MCK unveils debut album Becoming and first single ‘An Honest Mess’ featuring Mountain Boy

A new MCK era begins on March 11th with the first single from her debut album Becoming, An Honest Mess featuring Melbourne-born pop-folk artist Mountain Boy — signifying a shift in sonic direction for New Zealand pop artist MCK since the Hot Sounds EP in March of last year. A coming of age duet that encapsulates the chaos of love with a delicate call-and-response, An Honest Mess is a swelling, cinematic ballad fit for a score. Accompanying the single on release day is a music video shot at Auckland’s Stardome, featuring dancers Grace Stevens and Joe Taylor which you can watch here.

“It’s about a very short-lived but high intensity relationship, where everything between us felt very breakable at every moment. There was a certain amount of chaos from the very start — but there was also a transparency about how complicated we both were that kept it honest. I didn’t want to pull away just because it was hard, so this was me asking if we could be open to the mess.”

The beginnings of Becoming started during the first lockdown of 2020, and include two songs made with highly acclaimed producer and engineer Simon Gooding (P!nk, Dua Lipa), with the bulk of the project being pieced together in sessions with key collaborator Joel Jones (LA Women, Paddy Echo).

Due for release in June and funded by NZ On Air, MCK has shared an introduction visual to Becoming shot on Super 8 by director and videographer Devan Narsai, who is taking on the entire album’s visuals which involves 3 music videos alongside each single, with the second single World of You to follow swiftly in May.