Posts Tagged ‘The Mynabirds’

The MYNABIRDS – ” Cocoon “

Posted: July 7, 2017 in MUSIC
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The Mynabirds' Laura Burhenn

In December 2016, after her fall solo tour, the Mynabirds lead singer Laura Burhenn went to Nashville to record a song called “Wild Hearts” with her friend Patrick Damphier, who divulged that he was getting kicked out of his studio because of gentrification. “It felt like a metaphor after the presidential election … like we were all getting pushed out of the place where we felt safe, where we thought we’d be forever,” Burhenn says.

At a time where horrifying news seemed to be taking over the world, her need for a new album felt immediate. The emotional rollercoaster that she and the rest of the nation was going through spurred The Mynabirds‘ fourth record, Be Here Now, which arrives in full on August. 25th, after being released over the course of the summer on a trio of three-song EPs.

At the heart of Burhenn’s belief system is Buddhism, which fueled The Mynabirds’ new album. In the distress caused by the election, she looked to the religion for guidance, comfort and peace of mind. The idea of shenpa — a Buddhist term for shutting down in the face of high emotions — is what inspired Be Here Now. Instead of running away from unwanted feelings, Burhenn found herself focusing on mindfulness and being present, even in a moment of discomfort — which is why she borrowed the title of spiritual teacher Ram Dass’ book Be Here Now for her band’s latest body of work.

In crafting the nine songs from The Mynabirds’ forthcoming record, Burhenn felt as if she was a reporter doing “emotional journalism.” “I was trying to make a record at a very specific time and place, and I was trying to make a record of how people were feeling,” she explains of Be Here Now, which was recorded in the two weeks following Trump’s inauguration and the massive Women’s March in January. “I felt like I was observing.”

In a lot of ways, Be Here Now takes cues from the band’s 2012 politically charged record, Generals, but has the added effect of more analog instrumentation. The live moments weren’t overwrought, and there was no time to overthink anything. Burhenn wasn’t trying to make the album be anything in particular, which made the record emotionally raw. “It felt like singing a collective catharsis,” she explains.

The decision to put out a first single wasn’t an easy one, but The Mynabirds landed on the glimmering love song “Cocoon.”, “It’s about being in the middle of all of the political tumult, wanting to turn off the news and be surrounded by love and hope,” Burhenn explains.

In a broader sense, the track is about connecting with people — something inspired by Kimya Dawson’s essay on safe spaces following the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland. Though the Ghost Ship proved to be unsafe in other ways, it was also a sanctuary for artists and the LGBTQ community.

The Mynabirds‘ Be Here Now is available Saddle Creek Records.

LAURA BURHENN – ” Chelsea Hotel No. 2 ” Leonard Cohen Cover

Posted: December 25, 2016 in MUSIC
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American singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn has worked under the moniker The Mynabirds since 2010, releasing three critically acclaimed and stylistically different albums on Saddle Creek Records: What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood (2010) and Generals (2012), both produced by Richard Swift, and Lovers Know (2015). She has also toured as a member of the Postal Service (2013) and with the artist Bright Eyes (2011), helped found Omaha Girls Rock (a non-profit helping young girls find their voices), and in 2013 gave a TED talk based on her “New Revolutionists” photo project, exploring what it means to be a revolutionary woman in this day and age. Before the Mynabirds, Laura was a member of Washington DC indie band Georgie James with Q And Not U’s John Davis, and also put out two solo self-produced albums on the label she founded herself, Laboratory Records.

Through all of her transformations, there’s one thing that remains constant: her voice. She’s been compared to Cat Power, Fiona Apple  And while her songs might show up dressed in new ways on each new release, they still very much embody Laura’s distinct songwriting style. “I’ve always been most inspired by the songwriter chameleons,” Laura says. “David Bowie, Harry Nilsson, PJ Harvey, Bjork. They play — with their arrangements, their tones, their personas. But when it comes down to it, every song could be strummed on guitar, or played alone at a keyboard. And at the heart of it, they’re storytellers.” Laura is setting out on a full US solo tour this fall, stripping all of her songs back to bare bones, the way they were originally conceived.

Leonard Cohen is timeless, of course. And it helps that the man himself hasn’t changed in the essential ways still our still mean. Now it looks like the music culture has swung back in his direction. The album he released last year at the age of seventy-seven, Old Ideas, despite its title, was much more vital than it needed to be or anyone expected it to be. And Laura Burhenn released a cover of one of his very best, possibly his best, song, “Chelsea Hotel #2.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DABkixvD-hQ

Leonard Cohen cover from her 2004 album Wanderlust.

LAURA BURHENN – ” Apples And Oranges “

Posted: December 25, 2016 in MUSIC
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Image may contain: 1 person, flower

The Washington, D.C. native has released a 2-song single featuring the lead “Apples & Oranges” and the second, “Good Medicine” under her own name.

Burhenn has worked under other monikers such as The Mynabirds and Georgie James, but this new material reminds me a lot of what she’s done in the past as a solo artist on Wanderlust, but shows tremendous growth as an artist.

The Mynabirds‘ singer wrote this song as a reaction to what she described as her confronting the “yawning black void” of her future. But rather than fearing the darkness, she took comfort in it. Featuring B-Side “Good Medicine.”

MYNABIRDS – ” Semantics “

Posted: July 2, 2015 in MUSIC
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We’re premiering the indie pop band’s lyric video for “Semantics,” a thought-provoking track that delves into the notion of labels in relationships: “I’m asking, ‘Does it matter what we call things, what we call ‘Us’?” says lead singer Laura Burhenn. “And, yeah, it does. It can change everything. If we call love something beautiful, if we put the energy into it being that, we can transform into that.”

The visuals for the song are pretty unassuming at first, with characters singing along karaoke-style to the Mynabirds’ lyrics that appear at the bottom of the screen. But each time the hook drops, some infectiously random scenes ensue, reminding us why we fell in love with the confusing-yet-addictive Chinese app in the first place (because who doesn’t want to see a cartoon version of herself holding up a roll of toilet paper that turns into an angel?).

“Semantics” is the Mynabirds’ first single off of their third album, Lovers Know, out August 7th on Saddle Creek Records.