Stephin Merritt

Stephin Raymond Merritt (born February 9, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the songwriter and principal singer of the bands the Magnetic Fields, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. He is known for his distinctive and untrained bass voice.Grow, Kory. "Stephen Merritt: My Life in 15 Songs". Rolling Stone. October 30, 2015. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/stephin-merritt-my-life-in-15-songs-20151030/alien-being-20151023Felicia Barr and Bill McKenna (Eds.). "Stephen Merritt: 50 Songs for 50 Years". BBC News. December 5, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-38188073/stephin-merritt-50-songs-for-50-years

Musical projects

Merritt created and plays principal roles in the bands the Magnetic Fields, the 6ths, the Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes. He briefly used the name ''The Baudelaire Memorial Orchestra'' as an attribution for "Scream and Run Away", a song written for Lemony Snicket's ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', but further music was attributed to the Gothic Archies.Merritt, Snicket and the 'Tragic Treasury'
''All Things Considered'' December 3, 2006

Between 1999 and 2005, he was one-third of the infrequent, live-only ensemble the Three Terrors, with ''69 Love Songs''s Dudley Klute and LD Beghtol. These performances were themed around French pop music, movie themes (including the title song from '' Deep Throat''), intoxication, and New York City. Kenny Mellman (of Kiki & Herb), Jon DeRosa and others performed with the Three Terrors at these sporadic gala events.

Under his own name, he recorded and released the soundtracks to the films ''Eban and Charley'' (2000) and '' Pieces of April'' (2003). The soundtrack to the Nickelodeon show ''The Adventures of Pete & Pete'' featured many of his songs.

He and director Chen Shi-Zheng collaborated on three pieces of musical theatre: ''The Orphan of Zhao'' (2003), ''Peach Blossom Fan'' (2004) and ''My Life as a Fairy Tale'' (2005).Brantley, Ben
Exploring the Shadows of a Sunny Writer's Nightmare
''New York Times''. July 29, 2005. Selected tracks from these works have been released on Nonesuch Records under the title ''Showtunes''.

Merritt wrote and sang "I'm in a Lonely Way" in a television commercial for Volvo that aired in the summer and fall of 2007. He also performed "The Wheels on the Car". He also penned the music and lyrics for a 2009 Off-Broadway stage musical adaptation of ''Coraline'', a novel by Neil Gaiman. In the MCC Theater production, his music was performed by a piano "orchestra" consisting of a traditional piano, a toy piano and a prepared piano.

He produced a score for the silent film ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'' that was performed at the Castro Theatre, San Francisco on May 4, 2010, as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

In 2014, he released his first book, ''101 Two-Letter Words''. It is a collection of brief poems, one inspired by each of the two-letter words legal in Scrabble.

Musical style

Merritt has been acclaimed for his lyrics, which have been described as "romantic", "humorous", and "literary", and he has been called an "insightful lyricist" and a "brilliant wordsmith". At other times, writers have emphasized the unhappiness of his lyrics. In September 2005, an interviewer quoted an anonymous reviewer to Bob Mould that Mould was "the most depressed man in rock." Mould's response was "He's never met Stephin Merritt, obviously."

Unlike most singer-songwriters, Merritt rarely writes autobiographical songs and does not consider songwriting to be emotionally expressive but an exercise in craft, carried out for its own pleasure. His albums generally have a lyrical theme; for instance, ''The Charm of the Highway Strip'' is imitation country music. He has stated that he finds writing lyrics with constraints easier.

Critics have also praised his tunes and production, calling him a "master melody-writer" and "an arduous studio rat". Some albums also have musical themes: for instance, the Magnetic Fields album ''Distortion'' is feedback-rich mix of noise and pop, and it, '' i'', and ''Realism'' make a "trilogy" of records without synthesizers. In contrast, their next album, ''Love at the Bottom of the Sea'', used synthesizers extensively. Throughout Merritt's career, he has changed styles frequently, and uses a wide variety of instruments on his records.

He has described ABBA, Stephen Sondheim, and Phil Spector as influences.

Personal life

Merritt is the only child of Alix Merritt, a Tibetan Buddhist of German and Irish descent. Merritt found himself moving around a lot during his youth, including a spell at an ashram in Saratoga where he formed his first band, and has concluded that by the time he reached adulthood and settled in New York, he had lived in roughly thirty-two places in various parts of the northeast of the United States. Merritt briefly became a "military brat" after his mother was married to a US Army officer, and they were stationed in West Berlin, Germany for a short period. In 2006, Merritt moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career writing film scores, but returned to New York in 2012 after only minimal success there.

Growing up, Merritt used different spellings of his name for different purposes. He used "Stephin" to sort his junk mail, and that eventually became the name he used as a musician. He attended Massachusetts high school The Cambridge School of Weston and briefly attended NYU before moving back to Boston. He has worked as an editor for ''Spin Magazine'' and ''Time Out New York''.

Prior to 2013, he had never met his biological father, folk singer Scott Fagan, who had a brief affair with Merritt's mother. The three met at a screening of the film ''AKA Doc Pomus'' in 2013. Merritt's relationship with his father is described in the song "'99: Fathers in the Clouds", on the Magnetic Fields album '' 50 Song Memoir''.

Merritt has struggled with epilepsy and depression since his youth, and has a hearing condition known as hyperacusis, which he believes is damage sustained from attending an Einstürzende Neubauten concert at Danceteria. Any sound heard louder than normal begins to " feedback" in his left ear at increasingly louder volumes. This has largely influenced the reserved live setup of the Magnetic Fields, which usually consists of acoustic instruments and little to no percussion. Merritt also wears earplugs during performances, and typically covers his left ear when the audience applauds. When touring the ''50 Song Memoir'' album live, which required a more expanded line-up and amplified sound, the band were able to address this issue by building an elaborate set around Merritt which doubles as an isolation booth.

He was the subject of a documentary, ''Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields'', which premiered in March 2010.

Merritt is an atheist, wears mostly brown clothing, is gay and a vegan, saying, "I ain't eaten an animal since 1983." He has said that he may be on the autism spectrum.

Solo discography

* ''Eban and Charley'' (Merge, 2002)
* '' Pieces of April'' ( Nonesuch, 2003)
* ''Showtunes'' (Nonesuch, 2006)
* '' Obscurities'' (Merge, 2011)

See also

* LGBT people from New York City

References

Further reading

*

External links

The House of Tomorrow – The official site of Stephin Merritt, the Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, the 6ths, and the Gothic ArchiesStephin Merritt biography (mixed English and German)

Aging Spinsters: A Stephin Merritt Fan-BlogThe Distant Plastic Treehouse – "a hangout for Stephin Merritt fans"Stephin Songs – The music and lyrics of Stephin Merritt

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Stephin
1965 births
Living people
American male singer-songwriters
American male pop singers
American multi-instrumentalists
American basses
American people of German descent
LGBT singers from the United States
LGBT songwriters
American ukulele players
The Magnetic Fields members
American gay musicians
American atheists
People with epilepsy
Place of birth missing (living people)
People from Yonkers, New York
Merge Records artists
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
Singer-songwriters from New York (state)