New York, NY (Top40 Charts) With the release of 2017's MIRRORS BREAK BACK, musician, writer, and producer Erin McKeown adds another chapter to her unique body of work. For an artist known for defying form and genre, this new collection, coming less than a year after her last release, fits right in to her modus operandi: clear, challenging, and unexpected. Today she has shared a new song from the EP, "Pretty
Little Cemetery", which is currently streaming at Brightest Young Things who stated "I was sold on this song before I even pressed that beautiful orange play button. [It's] exactly what you think it's going to be. It's fun, it's flirty, it's morbid, but it also bangs. I've been listening to this song on repeat since it was sent to me and there's no sign it's going to stop."
Listen: Erin Mckeown - "Pretty
Little Cemetery"
https://soundcloud.com/erinmckeown/pretty-little-cemetery/s-cVgde
Since the release of her debut album Distillation in 2000, McKeown has built a career on her prolific disregard of stylistic boundaries, producing 11 albums of original songs that have passed through swing, pop, blues, gospel, and electronica before landing on MIRRORS BREAK BACK's dynamic mixture of R&B and glam rock. The album's darker themes and sharper-edged sound are no accident. MIRRORS BREAK BACK was conceived as a meditation on self-hate and a direct response to McKeown's 2016 ode to self-confidence and identity, ACCORDING TO US.
"After I released ACCORDING TO US, I realized I was only telling one part of the story," McKeown says. "Learning to take up space in the world, I struggle with insecurities like anyone else. With the darker turn of politics, I decided to explore the less positive voices that also exist in my head. In order not to linger in these dark places or give myself a chance to shy away from the truth, I wrote each song in a day then moved on to the next."
In the short space of two months, McKeown wrote, produced, and recorded the 6 songs of MIRRORS BREAK BACK. To her usual skills of playing all the guitar, bass, and piano, McKeown added drum and synth programming. Jason Smith (Fancy Trash) again joins Erin on acoustic drum kit.
An experienced and outspoken activist, McKeown sees the self-scrutiny of the album as work necessary for the current moment in social justice work.
"I think we have to first acknowledge and understand how we diminish ourselves with our own thoughts before we can more effectively fight the powers that are actively trying to break us from the outside. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy, and I've got to work through that so I have the foundation to help others. Even though these songs each begin in shadow, they pull towards light. It's true that mirrors break back, but not for long."
MIRRORS BREAK BACK is also deeply influenced by the work McKeown has labored over for the last 6 years: her first musical. Co-written with Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes (In The Heights, Water By The Spoonful), the creation of Miss You Like Hell has allowed McKeown to explore her songwriting skills in a different environment.
"Writing a musical, I had to learn very quickly to stay focused and clear with what I am trying to say. I am absolutely a different writer now because of this project, and I think the complete story told across MIRRORS BREAK BACK and ACCORDING TO US shows it."
Miss You Like Hell premiered in 2016 at the La Jolla Playhouse. The Los Angeles Times called it "an immigration musical for the new Trump era… by the end it's hard not to be touched--and profoundly scared for the future of today's immigrant family members." The San
Diego Union Tribune called it "a beautifully original work whose loose-limbed feel fits the rambling, spontaneous vibe of a good road trip... A bittersweet and distinctive pleasure."
MIRRORS BREAK BACK arrives March 31, 2017 via digital EP and a CD that also includes 2016's ACCORDING TO US.
McKeown's music has been featured on the acclaimed serial podcast Welcome to Night Vale. She will be joining the Night Vale ensemble as a special musical guest for a run of live performance engagements this spring (see below).
WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE WITH SPECIAL GUEST ERIN MCKEOWN
March 30 - Brooklyn NY
March 31 - Brooklyn NY
April 1 - Brooklyn NY
April 2 - Brooklyn NY
April 6 - Montreal QC
April 7 - Northampton MA
April 8 -
Boston MA
April 10 - Albany NY
April 11 - Ithaca NY
April 12 - Philadelphia PA
April 13 - Washington DC
April 14 - Durham NC
April 15 - Knoxville TN
April 17 - Atlanta GA
April 18 - Louisville KY
April 19 - St. Louis MO
April 21 - Kansas City MO
April 22 - Iowa City IA
April 23 - Minneapolis MN
April 24 - Madison WI
April 25 -
Chicago IL
April 26 -
Chicago IL
April 28 -
Detroit MI
April 29 - Columbus
April 30 - Pittsburgh
May 1 - Buffalo NY
May 2 - Toronto ON.
