McCall is like a brewing tempest. As she approaches she brings a crackling electricity that you can feel in your bones. One look at her ginger locks, pastel culottes, and mischievous grin and you can tell she's got that thing. Her presence, and, more importantly, her music, are a force of nature. Each song is dripping with soulful rhythms, sultry guitar licks, and a witty lyrical sincerity. And like a storm arrives, she wreaks all sorts of beautiful havoc on every stage she graces.
FP: Where/when were you born?
MK: I was born on a truly dark and stormy night in Atlanta, GA on April 8th, 1998.
FP: How were you introduced to music?
MK: I have two vivid memories. [In the first memory] I'm sitting in the same spot and Wicked (the musical) is playing on the speakers and I'm just laying there listening to it. Around the same time, my mom got the Cher concert on DVD--and I know it's like cute and fun to stan Cher now but I've been there--but anyway, it was her whole concert. She was changing wigs and I was like What the fuck is this? It was one of those two memories.
FP: What artists inspired you when you were younger and which artists inspire you now?
MK: When I was younger, growing up in Georgia, I was really influenced equally by the Blues scene and general singer-songwriter-type music. I grew up on a lot of traditional Blues. But I was also a big Jason Mraz and early Ed Sheeran fan. But now I'm really intrigued by people who are producing their own music. I feel like you can tell when the artist wrote and produced it themselves. Cautious Clay's new EP is outstanding, in my opinion. I've been obsessing over Lennon Stella as well. John Mayer, obviously.
FP: How do you approach songwriting?
MK: I think it depends on the situation. I use one of two methods. If I'm writing for myself I usually start with something on the guitar, usually either a lick or a chord progression and then I start humming melodies over that and mumbling words. Then I'll go with first thing that comes out and makes me say Oh shit, I meant that part. If I'm writing in sessions for producers or other people, it's a lot of asking people How have you been feeling? and taking notes and then trying to puzzle-piece together their ramblings. It's less from my heart, I suppose.
FP: What is your lyric approach?
MK: I use a lot of gerunds, like -ing words, at the beginning of sentences. So I'm trying to stop doing that. Generally, with lyrics, my approach is, when something happens, I need to write it out (in prose), freehand, in a journal. I don't have a computer right now but, when I did, I would type everything that I was feeling for about 30 minutes straight, sort of like Morning Journaling. I like to do that with concepts for songs because I feel like I get all of the trash and clichés out of the way to get down to what it is I'm really feeling.
FP: To what extent does your hometown/upbringing influence your writing?
MK: A lot. Especially as of late, moving into adulthood, I've been reflecting and writing a lot about my childhood. I'll say to myself Oh I interact with people this way because I interact with my family this way. It's been very freeing, recognizing that. That's been affecting me emotionally, in terms of how I conceptualize things. I feel like it always comes back to my upbringing; sound wise, the Blues. I tried to stray away from them and do more Top 40-hard-hitting-pop but [the Blues] are just in me and I can't stop that.
FP: How do you incorporate your different identities into your music?
MK: My identity when I'm with people out and about is very happy and very upbeat and I love socializing and getting to know people. I feel like I'm a generally nice person, outside of my sarcasm. I feel like my music is where I write out the worst parts of myself. I put all of my jealously and insecurities and my accusatory, bitter feelings into the music. I worry sometimes because I know that my music is aggressive and kind of accusatory and probably doesn't make people feel great but that's not how I feel in my life most of the time. I try to balance those out and appreciate that the light and happy side of myself is just as interesting as the dark and brooding side.
FP: How do you think your identity as a woman comes across in your music?
MK: I don't know if I feel particularly feminine or masculine with my music. But with my branding, especially the whole "Birth of Venus" thing, the concept of femininity and what it means to me has been very back-and-forth. I'm still figuring it out and that's why I'm so enamored by the Venus portrayal in Renaissance paintings. She is the height of femininity but it's not about her clothes or about her hair. She is what she is and her body is abnormal but it's not a ridiculous, unobtainable body. The message I'm trying to convey is that femininity is a spectrum and just because I'm angry or sassy in my music it doesn't mean i'm farther away from being a "Venus" than Venus herself.
FP: Do you consider your artist image/brand separate and distinct from yourself?
MK: A little. I think, since I do most of my social media, my Instagram and my story (etc) are myself. It's very much me. In a grander scheme though, in terms of the music videos and the stage visuals, I purposely chose the Renaissance, something almost caricature-like, to create a little bit of distance. I'm already so afraid when I put out a new song because they're way too honest...But I do feel separate from my brand and that was a purposeful choice. I feel like it's hard to have a brand that's just yourself and present that to the world because you're very vulnerable. If I use Ancient Rome then it's a show. And if you don't like it, then whatever. It's not me; it's just the show.
FP: How has your move to Los Angeles changed you music and/or your approach to music?
