Review’s Isolation Room: Missy Higgins returns with All For Believing
For the final instalment of Isolation Room, Missy Higgins has chosen to perform the song that set in train her career. | WATCH
In late March last year, as we all grappled with the novel uncertainty of the national lockdown, Missy Higgins raided her kids’ dress-up box in search of something a little silly to wear while covering a Beatles classic.
The pop singer-songwriter found some fittingly outlandish attire topped by a bright pink wig, then sat down at her piano to film herself performing a stunning solo version of Let It Be.
“I was in the headspace of, ‘Everyone’s really depressed at the moment – let’s try and bring a little bit of lightness into everyone’s day’,” Higgins told The Weekend Australian.
“I wanted to bring a bit of ridiculousness to it; a bit of fun, and give people a smile, because it was really hard to know what the hell was happening in the world at that time.”
At the end of her performance, Higgins said to the camera, “Sending love to you out there – hang in there.”
Hers was one of two videos that kicked off Review’s Isolation Room series more than 18 months ago, alongside a stirring group performance by Deborah Conway and her family.
The first run of 39 performances ended in May last year, but as residents of Victoria and NSW went into extended lockdowns in July, we decided to reboot the idea.
As before, some of Australia’s greatest musicians answered the encore call and generously lent their talents to entertaining our readers as millions of social lives narrowed yet again under stay-at-home orders.
Offering favourites from their own catalogues or uplifting covers, the 13 performers that appeared in the second season of Isolation Room would make one hell of a music festival line-up.
This second stint offered a superb blend of genres, voices and styles: Dami Im, Archie Roach, Joe Camilleri, Kate Miller-Heidke, James Reyne, Kasey Chambers and Don Walker were among the new additions who brought the total number of performances to 52.
But for the finale, we felt it appropriate to return to Higgins as a truly essential worker whose Isolation Room debut struck a hopeful chord amid the Covid chaos.
“This time, I felt like being a little bit less ridiculous,” she said. “I really miss performing, and I really miss playing shows. Now, I just really want things to get back to normal. I want the music industry to get back on its feet.”
“And I wanted to look a bit nicer,” she said with a laugh. “I mean, I’m still in my dressing gown – but at least it’s a glamorous dressing gown, and I’ve got glamorous earrings on. I wanted to feel a bit special for a change.”
For the final instalment of Isolation Room, Higgins chose to perform the song that set her career – and her life as a popular musician – in train.
From her home in Warrandyte, 24km northeast of Melbourne, Higgins offers a masterly take on All For Believing, which she wrote for a music assignment while studying Year 10 at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop boarding school, aged 15.
“It’s coming up to the 20th anniversary of winning Triple J Unearthed with that song, so I thought it would be an appropriate time to dust it off and bring it back out again,” she said.
“In a way, it’s a bit like looking at my diary from back then and going, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I was feeling that way; I can’t believe I’m the same person that I was back then’,” she said. “But I still feel fondly towards that song because there’s a real innocence to it.”
The depth of musical maturity and emotive lyricism on display in this work would please a songwriter of any age, yet it’s all the more impressive when considering it was one of the very first songs the teenager had composed.
“It was done in a rush because I had not done my homework, so I went into the music school and just knocked it out during recess, before the song was due in the next class,” she recalled with a laugh. “I got a good grade for it, and it turned out to be a really pivotal song to kick off my career.”
All For Believing was the first track on her debut album, 2004’s The Sound of White, which was certified nine times platinum by ARIA indicating sales in excess of 630,000 copies.
As well, it has been a regular fixture in the singer’s live performances, sometimes as an apt opener.
“It’s a bit mysterious, beautiful and gentle, and it feels like a nice way to start the set, by starting with the song that began everything for me,” she said.
“With a gig, you’ve got to have somewhere to go, and I like building it up,” she said. “Most of my songs are band songs, but I’ve got to start it gentle, because that’s a big part of my sound.”
Higgins’s new single Edge of Something was released on Friday, and with lockdowns ending as vaccination rates rise nationally, it won’t be much longer before she shrugs off the dressing gown and strides back onto stage.
Her next concert is with Paul Kelly at Sandstone Point, 52km north of Brisbane, on December 19.
In the new year, Higgins will perform at Lighthouse Festival on the NSW Central Coast (January 29), followed by appearances across the country as part of festivals including Summersalt (February), the all-female Wildflower (March) and Bluesfest (April).
To rewatch our Review’s Isolation Room archive, click here.
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