Perth singer-songwriter Michelle Barlow makes her grand debut as Rcadia with her upcoming album 'Broken But Free'.
Migrating to Perth from India with her family when she was nine-years-old, Michelle is no stranger to the stage and has been performing since she was 16.
After fronting local group Sin City, two years ago Michelle decided it was time to step out on her own as Rcadia. “The reason Rcadia was created was I've been doing music for a very long time. I've been in bands and things like that and I've gained so much experience that I felt like I wanted more to do,” Michelle says.
“I had so much to say and I had this voice and I was thinking that I just want to get out there, stand on my own two feet and let's see if I can do this on my own, which is what I attempted to do. I dived in and I'm very, very proud of where I've gotten so far because I didn't even expect this at all.”
The first two singles taken from 'Broken But Free' are 'Sweet Romance' and 'Why', both of which reveal varying aspects of Michelle's soulful vocal ability and open-ended approach to composition. “I've been writing for four years and in the past two years it's all come together,” she says of the album.
“The way that [the title] 'Broken But Free' came about was I would write down all my feelings and the two words that really hit me in my face when I looked at all my songs was 'broken' and 'free'. I seemed to write those words a lot and the song would start off with what I went through and end in a positive outcome where I'd found a sense of freedom. So 'Broken But Free' came from writing those songs.”
The way in which Michelle has deliberately ordered the tracklist for the album also represents a chronology of how her songwriting has developed since starting work on the record.
“The songs towards the end of the album are ones I wrote literally last year so you get to see where I'm taking music with those next few songs,” Michelle says
“Even me taking a step back and watching me grow, I really like the direction I'm going. I love every genre of music because they all have something creative about it and you hear it in the album where sometimes I just had to let the song take its form, instead of trying to make it a certain way that I wanted.
“I took a step back and said 'I'm going to go with the flow, let's see where you take me and if it feels good and makes me happy, then I'm going to be happy', and that's how I started to see music after a while.”
With 'Broken But Free' released towards the end of October, Michelle/Rcadia will present the album in full at a special launch show in late-November.
“I'll be doing the first-ever live performance of my entire album to start showing me live onstage, and I hope I can start doing more, which is my plan.”
