Mitch: Your debut album, Love Is A Dog, just came out on 16 October. Do you mind sharing a bit about the album and the themes that can be found throughout?
Margo: It was mostly written from a place of shedding. Shedding expectations I’d absorbed that weren’t my own, shedding traumas or memories of events I was holding onto too tightly. This might sound dramatic, but I think I was standing at the finish line of what had felt like girlhood, trying to work out what I wanted to take into adulthood with me. The record speaks a lot to the different personas and protective masks we subconsciously adopt to fit in, or survive, and how they ultimately stop serving us.
Mitch: What do you hope people feel while listening?
Margo: That it’s normal to hurt, and ok to let go.
Mitch: If the album was turned into a movie, what would the plot be? What would the movie look and feel like?
Margo: The protagonist moves cities, unsure if they’re trying to find themselves or running away. They fall into a toxic relationship with someone who turns out not to be who they seemed, and by the time they realise, they’ve already fallen too far into the wrong crowd and completely lost their sense of self. Then they find out their mum is terminally ill and have to move back to the country to be with her. They feel like they’re losing their fighting chance at chasing their dreams, but know it’s what they have to do. There are no neat endings; life is nothing but a series of letting go.
It would be dialogue-dense and chaotic in every scene, but the plot itself would be slow to unfold, so you’re constantly disoriented. In the end, nothing much happens except their own internal reckoning.
Mitch: What’s your favourite memory from making the album?
Margo: Oh, this is hard. Honestly, I think listening back to each day’s bounces on the train back to the Airbnb in Lyon each night! It was wild hearing each song come to life across 12 hours of work.
Mitch: Without using any genres, how would you describe the sound and style of the album?
Margo: The kind of record that could score a film. A deliciously sad film.
Mitch: What’s the best way for people to support you and the album?
Margo: By sharing your favourite song with someone else you know might like it, and by keeping an eye on upcoming shows! I’ve got a beautiful launch event planned next month at High Note in Northcote, which will include readings from Naarm-based writers and poets, before the band and I play the 11 track album in full, from start to finish. Come to that!
Mitch: What’s one thing you’d love to manifest for your career over the next 12 months?
Margo: I love playing live, and have never headlined overseas. There’s a bit of love coming from Japan so would love to do a run of shows over there! The band and I opened for Floodlights in Berlin a little while back, and they were also an amazing audience. So from Tokyo to Berlin ha!
Mitch: Who are some emerging AUS/NZ musicians that people should get behind?
Margo: So many! I’m loving Dumbhead, Uberwench, Lara, Milly Strange, Indigo King, Winten, Juice Webster, Acacia Pip!
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS!!
Mitch: Favourite track from the album?
Margo: Love Is A Dog
Mitch: Favourite lyric from the album?
Margo: “Tried being stoic and ended a clown, ‘less the colourful face, Grace”
Mitch: Describe the album using 3 emojis.
Margo: 🦢♠️🪡
Mitch: Finish the sentence! Margo Mann is for fans of...
Margo: Thinking about your feelings instead of feeling them, and then crying to this record on a long aimless drive.