Stephin Merritt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Stephin Merritt | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Born | January 17, 1966 | |
| Genre(s) | Indie pop Synth pop |
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| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter | |
| Instrument(s) | Ukulele Keyboard |
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| Associated acts |
The Magnetic Fields The 6ths The Gothic Archies Future Bible Heroes |
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| Website | Official website | |
Stephin Merritt (born January 17, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter based in New York City.
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[edit] Musical projects
He created and played principal roles in the following bands:
He briefly used the name The Baudelaire Memorial Orchestra as an attribution for a song written for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (actually written by Merritt's lifelong friend Daniel Handler), entitled "Scream and Run Away." Further music was recorded for the audiobook versions of the series and is attributed to The Gothic Archies. The Tragic Treasury was released by Nonesuch Records in October 2006 along with the 13th and final book of series.
Under his own name, he recorded and released the soundtracks to the films Eban and Charley and Pieces of April. The soundtrack to the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete featured many of his songs.
He and director Chen Shi-zheng have collaborated on three pieces of musical theatre; Orphan of Zhao (2003), Peach Blossom Fan (2004), and My Life as a Fairy Tale (2005). Select tracks from these works have been released on Nonesuch Records under the title Showtunes.
Additionally, he is one-third of the infrequent, live-only musical extravaganza the Three Terrors ensemble, whose other principal members include 69 Love Songs alums Dudley Klute and LD Beghtol; past themes of these elaborate, thoughtfully curated performances have included: French pop, movie themes (including the title song from Deep Throat), intoxication, and New York. Kenny Mellman (of Kiki & Herb), James Jacobs, Daniel Handler, Jon DeRosa and others have performed with T3T at these sporadic gala events.
[edit] Songwriting topics
Merritt is openly gay. His lyrics are known for bending and blurring the gender line; examples include the song "When My Boy Walks Down The Street," sung by a male vocalist, which contains the lyric "and he's going to be my wife." He is fascinated with the undead, often making veiled or explicit references to vampires. Other frequent motifs in his lyrics include trains and railroads, the moon, dancing, cities, rain, eyes and faces, and, of course, love.
[edit] Personal life
He was raised Buddhist by his counter-culture mother. He attended the progressive Massachusetts high school, The Cambridge School of Weston and briefly attended NYU before moving back to Boston. He is a smoker, and is known to light a cigarette while performing on stage. He has worked as an editor for Spin Magazine and Time Out New York.
Merritt is known for having a dry personality, embracing a persona and life that is light years away from the traditional rock star image. Performances by The Magnetic Fields and his other projects are often more in a reserved "recital" format, rather than a traditional rock concert; Merritt is often quiet and unanimated during these shows. Part of this is due to his disdain for applause; he typically covers an ear when the audience claps. This is attributed to an ill-defined hearing problem that Merritt suffers from.[1]
Merritt does not use linguistic qualifiers or linguistic placeholders such as "uh" or "er" to indicate that he is not done speaking, but instead simply pauses and stops speaking as he gathers his thoughts. This leads many interviewers unfamiliar with this behavior to cut him off before he has finished answering a question.
[edit] Trivia
- Merritt has a Chihuahua named Irving, after Irving Berlin.
- In a September 2005 interview conducted by The Onion's AV Club, alternative rock musician Bob Mould was reminded of an interviewer who once referred to Mould as "the most depressed man in rock." Mould's response was, "He's never met Stephin Merritt, obviously."
- Merritt was referenced in the Beulah song "Popular Mechanics for Lovers."
[edit] Solo releases
- Eban and Charley (Merge, 2002)
- Pieces of April (Nonesuch, 2003)
- Showtunes (Nonesuch, 2006)
[edit] External links
- The House of Tomorrow - The official site of Stephin Merritt, The Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, The 6ths, and The Gothic Archies
- Stephin Merritt Biography (mixed English and German)
- The Village Voice - "As Hundreds Cheer"
- The Distant Plastic Treehouse - "a hangout for Stephin Merritt fans"
- Stephin Songs - The music and lyrics of Stephin Merritt
- Stephin Merritt interview at musicOMH.com
- Interview on The Onion's AV Club
