Start Listening To: Cornelia Murr
We spoke with Cornelia Murr about her latest single All Souls.
Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from, and something about the music you make?
Who am I… good question. I’m someone with a lot of concern for the future, but not without hope. I’m looking for points of access to joy and connection and sometimes finding them. I’m trying to carry on every day like you, write songs I really want to sing, and be there for the people I love. Right now I’m at my desk in Altadena, which is a quiet, mountainous part of LA. There’s a piano behind me and, to my right, a window bird feeder where a California Towhee is tap-dancing. I love birds. I moved a lot growing up but some anchoring places for me are NYC and Hudson, NY, Los Angeles, Ojai and London. The music that I make generally comes from a place of trying to heal or comfort something— a wound, a longing… and I gather that might be its purpose for others too. I hope so anyway.
How did it all start?
I’ve always liked to sing and little songs have blown through me since I can remember. I never felt like a “real” singer or a real anything but eventually I guess I surrendered to the particular instrument that I am. I was really lucky to have a few encouraging older mentors cross my path and I backed up other artists before I did my own thing, which helped me get acquainted gently with the idea of all this. Finding a 50 dollar nylon string guitar with a friendly soul, discovering the Omnichord, and GarageBand were all big leaps for me in the beginning too.
We love your new single, ‘All Souls’. Can you tell us a bit more about how this single came about?
Thank you. That song came about on what happened to be All Souls Day / Day of the Dead, a few years back. After a minor medical event, I found myself propelled into this sudden ecstatic state of freedom from a lingering grief, not because I didn’t feel it anymore but because feeling it so much had widened my heart’s capacity, it seemed, and thereby connected me to everyone and everything, to the universality of love and grief. I felt spiritually high at the time and also like maybe a lunatic, so both sides of that are in the song.
There’s this idea that comes up when you read about casting spells and what that really means— and it’s basically to connect to the joy of having the thing that it is you want as if you already have it, as opposed to wishing you did and coming from a place of lack. That was in my head around the writing of that song too. It was the first one I started recording in the era of Corridor, so maybe that’s why it felt like the first one to put out.
How do you produce your music?
Well, this EP was made while learning how to produce my music. I’ve always loved recording alone, on a phone or laptop or what have you, and always had strong opinions about what I wanted to hear. But the production here is a result of experimenting in Pro Tools for the first time, trying to find sounds I liked in naive, sometimes off-kilter ways. It was a time of a lot of limitation, which was maybe a good thing. Rodrigo Amarante played bass, mellotron and other things here and there and helped give me confidence that I could produce myself, as he does for himself… I love percussion and harmony. I often record a few outlines of the song with different instruments or in different time signatures to see which one I most want to keep working on. I think when “producing” I’m just trying to create a sonic world in which I can sing like myself. It’s a good way to get to know oneself.
What inspires your music?
Usually some form of longing— for a person, a time, or a different state of the world. Sometimes dreams— every once in a blue moon I remember a melody and/or words from a dream and that feels like a real gift, even if it's not very good.
What’s your earliest musical memory?
I think listening to Buddy Holly in my dad’s car, whipping too fast down narrow English country roads. I thought the song “Peggy Sue” was “Eggy Soup.”
Do you have any recurring dreams?
Yes, a few. An annoying stress dream from school where I’m supposed to graduate but then realize there’s a class I haven’t once attended all semester and it’s going to mean I'll be held back, or some variation of that. It’s about letting other people down. I have teeth nightmares I won’t get into… Most interesting to me though, is when I dream of very specific places, and there are a few I return to. Most of them feel like homes I had in a past life or want to have— very particular, pleasing, home environments.
Do you have any go-to songs that you like to cover?
Lately I’ve been covering the Dion song, Only You Know, which is on my EP. The Nina Simone song Beautiful Land and a song called Come Wander from the Twilight Zone have crept out a few times recently too. I go through phases with covers. There’s always a few I’m playing with.
What advice would you give anyone trying to achieve a similar sound to you?
Play with harmony, get some shakers, switch to a different instrument if you’re feeling stuck, and don’t worry if you’re not sure what to call the kind of music you make. In fact, don’t even worry if you might not want to listen to the kind of music you make, because it’s not for you.
If your music were a film, TV show or book, which would it be?
Hmmm… I want to say Space Odyssey 2001 if it had somehow been a love story.
Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s important to you.
I still listen to most of the music I did when I was younger, my taste hasn't changed all that much. One would be Led Zeppelin’s first album. They gave me my first visceral hit of rock n roll and are forever inscribed in my heart. There’s a song on that album called “Your Time is Gonna Come” which is actually a very angry vengeful song to a woman who has supposedly cheated, saying her time— to get cheated on back I guess— is gonna come. But as a young girl I just heard that as this anthem that my time to live and be free was gonna come. It still brings me back to that feeling of restlessness for life to begin and dreaming of all it can be.
Another maybe better answer in terms of a complete album I return to is Tender Buttons by Broadcast. They showed me that contemporary music, not just old music, could be completely timeless and outrageously good, and made me want to try making it.
What do you hate right now?
My phone addiction.
What do you love right now?
The Sheila Heti book, Motherhood. The hot springs in Ojai. People.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
Probably this old historic movie theater called the Texas Theater in Dallas, opening up for Lucius. It was my first tour and I was playing solo. It was a large attentive crowd. For some reason I wasn’t worried that night about anything, I just didn’t think at all on stage. I forgot to say my name once and no one knew who I was, but it didn’t matter. I felt present and strong which is rare to feel for more than a moment while alone on stage.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
I think that would have to be the first time I went to the Preservation Jazz Hall in New Orleans. I was driving across country with my best friend, Margot. Through some good fortune we were able to get into the hall early and sit down up front on the floor, looking right up into the beautiful golden mouths of the players’ horns. Those players, for anyone not familiar, are some of the greatest living masters of traditional New Orleans jazz. They’ve all played together for ages, some of them are quite elderly, and they are just transcendent. I felt like I was given a direct experience of whatever heaven is that night. They just took us to heaven.
What comes next in the Cornelia Murr story?
A deep dive inward to find out which songs will go on the next record. I hope playing more often with a band, getting well-oiled with other players and relaxing into that interdependence.
What 2022 music releases are you most excited about?
I’m always excited by new Weyes Blood— she just released her album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow a couple days ago, if that counts. It’s probably coming out next year but I’m excited about Sam Burton’s next record, which I had the honor of singing a little on. Art Feynman also just made an amazing record I can’t wait to hear in its final form.
Is there any new music from 2022 you have been enjoying?
I’ve been loving the new Aoife Nessa Frances album, Protector. I became a big Dana Gavanski fan this year after touring with her in the Fall. She and her band are wonderful. And Alabaster Deplume was a life-changer for me this year. Catching him play on the sidewalk in LA was a pivotal experience that reminded me what the point of all this is, sharing one’s music. I think he’s a brilliant force for good in the world.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
I learned last night that over every 8 years, Venus and the Earth trace a geometric image of a five-petaled rose in their orbital pathways around the sun. It’s called the Rose of Venus or the Pentagram of Venus. It’s beautiful. We’re given a lot of wonder to work with here, though it’s so easy to ignore.
