New Music Review - ‘This Kinda Day’ by Mild Orange

Centre art by Fadjar Kurnia, design by Josh Mehrtens (Mehrt) - this really showcases what the song is about. Loving the funky artwork!

Mild Orange have gone and done it again - they are dropping another good thing on us during these difficult times in New Zealand. They are here to “brighten up your day” (if you know, you know) throughout this latest nationwide lockdown and as per usual, they certainly don’t let us down - lets be real, they could never let us down here at Welcome to the Gig!

Mehrt, Jah, Jeck and Barry have put together quite a meaningful new single, This Kinda Day (available from 12am Friday, NZT)* and it is tremendously wonderful. I promise.

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The song had its premiere on Australian radio show, Double J, this morning and I wanted to get a review out before the single dropped as I feel that this song needs to be talked about, even ahead of its official release (if you missed the song, you can pre-save from Mild Orange’s official Instagram here).

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So, what is the back story behind the track? Mehrt revealed on the Double J show that it was written over a particularly hard time when he had pneumonia and pleurisy (inflammation of the tissue that lines the lungs and chest cavity, making it hard to breathe - this is also extremely painful when trying to breathe). Mehrt ended up having panic attacks and anxiety from this, which lasted a few months and honestly, as someone who suffers really bad anxiety, cannot imagine how awful this must have been for him.

Unfortunately, this meant that some Mild Orange shows were cancelled so that he could look after his health and recover from such trauma to the system. In turn, this did cause some further issues with Mehrt’s mental health, however, with the help of his bandmates and others surrounding him, he was able to ask for the help he needed and got through it with their never ending support and love, thus creating a masterpiece aptly titled This Kinda Day.

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The song took a few months to record over three different cities throughout New Zealand, so you can absolutely tell that this is one that have been holding proudly onto in order to perfect their craft for the song.

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In terms of the song itself, it opens up in true Mild Orange fashion with funky guitar sounds, deliberately excellent drum beats which promotes the song as the magic that you are about to receive and breathe, along with the most fired up vocals, which is to be expected from these four retro men.

There has been A LOT of thought go into This Kinda Day and that truly shines through for every second of the song.

Feeling like you’re swirling through the ocean of emotion? Pop this jam on and let the weight of the world be taken off of your chest. With the tracks surf-rock, yet earthy tones layer upon layer, it will put you into a good headspace of thinking and believing that no matter what happens, things will always be fine at the end of the day.

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As mentioned above, we are currently in a nationwide lockdown here and the song shatters those blues that a lot of us are having. Mild Orange certainly makes you feel really calm and happy, no matter the situation. Each body of work they release into the universe has some different meaning and is always powered up with real life experiences and things that have come from their hearts.

This Kinda Day promotes the positivity of going through a really hard thing, but having a different spirit to you by reaching out and sharing your troubles with the people closest to you, the ones you trust the most.

Lyrics such as “let it get away. Let’s get away, cause I can tell there’s something wrong, it’s usually not like this”, “all will make sense some day” “keep your eyes on the horizon, always” really melt my heart and fill in that piece of warmth that was missing before.

Knowing that we, like Mehrt, have a support system when times get a bit rough and you are unable to bring your boat back into the harbour is a really moving feeling (or is Some Feeling - okay, someone tell me to be quiet with the Mild Orange puns, please).

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You can find more Mild Orange on the blog here - a special Feature Friday from exactly two months ago. Check out their new website here (and buy some merch - support local during these weird times) and don’t forget to listen to This Kinda Day when it drops on Friday and let me know what your thoughts are on the track here.

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Thank you, MO for making the days a little less stressful and full of fun!

*The single was released on THURSDAY at midnight, NZT, not Friday. This was incorrectly published. My apologies. Check out the song here!