marcella simien

Marcella & Her Lovers - from left to right, Robinson Bridgeforth, Landon Moore,

Art Edmaiston, Marcella Simien, David Cousar

interview

In 2018, we named Got You Found, by Marcella & Her Lovers, as one of the best albums of the year, writing that Marcella Simien’s “singing propels the whole thing through Afro-pop, funk, and soul,” not to mention her Louisiana Creole background. And it is indeed a stylistic grab bag, both sprawling and somehow rooted. As a self-released CD, it was not on many listeners’ radars, but now, thanks to Black & Wyatt Records, the album has found a new life as a vinyl LP. While the singer/songwriter — daughter of zydeco star Terrance Simien — prepares to celebrate the album’s manifestation on wax with a listening party (February 9th at the Memphis Listening Lab) and a release show (February 10th at Bar DKDC), she’s taken a moment to reflect on how it came to be, how much of it still rings true, and how far she’s come since then.

Memphis Flyer: Your album has been around for years now. How strange it must feel to be celebrating its release after all this time.

Marcella Simien: It’s been a long time coming. What was incredible was that it was totally crowd-sourced. We raised $13,000 dollars on an Indiegogo campaign in 2017 and we used every bit of it. I paid the musicians for every day they were in the studio. Toby Vest and Pete Matthews [of High/Low Recording] did such a great job. I brought Toby very rough demos and relied so much on his guidance and that of [bassist] Landon Moore — and all the incredible musicians and vocalists on this project. Pete got some of my best vocal takes outta me! I was a little sponge soaking up everything I could possibly learn about how to properly compose songs. But once it was all said and done, we didn’t have enough to press vinyl. So last spring, Cole Wheeler, who’s working with Black & Wyatt records, reached out and asked if I’d be interested in putting a record out.

Those songs have aged well. Five years down the road, you’re still performing most of that material, aren’t you?

Oh yeah! I really feel like they have aged well, and hearing it on vinyl was so emotional. I was getting to revisit this story and this person that I was five years ago. It’s coming full circle in a beautiful way, and I totally cried like a baby. You know, when you hear it on wax for the first time, it’s like hearing it in the studio again.

You speak of revisiting the album’s story. What is that story?

For a lot of those songs, the writing started in my early twenties, so some discovery and relationship issues were dealt with in a lot of those lyrics. But I didn’t want it to be just about me. I was looking at it as a way to honor my ancestry. So I inscribed on the vinyl that it was dedicated to my paternal grandparents. I used my grandfather’s voice on the end of the song, “Creole Cowboy.” I wanted to touch on my Creole connection and the effect that their lives, their struggles, had on me. They both came from big families, working on a farm, raising cattle, making their own soap, and living off the land. Those stories and the French they would speak in the household, where I spent a lot of time as a kid, made me who I am in so many ways. I wanted to touch on that deep connection I have with Louisiana and my Creole heritage. That’s also expressed in the song “Indian Red,” a cover of a Mardi Gras Indian song.

When you’re 25 years old, you have all these ideas of how to tell this great story. And I did the best I could with what I had. Listening now, it’s almost like getting to have a conversation with that person. There’s so much I wish I could have said to her. I wish she would have had the confidence that I have today. But it’s cool to know that she was still strong enough to make this album happen and to be vulnerable. Because some of the relationship stuff was hard to write about and go through at the time. And I did it anyway! And it felt good. - MEMPHIS FLYER | READ

reviews + articles

Memphis-based singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Marcella Simien releases her debut LP with a full band. However, her debut as a musician is longer since she was just 12 years old and contributed to the recording of the album Creole for Kidz and the History of Zydeco, which was recorded by her father's band. And he is no stranger, as Terrance Simien won the 2014 Grammy for the Best Regional Roots Album Of The Year, on which Marcella is of course also represented. She titles her own music Swamp Soul, and it's saturated with Memphis soul, New Orleans funk and her father's Zydeco influences. Those are noticeable right away, because the opener "Where You Are" is initially accompanied by an accordion, which is the characteristic instrument of Zydeco along with the washboard, before the song changes into a seventies Memphis soul song, which, also through the strings, is fondly reminiscent of The Staple Singers. This is followed immediately by a sweet and dynamic heart flatterer par excellence, which for me is also the hit of this record: En Chaleur. A distinctive song for which the repeat button on the record player should be invented. Among the ten album songs are well-tempered ballads or the much more bluesy Leave My Fire, which is a bit reminiscent of the young Etta James. Eleven Augusts, on the other hand, is made for the dance floor, as is Commen Il Se Sent, which shows her father's influences, which are clearly evident in the dramatic closing ballad Indian Red. All in all, a wonderfully coherent album that offers sparkling soul as well as richly instrumented stories that have been wrested from the blues of life. Discovery! - Dresdner | READ MORE

“You Ain’t Gotta Run” exudes an appealing timelessness, hitting the ear like it could’ve been a radio hit anywhere from the late ’70s to the early ’90s. It’s in the electric piano, the guitar lines, the post-Philly/Steely Dan horns and that string section, but it’s mainly in the sheer confidence of Simien at the microphone. “Got You Found” continues this state of affairs, as it’s clear that Simien favors an accessible heartiness over grit, though there is still tangible if subtle elements reaching back to Hi Records in the title track.-Vinyl District | READ

Marcella and Her Lovers ranked #6 in Paste Magazine article “10 Memphis Bands You Need to Know” in 2018.

“Though leading woman Marcella Rene Simien originally hails from Lafayette, La., her band with the “Lovers” is Memphis-based, and Simien has lived in Memphis since moving there for art school in 2009. Simien’s powerhouse voice lends itself to the group’s swampy soul sound. The band released a groovy new single just last week, “Where You Are,” a follow-up to last month’s “En Chaleur,” both from their new EP, Got You Found, out Oct. 26. Memphis has long been home to soulful blues bands, and Marcella and Her Lovers know how to freshen those classic Memphis sounds for a 2018 audience.” - Paste Magazine | READ

“Marcella Simien has been a fixture of the Memphis scene for over six years now, often with her band, Marcella & Her Lovers, and over that time she’s acquired a reputation as a genre-buster. If her brand of “swamp soul” is inherently multicultural, reflecting both her zydeco-playing father, Terrance Simien, and the rich roux of her native Louisiana’s other musical flavors, she personally has many sonic touchstones beyond those. “I have broad taste in music and always have,” she says. “You can find soulfulness in any genre. That’s what I’m drawn to. From Kraftwerk to Brian Eno to Nina Simone, from sampling to jazz to folk.” - memphis flyer | read

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