How Grace Tame inspired Missy Higgins’ new album
When creating a new album, musicians find inspiration in all sorts of places.
For Missy Higgins, the inspiration for her mini-album Total Control came from the courageous stories of Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins (no relation!).
In an interview with Double J’s Tim Shiel, the singer-songwriter said she was inspired by the women’s stories of survival, while also drawing inspiration from an ABC drama series.
"During the first season [of ABC’s Total Control series], Grace Tame was standing up and telling her story [in real life]," Higgins explains.
"Then I was watching Deb Mailman's character on the TV show walking into parliament and standing up in front of all these old white dudes and calling out the oppression of her and her people.”
"I just thought 'Wow, there's so many crossovers here'.”
The stories of these powerful women helped Missy Higgins to speak her own truth through her music, while also thinking of her daughter.
She said, "I'm a mum of a three-year-old girl so it brought up all these feelings of like, 'Wow, women have come a long way and we're actually creating a future that I'm excited for my kid to inherit'.”
"This is a world where women are now feeling like they can stand up and tell their truth and people actually will be held accountable. Not as much as in the past do they have to worry about not being believed or losing their job.”
"It's people like Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins who've had enough guts to do that. That must have been so hard, it's their bravery that's really carving that path for everyone else."
One example of how Missy drew inspiration from the series of the same name as her album comes in Total Control’s closing track I Take It Back.
"I wanted to write this song about somebody who's come to a point where they've decided that they're not going to take s*** anymore, basically.”
"'Everything that I've given to you, all the energy, all the power that I've given to you, I'm taking that back. I'm reclaiming my story. I'm reclaiming my power.'"
Image credits: Getty Images