MK: So drastically. Moving to Los Angeles has changed the way I look at almost everything in my life, most of it for the better, some of it I'm still trying to fix. Here, being around the caliber of musician and people like you and then going out into the world and meeting all these amazing musicians who are in like a ten-mile radius of us...it's been amazing. It's made me work a lot harder. On the hustle side of things and the marketing side of things, everyone has a cool concept they're working on outside of just having great music. That's really changed the way I approach music (and shows). For me, it's no longer just Here's a song and I'm going to sing this song. It's more like: There's this song and a video with the song and it's going to carry over into this theme at this show and we're going to throw it in this warehouse because why not? This is stuff I would've never thought of if I'd stayed in Atlanta.
FP: How did your EP Under the Reign come about?
MK: Under the Reign is a collection of songs I've been working on since I moved here, so about two and a half years. They're almost chronological. I wrote "Stone Cold" my freshman year during Thanksgiving break, when I went home. I wrote "Ache" fall of my sophomore year. "Lavender" I wrote Spring break of freshman year and then "Soft Eyes" I wrote June of last year. We chose those songs because they really don't go together but they represent every aspect of my emotions and my sound; how I hear my music. The first line of "Stone Cold" is I've fallen under the reign and so I thought it would be cool to call the EP Under the Reign so that people would think I thought of myself as a queen. But if you listen to it starting at the beginning it's actually about all the things that I've been under; things that I've been controlled by for the last few years.
FP: Tell us the story behind your next EP.
MK: My next EP is almost done and it's going to come out in a couple months. It's a similar thing. The painting that we're going to be focusing on this time is Venus disarming Cupid, which I saw at LACMA over the summer and thought was super cool. It's a very different color palette from the other one. It has a lot of deep blues and greens whereas "Birth of Venus" has lots of pinks and warm tones. It's going to be a collection of 4 songs that I think more accurately represent me as I am now and not who I was when we put the first EP out... May to June is hard for everyone who's still at school age because you're getting out of school and starting the summer and either your summer's so busy or it's empty. I feel like having these EPs (of which there will be 4) come out will illustrate the change that's happened just in a quarter of a year.
FP: Who produced and engineered your first EP?
MK: Many people. Grant Boutin and Jamison Baken did "Stone Cold". The three of us worked on that song for a class during my freshman year, actually...They killed it. David Marinelli did "Soft Eyes". We have more songs on the next one, as do Grant and I. Yianni and Arieh, from the bands Pink Skies and Top Bunk did "Lavender" and "Ache". We recorded those December of my sophomore year. My manager Curtis mixed all of it.
FP: Where was it recorded?
MK: "Stone Cold" was recorded in Grant's bedroom here in Century Apartments. Yianni and Arieh have a studio in Silverlake where we recorded "Ache" and "Lavender". "Soft Eyes" we recorded in David's bedroom in Burbank.
FP: Who plays on the record?
MK: Mk.gee is the lead guitarist on "Stone Cold", which I think is pretty dope...I feel very lucky. Randon Davitt also plays bass on that. I'm on keys in "Soft Eyes" and guitar on "Lavender". Arieh has some guitar on "Ache" and Yianni programmed subs and such.
FP: Who is your EP for?
MK: I would say that this first EP is definitely for me. It was everything that I needed to say first, before I could move on. To be frank [when it comes to the songs on the EP] I've either had them for so long or...I'm not as excited about them anymore...but they're all about very different times in my life and I needed to get all of that off my chest. It's kind of a negative EP and it's like half angry and half a huge bummer...but I needed to burn a forest fire...Going forward, I'm trying to listen to people's feedback and what they want and see what's resonating with people. For the most part, "Lavender" and "Soft Eyes" are the songs people have responded to the most so trying to find a balance between writing those sad songs and happy songs is a big part of it.
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fresh pressed five
FP: What is your favorite sound (unrelated to music)?
MK: I like the sound of when you first light a candle. It's a satisfying sizzle.
FP: What makes you swoon?
MK: If you're funny and you're wearing nail polish, we're gonna be friends.
FP: What is one thing on your bucket list?
MK: Oh! I really want to learn how to surf...I cannot even fathom how you go into the water and tame it. It makes no sense to me, so I really want to learn how to do it.
FP: Which color makes you most emotional and why?
MK: I think purple makes me pretty angry for no reason at all. Deep purples, no. I feel like I'm (also) still very confused by orange. It's been very prevalent in my life, especially because so many of our collaborators use it. It's so prevalent in music right now and it makes me say Why? What's the appeal of this abrasive and unwelcoming color?
FP: Where is your happy place?
MK: Out here, there's a stretch of PCH and then also this one parking lot in Marina Del Rey. When I first moved here and didn't realize how expensive gas was yet, I would drive whenever I was upset and I'd always drive to those two places absentmindedly. They rejuvenate me. In Georgia, it's this place called the Roswell Mill. There's this huge waterfall there and this huge stream that feeds to the Chattahoochee, I think. It's got all these trails and it's really peaceful and calming.
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McCall's EP Under the Reign is available on Spotify now
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