MOLLY BURCH

Hi Molly and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us at Musicology. Congratulations on the new record and also your lead single Wild. The video clip features none other than yourself in a fantastic piece of theatre. Did you have a clear story board from the get go as to how you wanted this clip to play out or was it more of a collaborative approach and fusion of ideas?

Thank you so much! For the “Wild” video I went to an artist/director that I admired from a far, Luca Venter, and asked him to create whatever he saw in the song. I put my full trust in him and loved his idea immediately. We clicked very well and had so much fun making that.

Your first record Please Be Mine focused around the depression of heartbreak whereas follow up album First Flower in its inception was reactionary to the feedback you received from fans and how your music was a cathartic release for them. Do you believe without hearing these stories, this album albeit its final cut, may not have ever seen the light of day had it not been for the response you received for Please Be Mine?

That’s a hard question to answer. I guess not! ‘First Flower’ is definitely much of a response to the year I had with the release of my first album, so a lot of songs probably wouldn’t have come out of me if I hadn’t had those experiences. But some of the songs are about feelings and anxieties I’ve dealt with my whole life.

Within your latest record you explore the universal struggles of fear and anxiety. Has your music, its creation, the processes of making music, the extraction of emotions that become crystallised by instrumentation; been the ideal medium to tackle these feelings and revealing them to a wider, global audience?

Honestly, yes! It has surprised me how much it has helped me deal with my own anxieties. Talking about mental health is so important, whether it be extreme issues or daily anxiety that I feel plagues most people. When someone opens up to me and are honest with something so personal, it makes me feel less alone, so I hope to do the same with my music.

In terms of formulating the recording for First Flower, this took place with your partner in crime Dailey Toliver whilst locked away as hurricanes whirled outside of your house. Did this extreme environmental phenomenon have an impact on the album, even subtlety in the mood that was felt at that time which ultimately translated into tape?

Haha, partner in crime! It was just a perfect environment to focus since we had nowhere to go. I’m a procrastinator by nature, so I’m glad I got locked in my house for a bit to really focus on making demos and creating this album.

The eventual recording was done with Erik Wofford at Cacophony Recorders in Austin, what did Erik bring to the table that really shines through on this record?

Erik has such a classic way of engineering. He just really understood what I wanted out of the process and it was pretty organic working with him.

You are about to embark on another massive tour this coming October which is reminiscent of your epic Please Be Mine tour. By spending so much time on the road, do you find it to be inspirational in terms of subject matter you come across and new writing or are you so focused on the task at hand that writing takes a back seat until you arrive home and have a chance to process the tour that you just came off?

Both! I can’t write on tour at all because I’m multi-tasking a million things at once. But it is definitely a great source of inspiration. I’m very excited to start this tour.

Having performed with so many amazing artists over the past year, have there been any instances where some artistic words of wisdom were spoken to you that really resonated with and altered the way you approach your craft?

I can’t think of anything specific but I have to say doing so many support tours was extremely beneficial in my growth as an artist. I got to watch all of these amazing artists (Tim Darcy, Sallie Ford, Lucy Dacus, Alex Cameron, etc) perform every night and see how they navigated everything. I definitely soaked in a lot of that energy and I feel it will help me with my first headline tour this fall.