What do you do when it’s 2am and you’re angry enough to smash every dish in the flat? If you’re MADELINE, you sit down at the piano instead and write ‘MESSY’.
Probably cheaper in the long run.
The Newfoundland singer-songwriter is heading across the Atlantic to play LOUD WOMEN Fest London this Saturday, so Team LOUD WOMEN’s Cyn Cheng caught up with her to talk about where the songs come from, the move from pop towards something louder, and why some feelings are much easier to sing than say out loud.
MADELINE started performing at five and writing songs at seven, growing up on Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette and Serena Ryder. As her own songwriting has developed, so has the sound, with the pop of her earlier work increasingly making room for rock and punk influences.
Then came ‘MESSY’.
The song started during one particularly furious night in Halifax.
“I was like, oh my gosh, I’m so angry at him, I’m gonna break all of the dishes in this apartment.”
Fortunately, she reconsidered the crockery-based revenge plan. She sat down at the piano, found four chords, and the beginnings of ‘MESSY’ arrived instead.
The resulting big, angry song has since become a live favourite.
It is part of a wider pattern in MADELINE’s songwriting. In the interview she talks about songs including ‘Shitshow’, ‘Hold Me While I Cry’ and ‘1 AM’, and about using music as somewhere to put the emotions that are harder to deal with anywhere else.
“People meet me and they’ll be like, I can’t believe you wrote a song like ‘Shitshow’ and ‘MESSY’, you’re so nice and bubbly and happy all the time.”
Turns out writing the angry songs might have something to do with that.
Cyn also asks MADELINE about the artists who shaped her, finding a sound that feels increasingly like her own, and the ambition she has been announcing since junior high: one day, she’s playing Madison Square Garden.
First, Bethnal Green.
MADELINE plays LOUD WOMEN Fest London this Saturday, 5 September, at Rich Mix. Nineteen artists from around the world, two stages and one very large day of LOUD WOMEN. Get your LOUD WOMEN Fest London ticket here.
LOUD WOMEN Fest London 2026
Saturday 5 September
Rich Mix, Bethnal Green, London
19 artists + two stages
All ages
Interview by Cyn Cheng, who joined Team LOUD WOMEN for work experience from The BRIT School.
