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Main Stage :: Saga of the Siren

Saga of the Siren

Marissa Nadler shares her thoughts on art, Poe, and fitting in in suburbia.

July 31, 2006

With her seductive voice, long black hair, and enchanting melodies of mystical lands and loneliness, Marissa Nadler is a siren that will captivate you from the first finger-picked notes of her haunting songs. Quickly becoming known as much for her unique writing style as for her melancholic subject matter, Marissa was raised in Massachusetts and originally attended the Rhode Island School of Design with intentions of pursuing an art career. After one of her songs was included on a compilation album that also featured Thurston Moore, however, she decided to follow her other artistic passion and has since captivated audiences across the US, England, Greece, Scotland, Australia, and Italy. I asked Marissa about her upbringing.

Marissa Nadler: I grew up in suburban Massachusetts, right outside of Boston. My family is very supportive, but it was hard, for me to grow up in such a homogenous suburb. I never ever felt like I fit in, and in those kind of places there is a lot of pressure to homogenize. I got over it pretty quickly and started to embrace my weirder side, though. I spent most of my childhood dead set on becoming the next Picasso, or the female equivalent. My family is all quite artistic. My dad is the one who works a completely different type of job- but I suppose it is artistic- in a family of artists, he definitely gave me and my brother the cerebral side, whereas my mother is just all creativity.

Urban Guitar: When did you begin playing guitar?

Marissa Nadler: My older brother was in some bands. I definitely looked up to him and I attribute my starting to play the guitar with him. I didn't fare well with lessons. I started righty when I am a lefty so already I was making things harder for myself. The teacher wanted to start me over with Ode to Joy because I was anchoring, which isn’t proper technique, and I was already writing songs by that point so had no intention of letting a teacher backtrack me. I was also finger picking with only my thumb and index finger, and he was trying to get me to use all fingers. So, lessons never jived well with me. I think at heart I was always a little stubborn and determined to do things in a specific way.

Urban Guitar: Listening to your music, it seems to have hints of Country and Western, Irish chanties, 60's folk music, even some jazz vocal improv and – don't kill me- space age sounds. Is this my imagination?

Marissa Nadler: You are the first person to hear any jazz vocal improv, but my very first musical loves were that of Billy Holiday, and especially Nina Simone. I mean, also, lots of 60's folk music. I was just as obsessed with Bob Dylan as the next person when I was learning how to write songs. I really like Motown, Otis Redding, stuff like that. Basically, I like singers who can really sing. I am not into lo-fi purposely off key singing, which has been in fashion since the early nineties. I like songy songs and singers who can really sing them. But the influences come from all over the place. I really like old-timey music, but also a lot of Goth rock like the Cure. Throwing Muses, Kristen Hersch also influences from a different vein. You know, there is so much music around, I consider my music an amalgam. The biggest of my influences are Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, in terms of song writing. Sonically, I was into Pink Floyd, The Poppy Family, and a lot of space folk and space rock.

Urban Guitar: A lot of your music seems to be inspired by non-musical sources.

Marissa Nadler: Yes. Paintings and books mostly. I'll admit that at the time of my first record, Ballads of Living and Dying, I was a tad over-the-top Neruda and Poe references. But then, at that time, I was really trying to avoid being typecast as just another singer-songwriter writing confessional songs. So, I thought if I wrote third person songs or interpretations of literature, that the music would give a new spin on an old medium. Now I am just writing, and if people are going to typecast, so be it. Every artist gets pigeonholed, and its one of the things that really is debilitating about being an artist. The definition starts to mold what you do.

Urban Guitar: The Saga of Mayflower May references a song on your previous album, Ballads of Living and Dying.

Marissa Nadler: She is what I would call an altar ego type character. She is an exercise for me in living and dying. If I am very depressed about something, instead of acting on it, Mayflower May will be the one, who in the song, will lie down to die in the middle of the forest. She lives lives that I don’t have time for, playing in dive bar after dive bar. Imaginary friend, doppelganger, altar ego- something along those lines, but nowhere near as literal. Picture an early turner watercolor sketch of a person. That is who she is. The Saga of Mayflower May is not a concept record at all. I just named it what I named it because I though it had a nice ring to it at the time. So, she isn’t a real person. The record is about lots of different people. Lots about lost love. Actually, more than death, lost love is pretty much the prevalent theme of my songs to date.

Urban Guitar: You attended the Rhode Island School of Design, one of the most prestigious art schools in the world. Do you find that the art world and music world are similar?

Marissa Nadler: I think RISD really, really burnt me out. When I first got there, I had worked so hard on my portfolio to get into that school. I remember at 16 and 17 staying up all night painting copies of master paintings, trying to perfect my craft. When I got to RISD, I think a lot of the mystery just died. When you learn to intellectualize everything you do, the magic and the mystery of creation is gone. That joy when you finally get an eye to look like it is alive. But, RISD is a great school, and I think a lot of the very cool people I was hanging out with inspired me to look within for other things I may be interested in. The art world and music world I think are equally snobby and esoteric, but maybe music appeals to more people. Not everyone goes to art museums or can afford watercolor classes. But music is something everyone likes.

Urban Guitar: Your artwork is really beautiful and stunning. How does your art affect your music, and vice versa?

Marissa Nadler: To be perfectly honest, I have had trouble balancing my music career and art career. After I left New York and left my job teaching art to little kids, I really haven't picked up a paintbrush since. But I definitely intend to. It is hard, when you are playing dive bars night after night for an entire year, to get out a sketch pad and start something. But I would say generally that my aesthetic for painting is quite similar to that of singing. Old and antiquated, faded and fragile, withered and ghostly.

Urban Guitar: Do you consider yourself an artist or a musician first… or would you cringe at being pigeonholed in that way?

Marissa Nadler: I prefer to think of myself as an artist: with that including singing, writing, painting, etc. The renaissance ideal is something that I wish was still acceptable, that you can do many things without being a jack-of-all-trades. That you can accell in different mediums, and that is a goal of mine. I have aspirations to write a novel, and to start painting again.

Urban Guitar: Throughout all your work- your music, singing, art, writing, photos, even your emails- I get a sense of serenity, of calmness… Do you think that describes you as a person?

Marissa Nadler: The funny thing is I am not a calm or serene person at all. I am very manic and moody and quite, for lack of a better word, crazy. I use my music as self-medication. Writing it is a time where I can relax, and reflect, and it stops the racing thoughts. It’s interesting, because serenity and calmness are two words I would never use to describe myself: maybe passionate, mercurial, etc. I am not involved with any religion. No.