After four independent EPs, Texas-based singer/songwriter, Merykid presents his debut album, The Raccoon, which features an array of instruments from analog keyboards to live horns to 808 drum beats, creating fresh, experimental and atmospheric sounds that bring together elements of folk, pop and electronic influences. Blissfully quirky, The Raccoon takes listeners on an adventure as each track depicts the journey of a man becoming fed up with society, building a spaceship, and leaving Earth.
Name: Nick Mery aka MERYKID
Occupation: Singer / Songwriter
1. Describe your sound: I have folk songs played on a bouzouki that were written about the writer’s strike in 2007, and I also have electronic songs about travelling through space, so I suppose a healthy combination of those two extremes make up my sound.
2. Tell us about your album The Raccoon: “The Raccoon” is my attempt at restoring the necessity of an entire album to enhance the music listening experience. I took on the project thinking that if I wrote it as one big story, there was a better chance that people would invest more time and attention. As far as inspiration for the music goes, that has a lot to do with the sounds of the keyboard and drum machine I used. Most of the writing took place during the winter of ’09, as I would stay up for days at a time watching Twilight Zone, or Cowboy Bebop, on DVD.
3. What inspired the name, The Raccoon? I can’t answer that question, it’s revealed at the end of the story!
4. An event/show/song/film that made you first fall in love with music? My first concert ever was Garth Brooks. For his entrance, he arose through the middle of a piano. It was magic.
5. Something that always inspires you to write: Hip Hop songs mostly, I recently started trying to freestyle. I made a claim that I would release a rap album January 1st 2012, seeing as most people think that will be the end of the world. We’ll see what comes first.
6. Home is…San Antonio aka Countdown City!
7. If I were making a…contender for the greatest of all time mixtape, these three songs… Rufus Wainwright – Pretty Things_, _Frontier Ruckus – Dark Autumn Hour_ and _Jeff Buckley – Lilac Wine___ would be in it.
8. It would be my dream to… write a book
9. Tell us about a future project: I recently started a two-piece garage rock band called The Great ’85, in which all of the songs (so far) are written about living in 1985.
10. What would we find in your refrigerator? Eggs, Arizona Tea, and hummus!
11. I wish I had the superpower to… Did Quailman have powers? I’ll take whatever Quailman could do.
12. My current guilty pleasure is: Chick – Fila!
13. What would you do if you had a time machine? Probably patent it.
14. Greatest achievement to date? Bumping fists with Sinbad.
15. A lyric that I have always loved is… “Let’s die in some dim town” – Frontier Ruckus
16. The best advice I ever received was from:_Susan Gibson (writer of Wide Open Spaces), backstage at the Kerrville Folk Festival_ and he/she said: “Always quit a job for a gig.”
17. Pay a stranger a compliment: You seem to be breathing properly.
18. Let me tell you something…. about pie. It’s a number.
For more information on Merykid, visit his MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/merykid or http://www.merykid.com/
