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 Future Bible Heroes is an American indie pop group led by Stephin Merritt, best known for his work with The Magnetic Fields. Merritt shares vocal duties with fellow Magnetic Fields member Claudia Gonson, who sings on the entirety of 2002's '' ...

. He is known for his distinctive and untrained

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

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

. He briefly used the name ''The Baudelaire Memorial Orchestra'' as an attribution for "Scream and Run Away", a song written for

Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970). Handler has published several children's books under the name, most notably ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 million copies and s ...

'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 Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

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 The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

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 An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

stage musical adaptation of '' Coraline'', a novel by

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

. 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 Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

-rich mix of

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

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 ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The grou ...

, Stephen Sondheim, and Phil Spector as influences.

Personal life

Merritt is the only child of Alix Merritt, a

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

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 ''50 Song Memoir'' is the eleventh studio album by American indie pop band The Magnetic Fields, released on March 10, 2017. ''50 Song Memoir'' is an autobiographical concept album that chronicles the first 50 years of lyricist Stephin Merritt's l ...

''. Merritt has struggled with

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

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 "

" 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 Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, wears mostly brown clothing, is gay and a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

, saying, "I ain't eaten an animal since 1983." He has said that he may be on the

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

spectrum.

Solo discography

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

References

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)