Mel Parsons is back with a new single and a fresh mood.
“Brick By Brick” trades her usual somber edge for something lighter and more open. Parsons calls it “a reminder to myself to just start the thing,” capturing creative inertia with a hopeful twist.
“I’m a procrastinator and often get overwhelmed with possibilities, but I’ve worked out that if I keep showing up even when I’m hating it, something will usually materialise.”
The track arrives with a DIY music video filmed in Parsons’ Lyttelton backyard by Christchurch’s Adam Hogan (LORE Films). “Mostly I run screaming from literal representation of anything in a music video, but for this one it felt like the obvious direction. Straightforward to shoot and visually pleasing, we threw some bricks around and had some fun with it.”
“Brick by Brick” follows the release of “Post High Slide”, the first taste of new music from Parsons in 2025. Both tracks were produced and engineered by long-time collaborator Josh Logan, who also worked on her acclaimed 2024 album SABOTAGE , home to standout tracks like “Offer Down”, and “Little Sadness”.
SABOTAGE was a finalist for the 2024 Taite Music Prize, and earned three nominations at the upcoming Aotearoa Music Awards: Album of the Year, Best Folk Artist, and Best Album Artwork. It also landed on our Best NZ Albums of 2024 list.
“At eight tracks, the sixth album from Mel Parsons is a tight, fat-free collection of her trademark alt-country and indie folk, featuring some of her best songwriting to date (see: relationship-in-peril opener ‘Circling the City’ and the winsome ‘Little Sadness’),” we wrote in our June-August issue.
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Parsons will hit the road soon for her seven-date ‘Post High Slide NZ & Australian tour’, kicking off at San Fran in Wellington on Sunday May 25th and wrapping up at The Vanguard in Sydney on June 15th. Get tickets here.
Mel Parsons’ “Brick By Brick” is out now.
