"It's a Good Day to be an Adult and an Eagle."
(Mal Murphy performed at the Arts Center of St. Peter as part of her recent album release tour.)
Leaving the nest can be an exhilarating and challenging prospect for any fledgling eagle, but for Mal Murphy, who credits her mother as one of her biggest musical influences, that stage of growing up can often provide enough music and inspiration for an album. Murphy’s debut album, Grow Up, released on December 13th from Audio Atelier studios.
Murphy describes her music as “Americana” with an influence from artists such as The Decemberists, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Brandi Carlile. Her EP features a collection of five songs of covers and original material recorded over the past three years. “I really wanted it to sound like Bob Dylan's first ever album,” Murphy explained. “where it's just him, his guitar and his harmonica. Because when people come see me live, you'll see me.”
A 2019 graduate of Maple River, Murphy has been spreading her musical wings as a solo artist while also collaborating with local area musicians like Nate Boots, Ben Scruggs, Krista, and others. “They've all done this before. They've released albums. They've gone through doing things the first time, so I think just their advice on how to go about things was the way I prepared for it.” Along with her musical travels, Murphy has also traveled the world since graduation, ranging from a summer working at Custer State Park in South Dakota to multiple trips to Europe, bringing back experiences and ideas that led to the title Grow Up. “I think you use that word (grow up) when you're in this era of life, like 17 to 25. So I felt like it really fit me. And it also was a play on kind of like my natural world work, uh, plants. Everything comes around when the sun goes around the Earth, you know? Yes. So I kind of was just. ‘We're growing up, plants are growing up. Everything's constantly evolving.’”
Murphy’s music has also been evolving since her childhood and teenage years. It began with her mother, Tracy. “ If it wouldn't have been for her, I wouldn't know. You know, a lot of her favorites are my favorites,” Murphy explained. At the release party at the Arts Center of St. Peter, not only was Tracy lingering in the back of the venue, but propped beside Murphy during the performance was her mother’s guitar. After learning the love of music from her mother, the language of music proved a bit more elusive. “I'd quit band at Maple River because I didn't know how to read the notes,” Murphy admitted, but her spare time during drama practices, where actors sat around sharing folk music, gave her a new desire to learn the songs of her favorite artist, Brandi Carlile. “I’d watch her on YouTube and mimic her hands. And then when I met people like Nate and Krista, they would show me.”
After growing as a musician, Murphy next grew as a recording artist. Her friend Scott Helgerson proved to be instrumental in her studio growth. “It was a slow process, but it was also like, I just learned to trust somebody, you know, like I knew that he knew what was best.” Regarding her songwriting process, she also embraces the help of others. “I often try to write the words to the lyrics first because those come a little bit easier for me. I think almost everything I've written has sparked from something that someone else said.” Other people are also the subject of her songs. “I very rarely look at myself and think, ‘what am I thinking?’ I often will think like, ‘what are other people thinking?’”
With the release of her first album, Murphy plans to spend 2024 playing gigs at larger venues and with other people in the Minnesota musical community. She plans to keep music as a side hobby, but still dreams of performing onstage with her professional hero Brandi Carlile. “I sent her a CD in the mail, but she hasn't shown up yet.” Until then, Mal Murphy appears to be content to perform with her childhood hero’s guitar saving a place for Carlile.
Caption: Mal Murphy utilized her talented friends (Mai Train, Bailey Burg, and Jacob Bases) for the cover art of her new CD.
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