Mayhem to Madness

The McClymont sisters—Brooke, Mollie, and Sam—live in totally different parts of Australia, and recorded their sixth album, Mayhem to Madness, separately. But there’s an intuition and understanding that makes it work. “That's the beauty of us three girls,” Brooke tells Apple Music. “We trust each other. We didn't need to be in the one room like we used to before we had kids. Because of the challenges of motherhood and all the kids and trying to get our schedules in order, we did it all separately. I was actually pregnant with my son when we decided to do this, and singing while I was seven and a half months pregnant was a challenge in itself.” On their sixth album, the McClymonts address motherhood, relationships, personal strength, and being on the road—familiar, genuine themes for the country trio. “We try and stick to what we know and what's personal to us as much as possible. Otherwise, the crowd and our fans just won't believe it. We’re lucky—we’ve got so many stories to tell between the three of us.” Here, Brooke shares the stories behind each track on Mayhem to Madness.

Part Time Phase
“This can relate to your husband, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your wife, your sisters, your siblings, your mum and dad, anyone, your friends; because you know when you have those moments when you wish they'd go away, and it's just that moment, and then you talk to that person and it's like that evil thought’s left. It’s like, ‘I just really had a bad moment there where I could have got really nasty,’ but you don't, it's just that part-time phase of ‘You know what? I don't like you right now, but it's only a phase. I'll get over it.’”

I Got This
“That was the last song we wrote for the album, but it became the first single. The three of us were in a room together and we had Andy Mak, our producer, there. Sam brought her son Ari, who was about five months old then; she had to take him everywhere because he just wouldn't leave Sam. It was like, ‘We've got to write about this, the juggles of motherhood.’ You've got to tell yourself, reinforce yourself, that you've got this. But it's not just about motherhood—it could be with anything. We all doubt ourselves sometimes. I’ve got a seven-year-old, and I was a terrible homeschooler [during the COVID-19-related school closures] but I was trying to look at the positives and go, ‘Look at all this time we've got. I'm never going to get this back. This is fantastic.’ It's that thing of getting through the day going, ‘We've got this, we can do this. We're going to survive this whole thing. As long as we don't get sick—that's the main thing.’”

Free Fall
“We're not reinventing the wheel or changing the world with this song at all. We've been with our partners, the three of us, for years. We're all in really good spots, we're happily married. Really, it was just one of those things where we were like, ‘You know what? We're so lucky that we're still in love with our men.’ That sounds funny, but it's that nice reminder. We're in the free fall. We're still going through that wonderful phase of marriage. Sometimes, as a songwriter, we do get caught up in having to be part of something bigger, but sometimes people just want to hear something beautiful and heartfelt.”

Looking for Perfect
“The girls and I wrote this on our own. We were up at Sam's house. I just started singing the lines ‘If you're not looking for perfect, I'm actually perfect for you.’ I think everyone just has this perception of, you've got to show the world you're perfect or that life's going good. And the three of us girls really wanted to capture that. You know what? We're all vulnerable. We are not perfect at all. Even the first line, ‘I don't put much makeup on,’ is just telling people I'm no glamorous princess or don't have my shit together, basically, but when it comes to finding our husbands, it was like, ‘We're not perfect at all, but we're perfect together.’ And I think a lot of people can relate to that.”

Open Heart
“This song is about traveling, about being on the road and keeping your mind open and just loving life. Get out there, have a go, and enjoy yourself. We traveled so much over the last 13 years or however long we've been doing this together, it’s amazing. It really does open up your eyes and give you a good insight of how other people live and what's going on in the world. It's pretty much our attitude to say yes to everything and see what comes, and that's the big life lesson.”

Lighthouse Home
“Sam wrote this with Lindsay Rimes and Jennifer Hanson over in America when she was living there with her husband. For about 12 months, she was back and forth from Australia to America. We were touring back here and he was there, and this was her way of saying, ‘You're my lighthouse home.’ A way to say, ‘Thank you for waiting for me.’ Their relationship's always been ‘hi and bye,’ for like 13 years, and they're just incredible. So that was a really sweet song she pretty much just wrote for her hubby.”

Little Lies
“You can't better Fleetwood Mac; we didn’t set out to. We've been doing this song live for about two years now, and people just love it. We’ve never done a cover on a record before, so we thought, ‘Why not?’ Especially because we were all just so busy leading up to this album. Andy, our producer, has done such a great job on it. He didn't overdo it. I think our harmonies are perfect, but it will never beat the original, and I don't intend it to. We wanted to respect the song and make sure we did it justice.”

Good Advice
“I wrote this for my daughter, for when she gets to those terrible, awful teenage years. It’s like, ‘Look, you're probably not going to listen to me when you get older, but I'm going to write this in a song.’ This is a song for her future. My future self going, ‘Keep in mind, girlfriend, you're going to get a broken heart and it's going to be okay,’ and all that. It was mum’s way of saying to a little girl, ‘You're going to be okay. You need to take this good advice.’ So if things get really difficult with her in the future, I can just go, ‘Listen to this song. This is what I mean.’”

Wish You Hell
“I wrote this song about one of my girlfriends whose husband was cheating on her after 18 years together. And she was just incredible about it. She didn't lose her shit. She just accepted it. They have three sons together. She just got up and just was like, ‘It is what it is. Oh, well, you know.’ I just was admiring the way she was handling it. And I was just going, ‘Is she putting on a brave face for us, or is she actually falling apart when she closes the door at night?’ She was just incredible, and I really wanted to write her story the way I saw her. I am pretending to be her, but through my eyes. She was so humble and she held her head high. I don't know if I could do that—he just didn’t care. It was like it never happened, their life together, these three boys never existed. That was her story, but I just put the spin on it, going, ‘No, fuck that. I can't be like that. He's being an asshole. I wish you hell, mate.’ She loves that song. She knows it’s about her.”

Backfired
“This is about me, pretty much, because I'm a party girl. The girls laugh. They're like, ‘This is so your song.’ I'm always like, ‘No, no, no, I won’t, I'm not having one tonight. No. I want to have an early night. I want to be a good girl,’ and then it's that one friend or your partner who’s like, ‘Aw, just one drink.’ ‘Okay, just one.’ Then one turns into another, and the next thing it's like, it's on. I love those random nights where it backfires on me every time. ‘But how did that happen? What? Damn it. Why? I said I wasn't going to drink!’ And it turns into a full-blown party. I've got no off switch. I can't say no. But it’s good fun.”