Slave

Moody Beach is the brainchild of Sydney songwriter Melissah Marie. For Marie, music is a way of documenting what’s happening in her life. Preferring to write a song instead of using a camera, Marie weaves her experiences together letting them live their own lives for her listeners. For Marie, the work is about ‘connection’ and through music & performance she tries to serve up some of life’s honesty and complexities.

On that note, if you’ve ever seen Moody Beach perform, you’ll see how she owns her space on stage. “A woman’s body is still a controversial subject,” Marie remarks, “it’s something I consciously tackle through my music, alongside how I behave and what I wear.” Sometimes that’s confronting for people. Marie has been told that it “distracts from [her] music…” a particularly disappointing critique in the middle of the Me Too era. “Mate, I am my music!” Marie responds “I get to decide what that looks like. I’m so done with these ideas of what a woman ‘should be.’” It’s a central part of who she is and through her music she hopes to make a little space for other women identifying and gender fluid people whom feel the same.

This year will see Moody Beach release some highly anticipated new music, culminating in her sophomore EP ‘Mirage.’ Produced by Australian Dean Tuza (Stella Donnelly, The Rubens, Thelma Plum) ‘Mirage’ will be released in September & feature multiple singles as described by Marie: “When it comes to music, I’m not scared to experiment with genres. ‘Mirage’, is a collection of all my favourite sounds. Pop to shoegaze, flamenco to dark-wave - all fitting together in a sonic loop.”

The first taste of ‘Mirage’ is with debut single, ‘Slave’ to be released June 14.

“Slave is about objectification, ownership and agency. It’s a tango of power and control shrouded in dark synth vibes” – Melissah Marie / Moody Beach