Naarm/Melbourne’s Merpire aka Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt, (she/her) today shares her highly-anticipated second album MILK POOL – a indie/alt/dark-pop album for the romantics, the daydreamers, and those moving through intense periods of change, punctuated by unconventional rhythms and chord choices, provocative guitar, moody synths and vivid imagery – its title representing “the murky fluidity of the action took to create it”. A second teenagehood for Merpire that finds her “wading playfully and trustingly into the unknown”, in a deeper, darker, more personal way than her globally-acclaimed debut album Simulation Ride (2021).
MILK POOL features vibrant focus track + video “Fishing” as well as previously-released trilogy of starry-eyed singles “Premonition“, “Bigger“ & “Leaving With You“ and is out everywhere now – stream HERE / purchase on vinyl HERE.
Angled toward her deep, abiding love for her artist community through thick and thin and co-produced by Merpire and James Seymour (Pillow Queens, Elizabeth M. Drummond, Jacob Diamond), buoyant alt-pop/indie-rock focus track “Fishing” immediately hooks in heart-first with its opening lyrics and bright, fuzzed-out guitar – “I’m just a little bit in love with all of my friends / Oh how I need them” – a beautiful celebration of friendship and connection and a testament of the fierce and unshakeable love Merpire has for her community. Milk Pool was written at the end of 2020 after a huge year as a founding the globally successful live streaming series ISOL-AID through the pandemic, finishing her debut album Simulation Ride, starting another one-off collaborative project Wilson’s Prom and contributing a track to a collaborative EP Quietly Waiting.
Speaking on “Fishing”, Merpire shares “it’s a song for every artist who makes huge sacrifices every day, while still being able to support other artists for the love of art” – and that through all the “learning and pushing and grieving, I was ever-proud of the resilience of the music community” – also saying of the 90s-inspired video, directed by rcstills (Public Figures, Juice Webster) with additional shots by Brooke Painter (Heathers: The Musical, Urinetown): “It was essentially a big party of creatives, some of whom had met before and some who hadn’t, all coming together to express joy. By the end of the shoot we just wanted to actually live out what we were capturing – making new friends, chatting and laughing til the wee hours. It was truly beautiful and that love just beams out of the clip.”
A premonition in itself, MILK POOL was written at a crossroads in Merpire‘s life where she felt called to make huge changes, including stepping away from her achievements as a founder of live music streaming series ISOL-AID during the pandemic – an effort she began to bolster the struggling artist community which featured 146+ artists incl. Angie McMahon, Courtney Bartnett, Sarah Blasko and more – and from interpersonal relationships – recorded at Melrose Place on Wurundjeri Country with production by Merpire, James Seymour (Pillow Queens, Elizabeth M. Drummond, Jacob Diamond), and contributions via James Dring (Nilüfer Yanya, Genesis Owusu, Porches) and Elizabeth M. Drummond, mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, Perfume Genius).