Melanie Pain may well be a Hobbit.
Firstly, she's French. Yes, I know. The mere fact that France is a small country doesn't automatically mean its people will also be small. In fact, some will even argue that no link exists between a nation's landmass and the height of its citizens. On the other hand, Napoleon was French, and he was about the same height as Warwick Davis, who is roughly the same size as a small ibis. Secondly, and slightly more importantly, Melanie Pain's latest LP is one that has taken her down an unexpected but immense path of self-discovery... the point is that despite Melanie's enviable career fronting French pop-extravagants Nouvelle Vogue, she was until recently a figure plagued by self-doubt.
"My first album was full of doubt and questions. I work hard because I really want to fit with the perceptions I have of myself... and maybe I want too much, [but] I identify as a songwriter and I didn't know if I could write songs by myself completely. I needed to get out of Paris and get away from anyone I knew. I knew I had to go to Manchester — I knew no one there.”
The resulting effort was Melanie Pain's second full-length solo effort; the aptly-titled 'Bye Bye Manchester'.
"Basically I wanted to do a British pop album, but in French. This is the first time I've expressed what I want to say and who I am about, and on this record I found a lot of answers. But, you know, when I came back from Manchester I didn't know if it was any good — I thought, 'Oh my gosh, maybe it's really bad!'. But I'm very happy with the album. I know who I am now, and what I'm about."
‘Bye Bye Manchester’ may be pleasing to the ears, but Melanie is still yet to find a place to call her own. "If the humble baguette can call Paris home," I asked her, "why can't you?"
"There's no place I call home, but I travel. Lots of my songs talk about this urge to travel and escape. Not just to never come back — on the contrary, you go away because you have to come back."
Melanie Pain plays So Frenchy So Chic at the Brisbane Powerhouse Thursday January 17.
