Melbourne singer‑songwriter Rowena Wise’s second album, Bad Things Feel Good*, uses an asterisk to hint that not every bad thing feels good.

Wise told Double J’s Dylan Lewis that she didn’t want to tell a clean story about morality or love. “I’d like to sit in the grey area a bit,” she said, adding that the songs also touch on mental health, identity crises and non‑monogamy.

The album was recorded with producer Rob Muinos at his Collingwood studio, The Ratshack. Wise spent three days “crammed in a tiny room” with a live band – bassist Rich Bradbeer, drummer Jess Ellwood and pedal‑steel player Matt Dixon – to lay down each track.

One of the standout tracks, “Unlearning of Love”, captures the “curious, terrifying but beautiful” tension of forming a new connection that is neither clearly platonic nor romantic, reflecting Wise’s experiences with non‑monogamy.

The song “Blood Ties” draws on a close friend’s struggle with mental illness and an emotionally repressed father. Wise uses that personal story to illustrate how silence and lack of vulnerability can deepen hardship, showing how real life feeds her lyrics.

From Wise’s approach we can learn that turning messy personal experiences into song can create space for nuance. By refusing tidy moral narratives, she invites listeners to sit with uncertainty and still find connection.

Wise’s new album will be supported by a national tour starting in October, giving audiences a chance to hear these nuanced stories performed live.