Heather Mall Finds Hope Inside Heartbreak on 'Calliope'

There’s something deeply unfiltered about Heather Mall’s Calliope. Not in the loud or chaotic sense, but in the way the album quietly refuses to hide from grief, longing, nostalgia, or vulnerability. At a time when so much singer-songwriter music feels engineered for TikTok captions and surface-level sadness, Calliope feels refreshingly human. The Chicago artist leans fully into emotional honesty without trying to dramatize it, and that restraint is exactly what gives the album its weight.

From the opening moments of “Write Me,” Heather establishes the emotional language of the project. Soft piano lines, folk-inspired melodies, and delicate vocal performances create an atmosphere that feels warm yet fragile, almost like flipping through old letters or memories you’re not fully ready to revisit. Across twelve tracks, she explores heartbreak, grief, love, and self-discovery with a perspective that feels lived-in instead of performative.

What makes Calliope stand out is how interconnected everything feels. The album isn’t just about romantic love or loss. It’s about the people and moments that shape how we understand love altogether. Heather cites her grandparents, Gus and Angie, as the emotional backbone of the project, and you can feel that influence throughout the record.

Songs like “Seat At The Table” and “Dear Christopher” carry a quiet emotional gravity, while tracks like “Like The Willow Grows” and “Will I Ever Know?” wrestle with longing and uncertainty in a way that feels painfully relatable without becoming cynical.

Sonically, the album floats between indie-pop, folk, and classic singer-songwriter influences. There are traces of Sara Bareilles’ emotional clarity, Joni Mitchell’s intimacy, and even subtle Beatles-inspired warmth woven into the songwriting. But Heather never sounds like she’s chasing another artist’s identity. Her voice carries the project naturally, balancing softness with conviction in a way that makes even the smallest lyrical details land harder.

One of the strongest aspects of Calliope is its belief in hope, even when discussing heavy emotions. Heather doesn’t romanticize suffering, but she also doesn’t run from it. Instead, she frames heartbreak and grief as experiences that can deepen a person rather than destroy them. That perspective gives the album a comforting quality that lingers long after it ends.

The recurring references to birds and nature throughout the album also add another layer of beauty to the writing. Rather than feeling overly poetic, they mirror the themes of growth, freedom, memory, and emotional connection that sit at the center of the record. Heather approaches songwriting like someone trying to notice every small detail life offers before it disappears, and that mindfulness becomes contagious while listening.

For a debut album, Calliope feels remarkably self-assured. Heather Mall understands exactly what kind of artist she wants to be, and more importantly, she understands how she wants people to feel when they hear her music. This isn’t an album chasing trends or virality. It’s an album designed to sit beside people during the quiet moments of their lives, whether they’re healing, grieving, reminiscing, or simply trying to feel understood.

In a culture that constantly encourages emotional detachment, Calliope feels almost rebellious in its sincerity. Heather Mall isn’t afraid to care deeply, and thankfully, neither is this album.

Calliope feels deeply tied to memory and nostalgia. Was there a specific moment in your life where you realized this album needed to exist?

Fantastic question! Honestly, it feels as though this album has been lingering throughout moments in my life, waiting to be fully seen, heard, and interpreted for years. I would say there was a moment last summer, July of 2025, where I had an epiphany and went, “if I want my dreams to come true, I have to be the one to create them. I can’t sit and wait around for someone else’s approval or for someone to ‘notice’ me. I have to share what’s on my heart and in my brain because at the end of the day, it won’t come to fruition unless I take the steps to make it happen.”

After experiencing a minor vocal injury in early 2025 (I’ve since recovered, eternally grateful!), I recognized that there is no use in letting your dreams sit on a shelf, with layers of dust accumulating on them. It takes a lot of work, but if it’s something you believe in and have been called to share or create, it is worth it. You owe it to yourself to pursue your creativity and make art! After realizing the album needed to exist, I didn’t know what to name it or whether it should be self-titled. I love family history and genealogy.

Shortly after July 2025, I discovered that my second great-grandmother’s name was Calliope. I thought the name was beautiful because there’s a Calliope hummingbird, and I am heavily inspired by birdwatching and nature. When I went to look up what “Calliope” means in Greek, it translates to “beautiful-voiced.” In Greek mythology, Calliope is the muse of poetry and writing; in that moment, it felt like kismet, and everything was happening the way it was supposed to. She is also the first of the nine muses, which I thought was fitting for my first album.

Your music balances heartbreak with hope in a really intentional way. Why was it important for you not to let grief completely overpower the album emotionally?

Because grief has a way of popping up in your life at unexpected moments, but there is always a balance between grief and joy or peace. It was important for me not to let it overpower the album, because the album represents the balance of grief and love in my life, and even though the grief can be heavy, I don’t want my music to feel so heavy; I want it to have the perfect balance of hope and realistic tough subjects.

Personally, I tend to be more optimistic. But the fact that I feel so deeply is what often leads me to write ballads or heartfelt songs, because that’s how I process my feelings and the world. When friends or family are experiencing tough times, my first instinct is to comfort them, try to make them smile, and help them hold on to the hope that everything will eventually be okay, even when it doesn’t feel like it. The feeling of needing to be strong for someone else is something that I carry and then release in my songwriting. I’m glad that it comes across in my writing for this album!

