Born in Virginia but raised in hills of Northern California, Oakland-based songwriter Mikayla McVey makes what her bio describes as “acid cowgirl” music. The sound was introduced on Holy Golden, an EP as warm and wistful as the surrounding landscape which balanced heartfelt feeling with a distinctively playful energy. A world of wailing coyotes and wide open spaces, serving both as a study of melancholic longing and a celebration of life’s expansive splendour.
Next February sees the release of Mikayla McVey’s debut album, Time Turns Everything, on The Long Road Society. The record features a whole cast of supporting musicians, with Mat Davidson (twain, Big Thief, Courtney Marie Andrews), Sam Doores (The Deslondes), Miles Lassi, Rebecca Marcyes, Alan Parker (Spacebomb), Molly Sarle (Mountain Man), Danny Vitali (Alex Bleeker, Kelly McFarling) and James Wallace all lending their talents to produce what the label describe as “a range of musical kaleidoscopes.” A sound as vivid as the moods it brings to life, one capable of collecting old heartbreak and despair and repurposing them into something as therapeutic as it is beautiful.
New single ‘On Naming’ gives a sign of what to expect. Shuffling to life with a careful reserve, the song unfurls with something almost akin to reticence, though the humble sound belies the depth of its dimensions. ‘On Naming’ is “a track about the power of language to create and destroy the world equally,” McVey explains. “Love, landscape, spirit—all the thousands of things we can feel without speaking, but nonetheless are compelled to write novels & poems & prayers & songs about.” The quietness is therefore a kind of respect, a seriousness, acknowledging the power yielded when writing songs and making art, and assuring its force is channelled in the proper direction.
You got to harden every heart
the beating, bleeding same
I love you differently these days
I try not to explain
put a hand over my face and you find the same
bones and lashes, lips to trace
the words that never came
Artwork by Adrienne Swan