Missy Higgins tour marks album’s 20th anniversary

SIX-time ARIA Award Winner, Missy Higgins, will soon go forth on her first solo tour in several years celebrating the twentieth anniversary of her debut album, The Sound of White. 

Set to hit the road next March, Higgins said The Second Act Tour will be the first in which she will play the album in its entirety. 

“I’m really excited,” she said. “I love playing theatre shows and I love playing to my own fans. 

“It’s very different from playing festivals, because you never know how many of your actual fans are in the audience.” 

Higgins said the show will be in two halves, the first will include new songs from an upcoming album she is currently working on, as well as some older b sides. 

The second half of the show will see her band join her on stage with her to play The Sound of White and other fan favourites. 

“It will be nice to mix up the old songs with the new songs,” said Higgins. 

With her next album “almost completely written”, Higgins said she’s currently recording the tracks by herself at home. 

“It’s taking a while, but it’s been a really great learning experience for me, and the songs are very intimate and stripped back so it kind of works to be recording them at home,” she said. 

“I went through a separation a couple of years ago and I think a lot of these songs are just me trying to process how things changed so suddenly and unexpectedly and who I’m supposed to be now.” 

As for the tracks on The Sound of White, she said the songs mean different things to her now than they did in the past. 

“I think the songs tend to take on a life of their own as they get older,” said Higgins. 

“I don’t still feel the same emotions that I did back when I wrote the songs, but I do tend to kind of adapt the song to whatever’s going on in my life at the time when I play it live.” 

For fans who might not be aware, old The Sound of White CDs have a “secret song” right at the end.  

“A minute or so after the last song had finished, there was a silence and then They Weren’t There used to come on,” Higgins said. 

“They’d just put this CD on and just let it run and then they’d be kind of delighted and surprised by a little extra song that they didn’t expect.” 

Higgins said she particularly loved that song and the idea that people might one day discover it by accident at the end. 

The Second Act Tour will play at the Ulumbarra Theatre on Friday 17 May and tickets are now on sale at gotix.com.au.