Missy Higgins is a singer/songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. Her music is unadorned and unforgettable.
Missy started singing in her early teens; lying about her age to get into local bars and play with her brother's jazz combo. She was thrust into the limelight in her homeland when she won a demo competition conducted by the national alternative broadcaster, Triple J. Although she was still at high school, her song "All For Believing" quickly became one of the station's most requested tracks of 2001.
Many music industry types urged Missy to capitalize on this national radio exposure by quickly releasing a CD. However, she wanted more time to grow as a songwriter and performer so instead of rushing into a recording studio she chose to spend the following year backpacking across Europe and writing lots more music.
While she was off doing that, a live recording she'd made for Triple J found it's way to Los Angeles tastemaker radio station KCRW and they started playing it. Many U.S. labels responded to the sound of her unique voice wrapping itself around her emotive lyrics. Even though she had spent 2002 trekking around youth hostels, by the end of that year she had landed an international deal with Warner Bros Records.
In 2003, Missy was invited to do Australian tours supporting popular local live artists, the Waifs and George. She also released a critically acclaimed, self titled, EP that spent nine months around the top of the national independent charts. The lead track from that EP - "Greed For Your Love" - was voted one of the Hottest 100 songs of the year by the listeners of Triple J.
The song's success was a vindication of her decision to go backpacking. It had been written during her European trek shortly before she lost her guitar on a train in Spain.
In early 2004 Missy spent several months recording in the U.S. with producer, John Porter (The Smiths, Ryan Adams, Los Lonely Boys) and mixer Jay Newland (Norah Jones). The first song to be lifted from these sessions was "Scar". Needless to say, it was the lead track on "The Scar EP" that was released in Australia on August 2 around a national tour supporting local roots music legend John Butler.
"It's basically a song about people's need to pigeonhole things in order to process them", explains Missy. "It's about rebelling from the easy path of just going along with everybody else and trying not to stand out. It's also about realizing you've trusted the wrong people and finding a way to benefit from the scars they've left behind."
"The Scar EP" debuted at #1 on the Australian singles charts and is now certified platinum. The title track notched up ten weeks at #1 on the airplay charts and became the most played song on Australian radio for 2004. "Scar" led to Missy receiving an ARIA Award (Australia's Grammys) plus nominations for Best Female Artist and Single Of The Year.
Missy's memorable debut album "The Sound Of White" was released in early September. In an extraordinary achievement for a new artist, the album also debuted at #1 and has since spent five weeks in that chart position. It is already certified quadruple platinum.
"The Sound Of White" opens with the first song Missy ever wrote - "All For Believing". It then weaves its way through twelve other pieces including the stark beauty of piano ballads like "Nightminds", "Any Day Now", "They Weren't There" and "The Sound Of White".
Also on display are a few of Missy's acoustic guitar driven songs, including the live favourites "Don't Ever" and "Ten Days". With their lyrical focus on distance and desire, these stripped back tracks have clearly been inspired by all of the traveling Missy has done over recent years.
Elsewhere, "Casualty" and "This Is How It Goes" reflect her jazz background while "Katie", "The River" and "The Special Two" typify the darker lyrical outlook that creeps into the second half of the album.
The thread that binds all of this material together is Missy's direct lyrical approach; she has an undeniable knack for penning piercingly sincere songs. When this is matched with the album's no frills' instrumentation it's a powerful combination pure and simple. Given all this, the album title is obviously apt.
Her phenomenal Australian success is proof that people respond to seeing Missy perform live. With this in mind Missy has already played several shows in London and Los Angeles including dates supporting the Finn Brothers. She is playing more US and UK dates - including South By Southwest - during February and March. Thereafter she will spend most of 2005 touring North America and Europe to coincide with the international release of "The Sound Of White".
"The first thing that usually draws me to a songwriter is their lyrics and the next most important thing is their live performances", Missy explains. "That's why I love artists like Aimee Mann - they write amazing lyrics and then when they play them onstage the experience is unforgettable".
