Porridge Radio singer Dana Margolin at London’s Rough Trade Records in October 2024.
Photo: Paul Hudson / CC BY 2.0

‘Healing is not linear. The birds in the trees, they will always be there for me. The clouds in the sky, they will always be there for me” – British singer Dana Margolin.

For Dana Margolin, the hopeful spirit of her band Porridge Radio’s new album Clouds in the sky they will always be there for me caught in these words she doesn’t remember writing.

The British singer and visual artist tells Music 101’s Maggie Tweedie that she went through a terrible breakup right before filming Cloud and her Porridge Radio bandmates provided great support and understanding.

“We would record a song and I would just fall to the ground. It was an intense experience that I had and it was a space that just allowed me to have that experience and not have to pretend I didn’t have it. I feel lucky that this is my job because I didn’t have to pretend I wasn’t going through what I was going through.”

Cover art for the 2024 album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me by British band Porridge Radio
Photo: Delivered

‘I’m tired of waiting and tired of wanting you,’ sings Margolin in ‘Pieces of Heaven’ – a song about the confusing and painful experience of a lover repeatedly walking away and then coming back.

“I was at the end of a really long period of being touched by someone who I really loved and really cared about and played with my head and my heart for a long time.”

It felt almost healing to write about this experience in ‘Pieces of Heaven’, she says.

“It was a song that I used as a way to get through that feeling and that heartbreak and to redirect some of the longing into a refusal to be played with and to just say enough is enough.”

While previously touring, Margolin says she pushed through illness and exhaustion until it became difficult to think or take care of herself. Now she must actively work against the tendency to disregard her own naturally extreme limits.

“About to die” is not a healthy state to work into, Margolin now realizes.

“You can actually stop a lot earlier. You can notice when your limits might be approaching and note it and actually take care of yourself… Like we’re in an indie band. It’s supposed to be fun.”

“I’m in love with my life again”, Margolin sings on the last track of Clouds in the sky they will always be there for me but accept in reality that this feeling comes and goes.

“Nothing is linear and nothing is an upward trajectory. Sometimes you have to go back down, and sometimes you circle back and sometimes it does a massive loop around in the air and up and down. Every now and then I’m in love with my life.”

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