It’s been a long road from Sydney’s inner-west folk nights to Sunset Sound in LA, but Melinda Kirwin is bringing Falls back to where it all began. On April 29, she’ll return to the Hollywood Hotel for a one-night-only free show — a fitting homecoming for an artist whose indie folk/Americana sound is built on beautiful melodies and gorgeously expressive vocals, shaped as much by New York and Nashville as it is by Sydney, arriving off the back of a national tour supporting Ron Sexsmith.
“It feeks like this is a new step forward for Falls,” she says. “I just need to go play the Hollywood… and go, ‘hey everybody, I’m back, I have a new record.’”. That record, Bodega Rose, arrives on September 22 — a date Kirwin chose deliberately. “It’s the first day of fall in the U.S.,” she explains. “I thought, that feels right. The Falls should release their record on the first day of fall.”
The journey back to that stage has been anything but straightforward. Falls’ story began with weekly residencies at the Hollywood Hotel — a formative period we captured in an early AU interview around the release of the Hollywood EP back in 2013 — before a leap to SXSW, a move to the U.S., and the release of debut album Omaha. What followed were years of touring, writing, and slowly building toward a second record that — at one point — almost arrived in a very different form.
“The record that I’m about to put out started out as an EP that was going to come out in 2020,” Kirwin says. “Then the world just stopped… and I felt like if we released it then, it would just disappear.”
Instead, the project grew. A connection with Grammy Award-winning producer Joe Chiccarelli in Los Angeles transformed the material into something more expansive — and ultimately led to sessions at the iconic Sunset Sound Recorders. “I met with Joe and he said, ‘we need to turn this EP into an album.’ I think he really saved me and my career as a musician.”
It’s an iconic recording studio. The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Prince, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and so many more set down tracks there. Recording there left its mark. “I was doing scratch vocals in the same booth as Jim Morrison,” she says. “If those walls could talk…”
For Kirwin, that commitment to the long game has always been central. “I said from the beginning with Falls that I didn’t want to just be a weekend warrior with it. This is all I am about and all I want to do.”. That mindset is what carried her from Sydney’s inner-west folk scene to a life split between New York, Los Angeles and now Nashville — and it’s what underpins Bodega Rose, a record shaped as much by geography as it is by time.
“I feel like the record is New York meets Nashville,” she says. Falls has always carried a country influence — though not in the traditional sense. “I mean, I think Bob Dylan writes country songs,” she adds. “That’s the kind of country I connect to.”
For Kirwin, the album title itself captures that duality. “In New York, the little corner stores are called bodegas,” she explains. “So Bodega Rose sounds like a country song, but it’s got its heart in New York City. And I feel like that’s where my music comes from too.”
There’s another shift at the heart of this new chapter: Falls is now a solo project. “Simon decided to step away,” she says. “He didn’t want to be in America anymore… and I understood that. But I knew this is where I needed to be.”
Stepping out alone has been both strange and liberating. “I’d never done anything with my original music without Simon next to me — so it was overwhelming at first,” she admits. Still, returning to the stage — particularly that stage — carries weight. “It feels like ripping a band-aid off… but in the best way.”
The Hollywood Hotel show isn’t just symbolic — it’s deeply personal. “It was home for so long. We were all family there,” Kirwin says. “This time, it’s going to be a reunion of sorts.”. That sense of nostalgia has already started to ripple outward. “I’ve had messages from people who have moved away from Sydney who are coming back for it… it’s really beautiful.”
It also reconnects Falls to a scene that once thrived across venues/events such as High Tea, Folk Club, The Newsagency and 505 — a moment in time Kirwin clearly still holds close. “There was something really special going on back then,” she reflects. “People have been saying, ‘we need this again.’ I’d love to see that happen.”
While the upcoming shows mark a return, they’re also a launchpad. With Bodega Rose finally set for release — years after its initial conception — Kirwin is already thinking about what comes next.
“I’ve got the next record ready to go in my head,” she says. “Now that I’ve figured out how to make it, I’m ready to keep going.”
That momentum includes hopes of returning to Australia again soon — and ticking off some long-held ambitions. “Port Fairy Folk Festival is a dream,” she says. “And the Blue Mountains Festival… I’d love to come back and play those.”
For now though, it’s about this moment — this run of shows, this record, and this return. After years spent chasing something bigger, Falls is coming home not just with new music, but with a renewed sense of purpose. And it all starts where it began.
So, if you are in Sydney, or can manage the journey, get yourself along to The Hollywood Hotel on the 29th of April. And if you are outside Sydney, then you can catch Falls supporting the incredible Ron Sexsmith on his national tour.
Ron Sexmith Tour – with special guest Falls
Sunday 19th April – BCEC Plaza Auditorium, Brisbane
Thursday 23rd April – Recital Hall, Melbourne
Friday 24th April – Theatre Roal, Castlemaine
Saturday 25th April – The Gov, Adelaide
Special Falls Headline Show
Wednesday 29th April – The Hollywood Hotel, Sydney (One Night Only) – FREE ENTRY
You can keep up to date with Falls via their website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify
Images supplied