Songs about heartbreak are the easiest for me to write because, instead of lingering in the sadness for too long, I see the lessons that come from those experiences. The heartbreak and hope themes are definitely intentional most of the time. I’m always ready to analyze a situation and think, “what did I learn from that, and how can I make this beneficial in the future?” Hope is a crucial element of who I am to the core, so the balance between heartbreak and hope feels natural when it comes to songwriting. I always want the listener to remember that there will always be hope, even amidst chaos, heartbreak, and grief.

Nature and birds appear constantly throughout your songwriting. What do those symbols represent to you personally, beyond aesthetics?

The importance of nature and protecting it means everything to me. In a world where social media can feel controlling, people often reward themselves with “taking breaks” in nature. I feel that, collectively, people forget that we are all a part of nature. Nature isn’t something that we visit when we need a break; we are actively a part of it, always.

When I became a wildlife photographer, birdwatching (or birding) came with the territory, and it expanded my songwriting world. The intricate details of birds' lives and nature were astounding. It was something I had noticed before, but never thought too much about it until I became immersed in it. The natural world is fascinating, educational, and overall beautiful. Everything has a purpose. Everything in nature is actively working together, and I think that’s a really important aspect that goes unnoticed in our day-to-day lives. Spending time with birds in natural places has done wonders for my nervous system, and their songs honestly hold so much healing.

Back on the subject of grief, nature has taught me so much about the balance of grief and hope, as you had mentioned before. One time, I found a young bird in my yard struggling on the ground, so I put on gloves and picked it up to see what I could do to help. It was experiencing some type of neurological issue, but I held it in my gloves, and I sang to it, trying to offer comfort in any way I could.

Moments later, the bird sadly passed, but other beautiful birds were still singing in the garden. Life continued for the rest of the world even though something heartbreaking had happened moments before. Grief, hope, love, heartbreak, joy, sadness, anxiety, stillness, all of these things exist at the same time. Nature always finds a balance, and as humans, I think music helps us balance all our emotions. Birds and their songs bring me so much joy.

The best way I can give back to them is to write about them in my music, in hopes that the listener will pay more attention to the natural world and the birds around them. When we notice something and begin to care about it, we are more inclined to make a positive change and impact. When it comes to nature, I find that travel has been a consistent source of inspiration throughout my life and has helped shape my songwriting style.

There is so much to see out in the world and nature that I am fascinated by, but there is also so much around you, no matter where you go. You don’t have to travel outside your backyard to notice the beauty nature gives us, and yet it expects nothing in return. I view songwriting that way; I don’t necessarily expect anything from it, but I do hope people can resonate with it and feel seen.

A lot of artists today hide vulnerability behind irony or detached songwriting. You went the complete opposite direction on Calliope. Was that ever scary for you?

It’s funny because I do love jamming out to songs where the vulnerability hides behind irony, but I find it scarier in my own writing to hide the vulnerability. Even if I try to do that when writing, the vulnerability sneaks in and basically says, “Hey, you need to be so transparent,” so I do what feels necessary to the song and the story. I’ve always struggled to develop an artist persona because I am very much unapologetically myself, and I want to encourage others to be unapologetically themselves! Vulnerability is always the hurdle or roadblock that can make someone shy away from being themselves. There’s no fun in being someone that you’re not, and I promise that you will find people in life who love you for being unapologetically you!

Yes, there were a couple of songs on the album that scared me a tiny bit when I finished them, and I thought to myself, “Do I really share this in the song?” and then, ultimately, I didn’t let the fear of being seen get the best of me. I would be really scared if I were sharing something like “well this song is about my feelings for (insert name here)” but I will only share who a song is about if I’m dedicating it to people specifically, like my grandparents. But I will say that my songwriting is pretty specific and intentional for most of the songs on the album. I want people to hear these songs and relate to something deep in their souls or to feelings they try to mask. I also want this album to feel like conversations you would have with a friend who is experiencing heartbreak or trying to find themselves.

Your grandparents are such a huge emotional influence on this project. What’s something they taught you about love that still shapes the way you write music today?

There is always love to share with others without expecting anything in return. All of my music is rooted in the love they gave me, which allows me to freely write about my own perspective on love and how I see the world through music. I am so grateful for the strong relationship I had with them and for the fond memories I can look back on. One of the songs on this album is also inspired by my other late grandmother, Nancy, and I have more songs in the future dedicated to her and other people throughout my family’s history.

Calliope is influenced by my maternal grandparents, who were the most giving people I’ve ever known. My grandma, Angie, wore her heart on her sleeve, gave car rides to complete strangers, would offer you a place to stay, whatever you needed; she was always ready to share and give. She was always so selfless. I definitely learned how to create boundaries after watching her wear herself thin sometimes from giving. But regardless, if you know your limits, you can still find ways to spread love in your day-to-day life. Like my grandpa, Gus, would do anything for the people that he loved, there was never a moment when you couldn’t count on him to be there for you or to give you advice. They taught me everything I know: never shy away from letting people know you love them, that you can be a shoulder to cry on if they need it, or that you just need someone to sit with you while you process your emotions.

I wish they were still here today because they were loved by so many people, and the world deserves to know how special they are. I am eternally grateful for their love to look up to and cherish for the rest of my life. I am so proud to be their granddaughter. They were the driving force behind this project, not just because I want them to be remembered, but because I wouldn’t be the musician I am today if it weren’t for everything they taught me, the love they constantly gave to me, and their belief in me as a singer. They were my biggest supporters, making strangers and friends alike listen to recordings of me singing whenever they could. The music I make today and in the future will always be shaped by them; they live on in it.