Manifesting Connection: Angie McMahon Interviewed

“I’m on my own spiritual journey, I guess, and crystals come with the territory.”

CLASH is heading to London’s bustling Broadway Market to meet Angie McMahon at a spiritual emporium, a spot she’s picked for its significance in her own life. Perhaps we should have anticipated all this – the opening track on recent album ‘Light, Dark, Light Again’ is called ‘Saturn Returning’, a nod to the cosmos, inner turmoil, and the onset of her 30s.

“I didn’t actually know what a Saturn Return was until I went through one,” she laughs self-consciously. “It was a friend who mentioned it to me actually. I told them all about my life, what was going on, and they just said: it might be this…!”

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When the door swings open at mystical shop She’s Lost Control we’re met with shelf upon shelf of esoterica, a carefully curated selection of spiritual objects. Angie wanders around, allowing herself to be drawn to a variety of crystals, sacred stones, and incense. There’s a curious sense of timing to our visit – on her way here, Angie bumped into an old school friend, thousands of miles from their native Melbourne.

“The vibe in London has been so good this week,” she enthuses. “It’s like everyone was waiting for the sun to arrive. You could feel people thinking: God, we needed this! The energy of the city has been just so good to be around.”

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Chatting to the shopkeeper – Angie is a Gemini sun, Scorpio moon – she starts to tell CLASH about this burgeoning interest in the spiritual. “I grew up Catholic, so I had a spiritual childhood. I left all that behind by the time I was 18, just totally disassociated myself from it. And now 10 years later I’m making this record, and finding my way back to this spiritual child inside of myself… but without the context of the Bible and all these patriarchal rules.”

“This chapter of my life has just… it’s been harder than any chapter I’ve ever been through,” she confesses. “I’d run out of tools to deal with it. I’d run out of neural pathways to process and navigate what I was going through.”

“I’ve been finding a door into spirituality through nature,” she adds. “I spend a lot of time in nature, and thinking about our relationship with it. That’s really where I land.”

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Spotting a copy of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s text Braiding Sweetgrass nearby, she exclaims: “well, I know they’re some kindred spirits here for sure!”

The book deals with indigenous knowledge about the natural world, and the different dynamics those communities have with our planet, in sharp contrast to late Capitalism. The book acted as a spur to her new record, and helped kick off this ongoing journey. “I’m still navigating it all,” she says. “I’m interested in what opportunities there are to explore the things we can’t see, and to heal.”

“It’s not always a spiritual thing,” Angie notes. “Sometimes it’s just a way to reset, a way to process my mental health. And it can also be a way to add some beauty to the space I’m in.”

Amassing her own collection of crystals, Angie also likes to collect rocks and pebbles during her touring spells, particularly from shows with deep personal resonance to her. It’s part of the dialogue between the individual and the community, between our internal worlds and the physical spaces around us.

“Sometimes I go out and charge myself under a full moon… just get out there under the moon and start howling at it, or get out into the office!”

“I’m always trying to weave nature into my life. Even if it’s just choosing what colours I’m going to wear, and matching that to the sunset or the sunrise. I want to create these moments with nature that feel particularly powerful.”

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Even though Angie McMahon is based in Melbourne, she yearns to get out into the countryside. “I love living in a city,” she explains, “but I feel a completely different drop in myself when I spend a weekend in the bush. I miss it when I’m not there.”

“When I’m walking through the city, I’ll often find myself taking a leaf from a tree or a bush, just as a reminder of the world around us. There is this infinite life source, right there. The only way we can live and breathe is due to this tree. We’re completely impoverished without it.”

Recently receiving an I Ching set as a gift from a friend, Angie pauses by the selection of tarot and oracle cards in She’s Lost Control, turning each deck over in turn. “I like doing tarot with friends. It’s a medium for us all to talk about what we’re going through, or what you might want for your future. It’s a way of connecting with people.”

“It does relate to my work practise, actually. It’s similar to songwriting, in that you’re looking at the stuff that’s in your life – the hard stuff, the stuff you want answers to – and you’re trying to channel it in some form. To gain clarity, or direction, or even just a bit of context.”

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Intrigued, Angie accepts the invitation to go through to the back of the shop, and we leave her while she has an aura reading done. Returning visibly moved, the Australian songwriter admits that “it basically made me cry…”

“She told me, you’re giving a lot of energy right now, but you’re also quite empty. And I was like, well, I’m on tour… singing every night!”

Taking her profoundly personal material on the road, Angie McMahon is tasked with creating countless connections each and every night. Little wonder she needs some something to guide her, and ground her.

Closing, we enquire about her Saturn Return – has the cosmos settled down for her…?

“I’m on the other side of turmoil right now,” she affirms. “I’m a little bit more in-flow with my own vulnerability, and my anxieties. I’ve just turned 30, which is – I guess – a big turning point. I’ve left the tumultuous 20s behind me, which is exciting. I’m at the beginning of a new chapter.”

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With thanks to She’s Lost Control.

Words: Robin Murray
Photography: Rachel Lipsitz

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