Everyone goes through a crisis now and then. For Hannah Joy, the singer of Sydney indie band Middle Kids, it came in the depths of lockdown. She was a new mum and, locked away from the world, she began questioning, well, everything.

“The kind of artist that I am is that I go out and have experiences with people in the world, and then I come back and reflect,” she says. “It’s kind of cyclical in that way, and not having any energy or input coming in, I found that very difficult – and when I looked inside, I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that, actually.’

“I was in a stalemate with myself for a while, having to relearn how to be creative while being a mum because those energies are very different. It’s not like I could just take days to indulge and find out what’s swirling around, so I really had to find a new way.”

Finding that new way took some deep introspection, which wasn’t always easy. Hannah went on solo weekend trips to write the songs that would eventually become Middle Kids’ third album, Faith Crisis Pt 1. Away from her husband and bandmate, Tim Fitz, she could reflect on what was really going on inside her – and accept that going through hard times is simply part of being a human.

The album is all about sharing that feeling. “Life is full of many of these little crises… That’s growing and living,” Hannah says. “We liked the idea of normalising the fact that it’s OK that we’re going to go through life and get things wrong, and we’re going to be disappointed, and we’re going to have to reassess and go on that journey, because otherwise it’s just too crushing.”

To record the album, the band – Hannah, Tim and drummer Harry Day – hopped over the pond to the UK to work with producer Jonathan Gilmore, who’s twiddled the knobs for the likes of The 1975 and Lewis Capaldi. Their hope was to create an even more immersive sound for Middle Kids, and they spent six weeks in the studio doing just that.

“We were quite intentional about where this sat sonically as a record, and seeing a trend in our music of starting in quite a lo-fi world. We wanted to retain a lot of the natural sounds of guitars, drums, vocals, but wanted it to be a bit more heightened,” Hannah says. “It’s crazy with technology – I’ll listen to a Flume record and it just smacks you in the face, and if you listen to an old indie record, it’s just so piddly.

“To keep up with the soundscape of things and to be able to get your music to hit with immediacy – but still being able to retain your true self at the heart of it – is something that we’ve been really trying to work on for this record.”

There’s also a special guest on this album: Gang of Youths singer and longtime friend David Le’aupepe, who duets with Hannah on the piano-led ballad “All In My Head”. The song has gone through a surprising journey – it was written years ago as a full-band song but didn’t feel quite right for the last record. Rearranging it as something gentler felt better – but when Tim suggested Dave should sing on it, Hannah still wasn’t sure. “At first, I was like, ‘Well, it’s a very personal song – I’m not sure if I want someone else to sing on it’,” she remembers. “It took me a little while to come around to the idea.”

But it’s one of her favourites now, particularly for the new meaning Dave’s voice gives the song. “It’s a real song of feeling isolated and stuck inside yourself, but I love that idea of two people feeling that at the same time together,” she says. “There’s hope and beauty in the fact that two people are singing it, because there’s empathy that we’re all in our chaotic minds sometimes, and much of the challenge is how to share that with each other and not feel totally alone.”

Another famous friend once shared some wisdom with the band that has proven true. “When we were on tour with Crowded House, I was sitting with Neil Finn and he was like, ‘The third record is where I feel like bands really hit their stride’,” Hannah recalls. “I do find I’m just starting to get it – I think we've got a lot of songs and exploration in us. I’m getting more used to the process of making things and fully pouring yourself out, and then building yourself back up again.”

On the other side of it all, Hannah is feeling rejuvenated. She’s just had her second baby, celebrated a year of sobriety and starred in her first film, the Aussie dramedy Christmess. Middle Kids are heading out on a national tour in May – something Hannah, a self-described “total road doggie”, is looking forward to.

And while things still aren’t 100 per cent clear for her, she’s OK with that. In fact, she might even be leaning in to it. “I’m in a very different place – it still feels tender and in many ways I feel less idealistic and I have less sureties, and maybe that’s something that happens as you get older,” she says.

“I’m feeling more relaxed about being in the space of not knowing… I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing half the time but there are a few driving factors in my life that feel really important: being an artist, a mother, a friend. I’m going to just try and do those in the craziness of life.”

This interview comes straight from the pages of issue 119. To get your mitts on a copy, swing past the frankie shop, subscribe or visit one of our lovely stockists.