Melanie Riley
SINGER songwriter Alison Newman has just released her new song Things Are About To Get Dark as part of her new EP titled ‘Wolf.’
Based in Mount Gambier/Berrin, Newman has always had a love for music, beginning with her first performance at a school assembly at five years old and has since grown as an artist.
All vocals for the EP were recorded by Newman locally and then worked on by her production team in Spain and Argentina.
The five emotive tracks on the EP tell the story of Newman’s journey through postnatal depression following the birth of her two children.
“I had postnatal depression with my first child and I didn’t really know what it was and didn’t seek help because I was in complete denial,” she said.
“I just kept thinking ‘I’m just having a bad day, this is what it’s meant to be like.’”
After receiving a diagnosis, experiencing PND with her second child was something that she was then able to recognise.
With support of mental health professionals and family and friends, Newman was able to come out of the other side and after a few years, decided to work through her emotions through music.
“This song is basically that moment where I just went ‘yep I can feel it coming, it’s going to happen again,’” Newman said.
The ‘wolf’ character that is referred to in all five tracks is what Newman described as her feelings of depression.
“That’s how I saw it – I’m Little Red Riding Hood and there’s this big bad wolf that’s coming, and it just takes me over,” she said.
“It takes my persona, it takes my personality, it takes all the joy out of life.”
‘Free Me,’ ‘Pieces of My Pain,’ ‘Ready for Up’ and ‘Feel into You’ make up the rest of the EP, which will have a staggered release with a new song dropping on the last Friday of every upcoming month.
Each song tells a story of a different part of Newman’s journey with PND and finishes with a celebratory track.
“It’s for the people that helped me because without the support around me, I would have never have made it out,” she said.
It was about four or five years later that Newman said she got serious about writing the track and has found the process to be very therapeutic.
“That’s also why it took so long to record them, it’s hard to go back into that mindset when you’re feeling really great,” she said.
“As an artist, you use your art as a therapy, it’s just your way of moving through things.”
Newman said she was grateful for all of the support and hoped her music would highlight the prevalence of PND in both women and men.
“It’s good to be able to get that word out about mental health issues – people don’t like talking about it,” she said.
“People can perceive you as being a failure or it’s a weakness, but it’s normal.”
Things Are About To Get Dark and the further four releases can be found on all streaming platforms.
