Merpire Interview: “My songs are the most secret part of me”…Talking “MILK POOL”, Following Your Feelings & More
“I would say to listen out for a couple of different animal sounds throughout the album…”
8 min read
Credit: GIVE IT A SPIN 📸
Merpire is gearing up for her sophomore album MILK POOL, due out July 4th. We sat down with the rising artist to get to know her musical inspiration, what’s to come on the album and how she creates her immersive sound in the studio.
The album is bursting with an emotional rollercoaster of themes all derived from lived experience: diving into the unknown, sexuality & pure crush, home in community, putting the final stitches over past traumas, restlessness, rediscovery of self and values
MILK POOL is for the romantics, the daydreamers, and those moving through intense periods of change.
It’s cliche to ask how you got into music. But have there been any musical moments you can remember which have remained poignant and contributed to this new record?
I think what remains poignant is my relationship with music in general, as a listener and a writer. It’s always been this part of my life with plenty of juxtaposition - my songs are my most secret part of me that I tell the whole world about, it makes me happily sad and sadly happy. It cures me and breaks me.
Writing with Liz (Elizabeth M Drummond) over the years has also remained a very affecting part of my life. She and I don’t often get together to write because we’re very similar in that we go inward and we’re private with our writing. We also know, though, that when we do write, it’s always deep and big and means something. With her own writing and production for her own music, she encouraged me to let my darker side out on this album. We always send each other songs. I sent her ‘Rosanna’ and what she sent back after having ONE go at producing it floored me. She added all these fleeting but important moments throughout the song to make it sound obsessive and sinister. I feel very lucky to have Liz and her talent in my life.
Merpire tracks are always emotionally charged and blissful to experience. Are there any surprises or hidden treats we can look forward to on the album?
Ah, thank you! There are a few treats, yes, do I give them away?! I would say to listen out for a couple of different animal sounds throughout the album.
On one of those particular songs, I subtly change the tempo from the verses to the chorus and back again to change the energy from the ‘street-wandering’ in the verses and the ‘bed-jumping’ in the choruses. Also, on ‘Premonition’, to get a particular percussion element I wanted, James (Seymour), my producer, used a sample called ‘body hitting metal’ - brutal.
Echoing that, your tracks are also completely immersive. How do you approach that in the studio? Do you have a process in place now, or do you follow your intuition each time?
I’m always following feelings. I often get melodies or riffs for other instruments pop up in my head, as well as textures while I’m writing the songs so I’ll make note of these for studio time. I also save songs in a playlist from other artists whose vocal sound, or production element I’m drawn to. Sometimes it’s a mixing reference like being drawn to where the drums might sit in with other instruments in a song.
Having worked with James Seymour a lot, who co-produced all songs except ‘Bigger’, produced by James Dring and ‘Rosanna’, produced by Elizabeth M Drummond) - we were unafraid to try whatever ideas popped up between us. Sometimes they’d work, sometimes they wouldn’t. Sometimes for me, it would take describing a sound or a texture in lots of different ways while James would be experimenting, trying to find the sound. My direction would sound like this, ‘So I think it’s a synth sound, like an ambulance siren that’s maybe 2 streets away…’ or ‘Electric guitar…. crunchy, and like there’s cellophane over it or there’s mud on the strings’ and James would somehow know what I’m talking about.
I think what made mine and James’s working relationship so special is how well my movie-like songs matched James’s ability to make the scenes more 3rd, with more colour, drawing from his experience of sound designing for video as well as just his incredibly creative brain.
Do you have a favourite track or moment from bringing the album together?
I love the closing track, ‘You Are Loved’ for its simplicity and its unintended sadness. Again with the juxtapositions - the act of writing that song in my friends lounge room was some of the free-est writing I’ve ever done while feeling trapped in my own thoughts.
It’s one of the saddest songs I’ve ever written. Meanwhile, in the background, my friends’ cat is taking a shit in the litter box and you hear her scratching at the litter. That experience and this image just perfectly sums up my approach to the music industry - the music itself can be serious, beautiful and sad and meaningful, but the industry can be a toilet for a cat.
Finally, are there any particular artists that you were listening to or digging while making the record?
Totally - Japanese Breakfast, Porches, Mitski, Steve Lacy, Caroline Polachek, Sasami.
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