There's a moment in 'Forest House', Jenny Mitchell's latest album, where you can almost hear a door creak open. Then a breath. Then quiet. It's the sound of someone letting you in.
When we speak, Jenny is humble, grounded, and honest in that unmistakable Aotearoa way. She talks about this project not as a product, but as a shelter. Not polished, not pristine – safe.We talk about her new album, but really we're talking about what it means to build a place where the soul can rest. "I wrote it in moments when I didn't have one [a safe place]," she shares, "when I was trying to figure out what safety looked like, or even meant."
Jenny's from Gore, a small town in Southland, New Zealand, where country music has long been a lifeblood. It's where she first sang alongside her dad, country artist Ron Mitchell.
However, 'Forest House' takes a different road – it's not chasing anything. It's coming home. "There's so much happening in the world. Sometimes, for women especially, it feels like there's nowhere to just be. No permission to fall apart or get angry. This album gave me that space."
The title isn't just poetic. It's functional. This record is a door that closes gently – or slams, if needed. A place you can go when the world doesn't offer one.
"There's a lot of tension in this album," Jenny says, "but there's also a lot of release. I think that's what home is too. It holds both."
Jenny is quick to lift up others. She speaks about working with her sisters, Nicola and Maegan, like it's the most natural thing in the world. The Mitchell Chicks, collaborating since the beginning – family and community at the heart of it.
"You don't always have to say the right thing. You just have to stay," Jenny says. "I think music can be that presence too. That hand on the back."
There's something about her presence that makes you lean in. She doesn't try to dazzle you. She just tells it straight; and that's the power of 'Forest House'.
It doesn't beg for attention, it offers shelter; there's a knock on the door during our interview – she asks me to wait one second, of course I do. She returns, telling me: "Well, they left." The irony isn't lost on us. We were just talking about doors.
Tracks like 'Square & Plain' echo a plainspoken philosophy, telling the truth. "It's about taking up space," she says. "Not in a loud way, but in a deliberate way. I think being a woman in music can make you question that, a lot."
The album is a forest house of fairytale songs written with a delicate care and attention of an artist that holds music like holding a door open. Jenny waits at the door and invites you in to listen saying this happened, and trusting that you'll feel it.
If the listener chooses to stay a while, 'Forest House' has plenty of rooms. Rooms for rage. Rooms for rest. Rooms for sisters to sing softly to each other. Rooms for slammed doors and opened windows. Make room for this artist, she's got stories for you.
Jenny will bring 'Forest House' to Australian stages this July, and if her live shows echo even a fraction of the album's still-fierce softness, audiences are in for something quietly transformative.
Read our recent live review of Jenny Mitchell supporting Kasey Chambers in Brisbane.
Jenny Mitchell 2025 Tour Dates
Sat 12 Jul - The Street Theatre (Canberra)Sun 13 Jul - Little Alberts (Bathurst)
Thu 17 Jul - Memo Music Hall (Melbourne)
Sat 19 Jul - The Candle & Quill Bookshop (Sunshine Coast)
Sun 20 Jul - The Brightside (Brisbane)
Thu 24 Jul - The Vanguard (Sydney)
Sat 26 Jul - The Savoy Bar and Music (Central Coast)
Sun 27 Jul - The Stag & Hunter (Newcastle)
28-31 Aug - Gympie Music Muster (Sunshine Coast)
