Burnt out and heartbroken? Porridge Radio could be your new soundtrack

by · RNZ
Porridge Radio singer Dana Margolin at London's Rough Trade Records in October 2024.Photo: Paul Hudson / CC BY 2.0

'Healing isn't linear. The birds in the trees, they will always be there for me. The clouds in the sky, they will always be there for me' - British singer Dana Margolin.

For Dana Margolin, the hopeful spirit of her band Porridge Radio's new album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me is captured in these words she doesn't remember writing.

The British singer and visual artist tells Music 101's Maggie Tweedie that she went through a hideous breakup just before the recording of Clouds and her Porridge Radio bandmates provided great support and understanding.

"We'd record a song and I would just fall to the ground. It was an intense experience that I was having and it was a space that just allowed me to have that experience and not have to pretend that I wasn't having it. I feel lucky this is my job because I didn't have to pretend that I wasn't going through what I was going through."

The cover of the 2024 album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me by British band Porridge RadioPhoto: Supplied

'I've grown tired of waiting and tired of wanting you' Margolin sings in 'Pieces of Heaven' - a song about the confusing and painful experience of a lover repeatedly walking away then coming back.

"I was at the end of a really long period of being messed around by somebody who I really loved and really cared about and who played with my head and my heart for a long time."

It felt almost healing to write about this experience in 'Pieces of Heaven', she says.

"It was a song that I used as a way to get through that feeling and that heartbreak and to redirect some of the longing into a rejection of being played around with and just saying enough is enough."

While touring in the past Margolin says she has pushed through illness and exhaustion until it became difficult to think or look after herself. Now she has to actively work against the tendency to disregard her own naturally extreme limits.

"About to die" is not a healthy state to work yourself into, Margolin now realises.

"You can actually stop much earlier on. You can notice when your limits might be approaching and make a note of that and actually look after yourself… Like we're in an indie band. It should be fun."

"I'm in love with my life again," Margolin sings on the final track of Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me but in reality accepts that this feeling will come and go.

"Nothing is linear and nothing is an upward trajectory. Sometimes you have to go back down, and sometimes it circles backward and sometimes it does a massive loop around in the air and up and down. Every so often I am in love with my life."

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