Mel Parsons – Be Here Now: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day

Straight off the back of a seven-date tour of New Zealand and Australia, the multi award-winning Mel Parsons has released Be Here Now – a hypnotic new song, which proved to be a crowd favourite on both sides of the Tasman.
Here is the blurb with more:

Featuring Mitchell Froom (Crowded House) on keys, Be Here Now is a lush and reflective track, offering comment on the perils of technology.


“Being constantly connected online and feeling increasingly disconnected in real life,” says the singer and songwriter from Te Waipounamu.

Mel further explains that she spent last summer off social media: “It was the most freeing feeling. I think when you are constantly competing for eyeballs and ears it can quickly turn into a very yucky empty feeling.

“As artists we have to play the game to a certain extent, to get our work out to the world so that we can tour and do our jobs, but it’s finding that balance where you don’t end up sinking in the process.”

The song’s video made by Parsons’ long-time visual collaborator Adam Hogan of LORE Films, captures a deliberate slowing down, almost a “necessary boredom” which Parsons says “is a vital part of my creative process, but also probably the thing I find most challenging”.

It’s been a big few years for the Lyttleton-based artist, who is one of the country’s most travelled touring musicians. This year Mel performed at Folk Alliance in Montreal, Canada, and toured on both sides of the Tasman. Last year she traversed the length and breadth of New Zealand multiple times and opened for the legendary Crowded House on their GRAVITY STAIRS tour.

All the while she has continued to release critically-acclaimed albums back-to-back albums. They include the AMA-winning GLASS HEART (2019), the superb SLOW BURN (2022) and the chart-topping  SABOTAGE (2024), which was nominated for the prestigious Taite Prize and Album of the Year at this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards.

“This album [SABOTAGE] really locates the mournful quality in Mel Parsons’ voice, and highlights what a remarkable instrument it is; oceans of feeling sounded out with apparently little effort”
– Tony Stamp, RNZ

The nominations sit alongside a string of awards and accolades Mel has picked up across her career, including ‘Best Folk Artist’ at the 2020 AMAs.

Follow Mel Parsons:
Web / Instagram / Facebook
Spotify / Apple / YouTube

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