As the first of our three Reverb Nation winners, Larry Heath recently had the opportunity to speak to Alaska based artist Merry Ellen Kirk to find out about the making of her new EP Feather and a Leaf, her influences, and her Mongolian upbringing.
For those who aren't totally aware of what you're all about, could you tell us a bit about your music?
For someone who's never heard my music before, I usually classify my music as dream-pop or indie alternative pop, with a similar sound to Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, & A Fine Frenzy.
You are, first and foremost, a songwriter. How long have you been penning lyrics?
I wrote my first song when I was 15. My piano teacher helped me get into it, taught me how to dissect a song & the chords in it, and encouraged me to sing & play at the same time. After I wrote my first song, I just wanted to keep creating - performing other people's songs just didn't offer quite the same satisfaction.
A lot of your songs seem to be telling stories. Would you say all of your songs follow along some sort of narrative structure?
Definitely a lot of my songs are narrative. Some convey more of a mood or an idea, but I think it's important for songs to have a logical progression from beginning to end, a journey, a moving forward. In the same way, I think a song has a life of its own, & can grow over time to mean different things to different people, as it reaches new ears and hits people in different ways. That was the concept behind "Firefly Garden" actually.
Where do you draw your inspiration from when songwriting?
I find inspiration in all forms of art-- poetry ("Masquerade" was inspired by the ballroom scene of Romeo & Juliet, "Song of the Open Road" was based on the poem by Walt Whitman), visual art ("Mosaic" was written while I was decorating my keyboard with an actual mosaic/collage), film ("August Rush" was particularly inspiring to me when it came out, and was a catalyst for the writing of "Blinding Me"), as well as the art of striving to become a better person, and the art of human interaction. My most recent EP, Feather & a Leaf, was inspired primarily by the latter - it contains bits & pieces of my one-sided love & longing, experiences of those close to me, my personal non-romantic experiences, with a little fiction intermingled, & nature themes interwoven.
And your musical inspiration?
I love discovering great singer-songwriters. Some of my favorites are Lisa Hannigan, Imogen Heap, Ingrid Michaelson, & A Fine Frenzy. Also, whenever someone tells me I sound like someone, I usually study them & learn from them - like Tori Amos & Kate Bush especially. I also really like studying what makes current Pop/Top 40 music successful - Katy Perry & Lady Gaga are two of my favorites to keep an eye on.
It sounds like you had a pretty interesting upbringing, growing up in Mongolia, before settling in Nashville. How do you think living in such different environments has shaped your perspective?
Early childhood in Mongolia definitely gave me a broader perspective on the world, and even there I always sang, always wanted to play the piano, & made up little ditties. When my family moved to Nashville, the idea of being a musician for a living became such a real possibility for me, since "songwriter" is such a common profession. I think the combination of different environments left me with a perspective that's outside of the box, off the beaten path.
Do you think this perspective is channelled into your music?
Definitely! I think any artist's experiences and worldviews reflect in his/her art; you can't really separate the art from the artist.
Did you come from a musical background?
Neither of my parents would consider themselves musicians, but my mom always used to sing me lullabies to bed every night, and my dad was quite good at the piano I'm told, and wrote a few songs in his younger days. My grandmother (dad's mom) was an excellent pianist & a piano teacher, as was her mother.
You have a new EP out now, could you tell us a bit about the making of this record?
Feather & a Leaf is a story of love in its phases and layers, from first infatuation to falling more deeply, to love lost, to wondering what you'd ever do without it. I was doing a lot of writing and these songs sort of fell into a collection, like they wanted to be together. We recorded the EP live on analog tape in the music room at apartment, to bring the magic of the original song-creation place to the recordings.
Should any of us be lucky enough to come across one of your live performances, what would we expect with comparison to your recorded material?
My live performances sound more like the Feather & a Leaf EP than anything. Usually I tour with another artist or two, & we'll sing background vocals or play additional instruments to support/enhance each other's performance (in my case, someone would play the glockenspiel &/or guitar), but sometimes it's just me on piano/vocals.
Are any trips to Australia on the cards soon?
Nothing planned in the near future, but I'd love to tour in Australia & New Zealand sometime before too long.
What else can we expect from you in 2013?
Well, I just made all 3 of my solo albums available for download on Noisetrade & Bandcamp for free/whatever-price-you-like. Also I've just recently launched on a site called Patronism, where you can follow all of my current songwriting demos, catch exclusive blogs, videos, & unreleased songs. There's a lot of content there that you won't find anywhere else.
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Find out more about Merry here: http://www.merryellenkirk.com/