Jenny Mitchell – Somehow, 13th floor’s new Song of the Day

Jenny Mitchell just dropped a new single Somehow and its accompanying video, her first release signed to the Australian arm of the global label, Cooking Vinyl.

Mōrena folks. Jenny Mitchell just dropped her latest single titled Somehow as a signed artist to Cooking Vinyl Australia. Here is the media blurb.

Somehow is the start of a fresh chapter for Mitchell. The single struts a unique musical offering with a dark Americana feel to it, exhibiting a slightly different vocal style to what she has delivered on previous records. Produced by Matt Fell, it showcases a haunting banjo part alongside Jenny’s soulful vocal.

Jenny says, “I wrote Somehow after realising that someone close to me was struggling a lot and I was too caught up in my own world to recognise it. It’s a reminder to check in with those we care about but also an acknowledgement that there’s often no easy fix for mental health. Sometimes all that our loved ones need is to know there’s someone walking alongside them, rather than trying to “fix” them.”

“This was the first track I worked on remotely with my producer Matt (Fell). I knew I wanted to work with him again, despite the obvious border obstacles, so I recorded Somehow in my tiny home studio, sent it to Matt and we worked on it via Zoom calls and emails.”

 

The video for Somehow stars Mitchell’s extraordinarily talented friend, Natalie Exeter. The two women attending university together. A dancer for most of her life, Natalie’s expressive style was the perfect way to communicate the story of the song.

“I’m present throughout the video but am often watching Nat’s character struggle from the outside. That is how I was feeling when this narrative was playing out in my real life. I really didn’t know how to help or bridge the distance between myself and the person who was struggling.”

 

“We filmed this clip in Dunedin’s Athenaeum, which is a library and theatre in the Octagon (Dunedin’s centre). The room we used was underground and had the perfect end of the world, abandoned vibe we were looking for.”

 

“We shot this clip long past midnight and The Athenaeum is actually underneath a popular Dunedin Bar called Vault 21. Just before we began filming a particularly intense part of the clip, the room filled with the drunken, joyful echoes of a “Happy Birthday.” I think we’d almost forgotten there was a world outside that room because we were so invested and consumed by the filming.”

 

Cooking Vinyl Australia’s Leigh Gruppetta said today, “We were first introduced to Jenny’s music by Fanny (Lumsden), so naturally we were all ears. Jenny’s turn of phrase and natural gift of storytelling is duly recognised in New Zealand and we’re so thrilled to join her team to help break ground in Australia and internationally.”

Mitchell made her stage debut at four with her country-music loving father Ron at the local country music club in Gore near Invercargill in New Zealand’s south. At 14 she placed third in the national TV show New Zealand’s Got Talent, a formative experience that taught her how to stand up for herself and to believe in the songs she was writing.

As an adult, the richness of her life experiences is reflected in the variety of topics she addresses in her songs. Mitchell is a writer with important things to say, and brave enough to say them.

She specialised in Gender Studies in her Bachelor of Arts degree, studying the struggles of women dealing with sexism, writing about artists who inspired her like New Zealand songwriter Tami Neilson. Neilson produced Mitchell’s 2021 single Trouble Finds a Girl, a powerful and timely song about sexual misconduct in the music industry. It features the voices of Jenny’s sisters Nicola and Maeghan, their father and artists Kaylee Bell and Fanny Lumsden.

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