Mel Parsons performs her brand-new song 'Be Here Now' for the first time
The Lyttelton singer swings by Music 101 to play live versions of two fresh songs.
After releasing her acclaimed 2024 album Sabotage , Mel Parsons had the "huge buzz" of supporting Crowded House last November.
On a break from her current Australasian tour of small, intimate venues, she and her band perform 'Brick by Brick' and the brand-new song 'Be Here Now'.
“There's something nice about playing [songs] a little bit before they come out, and just kind of letting them settle in and find their way," she tells Kara Rickard.
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While touring with Crowded House Parsons recorded the music video for 'Post High Slide' - a new song about the comedown after a tour.
The "massive adrenaline shot" from playing to thousands of people every night on that tour was the highest of the highs, Parsons says, but afterwards she didn't "slump" into a post-tour blues "scenario" like she used to.
“I'm quoting my own lyrics here, but I know that it's coming. I know that I'm gonna have little flat patches. I think if you can expect that, then it takes the edge off it a little bit.”
Watch the music video for 'Post High Slide':
Studying Crowded House from the side of the stage night after night was a masterclass in musicianship, Parsons says, and also respecting an audience.
You can feel it when you're at a gig and the band is just phoning it in, she says, but that was never the case with Neil Finn and his band.
“Neil's been touring forever, but he just had such genuine joy with every crowd every night.”
Mel Parsons is joined on the Post High Slide tour by her cousin Jed Parsons - a Christchurch indie-pop musician who later this month releases his debut kids' album Silly Songs For Silly Sausages (as Jeff Parsips).
Mel Parsons live at RNZ:
