AT HOME WITH... Mel Parsons

Much-loved indie-folk artist Mel Parsons recorded her latest album while parenting three kids under 3, and her 9-year-old stepdaughter, which she describes as “a pretty crazy juggle”. When she’s not touring, Parsons, 40, is at home by the sea in Lyttelton with her partner and bandmate Josh, and their four children.

MEL: We bought this 1930s bungalow three years ago. It’s earthquake-damaged, not super badly, but yet to be fully repaired, which suits us down to the ground because with young kids we’re not precious about anything.

Our kids are Audrey, 9 (my stepdaughter), and then Otti, 3, Pippin, 2, and Rocco, who’s 1.

Eventually we’ll renovate the house, but for now it’s quite liveable, it’s safe.

Around the home, Josh and I are both quite minimalist, although that’s hard with children dragging bits home from kindy.

Instruments are the things we covet, and a bit of art. Maybe down the line we’ll have some nice things.

Josh is a musician and a producer as well, so we’re both parenting and working. It’s a pretty crazy juggle, but it’s what we love to do. We’re lucky in that we work in what is our passion.

The kids are at various hours of kindy and a little bit of daycare for Rocco, but they’re mostly at home, so we do a lot of parenting in the day and working by night.

Often I’ll just come up to my wee studio with a baby monitor whenever the last one goes down.

The studio is a very calm environment. I thought it would be a no-kids rule in here, but it hasn’t worked out as I hoped. The kids like playing the drums.

It was three under 3 while I was recording Slow Burn. That meant some challenging logistics and just coping with the tiredness. When we went into the recording sessions, we’d have grandparents come and help us out.

Josh’s parents are in Blenheim and my mum is on the West Coast. My dad is of no fixed abode: he travels all over the show. He helps us out when he stays. He’ll often do the kindy run with the double pram and the baby in the backpack. He knows more of the kindy parents than we do.

I feel lucky living in Lyttelton in the sense that I’ve spent a lot of time touring and building up my career so now I can be anywhere. I’m still up in Auckland quite a bit because that’s where most of the industry is based.

I spent a lot of years living in Auckland, Nelson for a year, various stints in Wellington, and then overseas, a couple of years in Canada and Australia, staying for six months here and there.

When I’ve lived away from the coast I feel a bit claustrophobic. It doesn’t quite sit right.

Lyttelton feels like home. I think this will be our base for the foreseeable future.

I’ll probably start getting back out to Europe and North America, and Australia will be next after this national tour (starting next month).

I’ve had pretty strong support in Germany and Canada and playing festivals and tours in Australia. It’s all just ticking away.

I had these romantic ideas of bringing the children on the road with us. Otti did tour with us quite a lot when she was small. One baby is manageable, but three is a whole other thing.

The songs I write are observational in some ways. I try not to over-analyse it. If I’m too explicit about what they’re about, it’s harder for people to connect with.

That’s what I do myself with music; bring it in and make it mine. That makes you feel something, and for me, that’s the highest goal.

Mel Parsons released her fifth album, Slow Burn, this month and is touring New Zealand during October and November