've ever done any kind of spoken-word thing. I could have gotten really insecure. There’s this witchy aspect to the whole thing, writing can feel like a spell sometimes. Songs have come through me that I didn’t even understand until months later. It’s like I was channeling something.
One of the most prominent themes throughout the entire EP, is Maddy’s innate connection to nature, referencing cliff faces, the windswept shores of Bruny Island and blistering winter winds. While song June reflects on the impacts of external factors and seasons' affects on people, even the EP’s title Clear as Mud, pulls on a nature based idiom.
MM: We’ve spoken about the influences through your life that have shaped your music and there’s a lot of nature threaded throughout your lyrics, can you please explain the impact nature has on you and your writing?
MADDY: Being small girl from Bruny Island, your life revolves around the land. It's very fierce and unforgiving, and smacks you in the face kind of thing. It’s always been a massive part of my growing up.
MM: I do feel like there's been this real shift in probably more recent years where I think that a lot of people are getting more in touch with being outdoors and being in nature, but also, referencing some of your videos where you're harnessing this energy around the fire and it's almost got that very mystical kind of element to it. I'm just wondering if you've also sort of noticed that shift as well, of people sort of channeling that different kind of side of life where it is that more mystical and whimsical approach to the everyday.
MADDY: Yeah I think that comes with being in touch with nature or respecting the land and history and having room in your brain for creativity and spirituality. But yeah, I think that was also an an aspect of this EP as well was like the last few years really coming to terms with the fact that I'm a bit of a witch and my intuition is on point and if you if you really lean into that that like, wow, there's um there's answers and things and guidance everywhere. That's a big part of A Woman Is A Woman in general, it comes into feminism and being a female, of why witches were even burnt at the stake in the first place. Because they were scared of the power of women.
MM: Yeah, absolutely. But the track is also very logical in the placement strategy within the track list as it draws the listener back in, with the change in soundscapes. Have you ever written a song that felt more like it was a bit of a spell or a ritual for you rather than like just a story, in the sense it was so cathartic it kind of just felt like a complete release, or something having come to life.
MADDY: Writing has always been like a therapeutic thing for me, I can't not do it. That's the whole point in the end that it is quite a magical thing.
MM: This EP, if you were able to package it up, as a bit of a message in a bottle and cast it into the ocean, who would you be hoping would find it? What would you want their key takeaway to be after listening?
MADDY: Well, I mean, you can hope that you can give it to a straight white man in power and they might get some perspective. But I don't have a whole lot of hope there, but I guess it's for anyone who wants to feel understood or connected. That's another reason why I even write music, it's this longing for trying to feel understood or to relate. It’s for anyone who wants to feel connected, understood and empowered.
Maddy Jane’s freshly released EP is a multi-faceted deep dive into the influences of nature on the psyche, relationships and their complexities and so much more. It’s driving motivator is the empowerment of the listener to take agency and make bold decisions in life, shred societal norms and hold your head high while doing so.
Stream Clear as Mud Pt 1. Below.
