Stephin Merrit is one of the most esteemed songwriters alive today. For three and half decades he has been the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist at the heart of the New York based band, The Magnetic Fields. The band was formed in 1991 by Merrit and his friend and musical collaborator Claudia Gonson. Over the next five years The Magnetic Fields would release a quintet of excellent albums built around Merrit’s genre-fluid songs, and unique arrangements that often featured cello, ukulele, hand percussion, noisemakers, and other unusual instrumentation.
Things changed completely in 1999 with the release of the now infamous 69 Love Songs, a towering three record set of tunes that pushed and pulled at the seams of what makes up a love song. The triple album was an unexpected hit with critics and audiences alike, thrusting Merrit into a new spotlight with praise flowing from outlets like The New York Times, which just counted Merrit as one of the 30 greatest living American songwriters, as well as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and NPR.
While The Magnetic Fields continues to be an ongoing entity, Merrit has also branched out in his creative work with forays into composing for musical theater, scoring for films, and even writing a book of poetry. Merrrit also writes and records music with a pair of other bands, The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes.
During our conversation, Merrit and I discuss his itinerant upbringing with a single mother, and he shares some of his earliest musical memories. We also delve into Merrit’s unique writing style, and the way that he hangs on to his melodies after he writes them, all based around an important lesson that he gleaned from Swedish greats, ABBA.
Let’s get into it.
Cheers,
Matty C
