Australia's Middle Kids released their second record in March, Today We're the Greatest, and it's our Album of the week. Frontwoman Hannah Joy talked to Maddie about the themes of reflection and space on the record, writing on the road in America, and recording in a studio for the first time.
Watch the full interview, including performances of tracks from the album below.
Interview Highlights
You mentioned that there's so many lyrics on this album that are so vulnerable and so personal. Is that something that comes naturally to you in songwriting? Or is it a challenge to put yourself out there with your music?
It is a challenge. In some ways, when I write music a lot of it is quite subconscious, or just is whatever flows out. Probably a lot of that was due to being pregnant and writing and being in a certain place, feeling quite reflective like, "What is life? I'm about to have a child, I need to figure it out." I'm generally striving to be more vulnerable as a person, and that always infiltrates your art. I think there is a beautiful relationship with your own personal journey, and then how that comes out. I think that's been probably a natural flow from there. Yeah, absolutely.
The title of this album is Today We're the Greatest and that's that last track, which is a pretty big number--very emotional track on the album, how did you decide on that as the title for the album? What does that represent for you?
Well, we liked that as a cool proclamation, especially because the record finishes with that. I think that song really embodies a lot of what we sing about and what we try to explore as a band. Mainly being, like, how can we live well, and in this song, a lot of it's about living our small little lives and showing up and being present, and doing the boring everyday things, but also, like, you get the magical, beautiful things. Then there's also the lonely grief-ridden things. And that's life, that's all of that. A great life is when you can be present and live all of that. It was cool to kind of shape the record around that.