Folk music has strong historical ties with social movements and political discourse, and Strange Feeling’s first single Sidelined fits that framework nicely. It’s a poppier offering that details Segal’s experience with a lover who wanted her to change her appearance. The song includes lyrics such as, “I have the wrong body even though I have the right mind,” “You want a skinny lover and that’s fine,” and “If you’re not beautiful you’ll be sidelined,” all of which underline the human habit to judge people purely based on their exterior.
“After that [experience], I reflected on that and I thought about aesthetic expectations put on you by society and the people around you,” Segal says. “It’s what’s inside that counts.”
Segal’s perseverance through unpleasant personal events often informs her songwriting. For instance, the 2012 protest record An Atheist Album was penned after she threw off her Jewish upbringing and embraced a world without religion. “I went travelling and I became atheist and that was a really significant thing for me,” she says.
Given her dismissal of religion, it’s rather ironic that Ben Harper should be one of Segal’s primary musical influences. “I find that kind of songwriting very motivating,” she says, “even though a lot of the time his motivation comes from his belief in God, which is not necessarily the way I see things. But I still find that kind of songwriting really powerful.”
Segal also draws inspiration from the likes of Ani DiFranco and Alanis Morissette, whose example resonates closer with her own beliefs. “Before that the only things I’d listen to were Mariah Carey and I remember thinking ‘Oh my god, you can say something’.”
The potency of this revelation makes sense considering Segal started performing in her father’s Jewish wedding band when she was 11 years old. “I definitely feel like [saying something] is important to me,” she says. “It’s not necessarily in every song that I write. But I do like music – and have always been inspired and influenced by music – that is motivating to me. So, [I like music that’s] not just about sharing the way you see the world, but also creating the world that you want to see by provoking discussion and change in thought and reflection that makes people possibly think or act differently or rethink the way they’ve acted.”
But that’s not to say that her new EP is solely devoted to gender politics. The other five songs touch on everything from going to the movies to divorce – the latter of which is not something that Segal has actually experienced. “Usually I write from experience but this is about putting myself in someone else’s situation,” she says.
Musically the album fits somewhere in between her usual folk-pop aesthetic and her 2013 collaborative jazz album Little March, which was produced by Adam Levy; guitarist for the likes of Norah Jones and Tracy Chapman. “This year is about incorporating a bit more of the jazz element,” she says. “So it’s like jazzy folk.”
As per her usual rollout of a new album, Segal performed a “jazz interpretation” of the new album on April 18 at Melbourne’s Paris Cat. She’s gearing up for a proper launch show at the Northcote Social Club on May 30, before embarking on a three-month US tour later in the year.
BY ISABELLE ODERBERG
