Is mercury In Your Orbit? We Talk Tour, Swarm The Hive Mind and New Music

Maddie Kerr can’t wipe her smile off her face. Fresh off her recent EP Swarm The Hive Mind, Kerr — along with the rest of her band mercury — was approached to support The Backfires on their upcoming spring North American tour. Upon asking her if there is any energy she wants to claim from the world before the tour kicks off, she laments about going to North Carolina to record, only to come down with a fever — a case of bad luck that hopefully doesn’t foreshadow this tour.

Swarm The Hive Mind is some of the best music I’ve heard in a very long time; however, the process had a different momentum than her other work. “Those three songs were a pretty quick turnaround, actually,” she says. Having written them during her previous tour last summer, Kerr recorded and almost immediately released them. “I’m used to sitting with songs for a long time before they’re out in the world,” says Kerr. The sound of the project is super unique — sort of a wooden grunge wonderland. “Whatever I’m feeling in the moment is really what comes out in my writing,” Kerr says. “I really love big, heavy music so anytime there’s an opportunity to sound that way I’m probably going to. Even with smaller songs I try and make them as big as I possibly can.”

I get Kerr to dive deep into her influences as a musician; “Oh, Radiohead is huge” she says, before going deeper to talk specifically about their album The Bends. In reflection, Swarm The Hive Mind does capture almost the same magic as the Radiohead record with its almost biologically roaring guitars and vocals that sound like an oak tree in the winter. Other musicians she mentions include the likes of Bob Dylan and Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief as well as artists on the edges of classic rock such as The Eagles and Led Zeppelin. “Folk music for sure has always had a huge influence on my life. I think those two worlds definitely collide a lot,” she says, comparing her acoustic finger strumming to the grunge guitar tone of her playing. Talking more about the production of the EP, Kerr breaks down what it was like working with producer Alex Farrar. “He’s so awesome, I love working with him. He makes so many amazing records — has made, and will continue to. He’s just so smart and if I say something I want, he knows exactly how to get it and knows what I’m going for at all times.” Alex shapes the songs just as a translator does another language.

For her prior release, Together We Are One, You and I, mercury released an experimental short film accompanying the release. I inquire if that is something they have plans for in the future. “Yes, Definitely,” Kerr says. “I love the video aspect of music. One of my favorite things as a kid was discovering music through VEVO and the music videos that I love so much. That’s definitely something that’s very important to my creative process. A lot of the time when I’m writing, I’ll have images that come to my head and I’ll put it in my journal. [I] definitely love doing stuff like that and experimenting with different mediums.”

I was also lucky enough to get a sneak preview of mercury’s upcoming track “Faster.” The track is the band working at their best — a beautiful clash of vocals that sound like they’re made of glass with distorted, ugly and inhumanely clean guitars. Adrianne Lenker is written all over the gentle falsetto vocals. It’s a great instrumental mix of beautiful guitar strumming with dirty, full-band stabs that make the instrumental just as emotional as the vocals. Not long after talking to Kerr and diving even deeper into her work, it becomes abundantly clear that she has a stake to claim. Watch out, she’s up next. If you want a chance to hear her for yourself, mercury opens for The Backfires at Kilby Court on February 26.

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