There’s been a certain rise in cross-country collaborations recently. Naturally, many have been borne out of necessity over the last two years and Mess Esque’s existence is one of this category. When the project began in 2019, the duo hadn't yet met in person but they don’t play into the interstate gimmick at all. In fact, the cohesion of their newest, self-titled work leads you to believe this could’ve been created anytime, anywhere with the same sublime results.

Mess Esque’s sprawling yet intimate second album offers a landscape of pensive thoughts and moody art-rock. It’s a balanced union - Helen Franzmann (McKisko) and Mick Turner (Dirty Three) pass the musical baton equally rather than allowing one device to dominate any of the tracks’ composition. With many of the tracks unhurriedly exploring Franzmann’s vocals and offering space for Turner’s instrumental musings, we asked the duo to walk us through some of the more minute details of their project.

TJ: Mess Esque has been created as a project spread over two states out of necessity but it doesn’t seem to have tamped its quality or connection. How do you feel about Mess Esque’s future knowing location can be worked around?

ME: We’re happy working between Melbourne and Brisbane as we’re both quite attached to our home cities. We’re planning another record using the same back and forth exchange and we’re excited to tour and play the music live. We rehearsed in Melbourne for a week at the beginning of the year and managed to get a couple of shows in but it has all been rescheduled to next year with obvious bigger issues at play. 


Each track seems to play out exactly as much time as it needs, even though some sit in a comfortable 4-5 minute realm with others taking ~8-10 minutes to do themselves justice. How do you go about planning and refining each track’s arc?

The songs kind of led the way, it was obvious when a change needed to occur. Mick spent weeks crafting the instrumentals and layering things until we were both feeling it. Usually he’d create that change instrumentally and then Helen would write a vocal/lyric that worked with it. We would to and fro many times before we were happy and we’d generally both feel it when it was done.


From what we know, it seems the process starts either with Mick laying down a bed or Helen bringing to life vocals then passing the work back and forth. Do you find this determines who leads the track’s direction or does it work out to be quite balanced?

Mick wrote and played almost all of the instrumentals. Helen wrote the vocal melodies and lyrics. Peggy Frew played most of the bass and Jim White and Marty Brown played some drums. Our songs usually start with a repetitive bare bones track from Mick. For this album a couple of the songs (‘Take it Outside’ and ‘Forever’) started with acapella recordings of Helen’s. The process remained the same regardless, Helen would come up with a core melody/lyric part and a few improvised tracks as well. Mick would then work those improvisations into the instrumental. Helen would then sing more over that, Mick would work it further, Helen more singing, and so on. One song, ‘Beneath the Rain’, was different. It was a complete guitar track that Helen sang over. The collaborative approach was playful. It was always exciting to spend time with new recordings from one another.


Which song has taken the longest to get just right?

'Jupiter', without a doubt.

How much of a presence do you find your previous projects have on the album?

It’s definitely its own beast, this Mess Esque. Mick’s brings his guitar and Helen her voice, both central to our previous work.


I know Helen’s mentioned a Jacques Cousteau book working itself into her recordings. What other external references and inspirations helped form the album?

Helen’s dream diaries were present in a lot of the lyrics, whatever poetry and books that were lying about spilled into it in different ways, homeschooling and the cycles of lockdown, paintings and photographs in the room. ‘Monk by the Sea’ by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich was tacked to the wall in front of Helen’s microphone. The cycles of lockdown and homeschooling.


For me, the whole album has offered flow and warmth but one moment in ‘Sweetspot’, just past the 5:30 mark, gives me chills. It’s when Helen’s vocals hold a note while the rest of the instrumentation strips back quite a bit. Is there a point that gives you a similar feeling of frisson?

‘Wake Up To Yesterday’ is a favourite of ours. The general build of that song was natural and satisfying.

In ‘Take It Outside’, Mick re-tuned his guitar to fit a take of Helen’s that was in an uncommon, microtonal key. Are there other tracks within the album where you’ve used less common techniques?

Mick had his guitar sounding like a spaceship taking off for a while at the beginning of ‘Jupiter’. Vocally Helen played around with whispering, talking, sighing and laughing. We were very open and accepting of whatever each of us wanted to try.

What’s your intention with the band and releasing music from here on out?

We have close to two more albums worth of songs that we’re working on. We’re looking forward to touring and playing these songs live with a full band, both in Australia and overseas.