In 2018, we named Got You Found, by Marcella & Her Lovers, as one of the best albums of the year, writing that Marcella Simien’s “singing propels the whole thing through Afro-pop, funk, and soul,” not to mention her Louisiana Creole background. And it is indeed a stylistic grab bag, both sprawling and somehow rooted. As a self-released CD, it was not on many listeners’ radars, but now, thanks to Black & Wyatt Records, the album has found a new life as a vinyl LP. While the singer/songwriter — daughter of zydeco star Terrance Simien — prepares to celebrate the album’s manifestation on wax with a listening party (February 9th at the Memphis Listening Lab) and a release show (February 10th at Bar DKDC), she’s taken a moment to reflect on how it came to be, how much of it still rings true, and how far she’s come since then.
Memphis Flyer: Your album has been around for years now. How strange it must feel to be celebrating its release after all this time.
Marcella Simien: It’s been a long time coming. What was incredible was that it was totally crowd-sourced. We raised $13,000 dollars on an Indiegogo campaign in 2017 and we used every bit of it. I paid the musicians for every day they were in the studio. Toby Vest and Pete Matthews [of High/Low Recording] did such a great job. I brought Toby very rough demos and relied so much on his guidance and that of [bassist] Landon Moore — and all the incredible musicians and vocalists on this project. Pete got some of my best vocal takes outta me! I was a little sponge soaking up everything I could possibly learn about how to properly compose songs. But once it was all said and done, we didn’t have enough to press vinyl. So last spring, Cole Wheeler, who’s working with Black & Wyatt records, reached out and asked if I’d be interested in putting a record out.
Those songs have aged well. Five years down the road, you’re still performing most of that material, aren’t you?
Oh yeah! I really feel like they have aged well, and hearing it on vinyl was so emotional. I was getting to revisit this story and this person that I was five years ago. It’s coming full circle in a beautiful way, and I totally cried like a baby. You know, when you hear it on wax for the first time, it’s like hearing it in the studio again.
You speak of revisiting the album’s story. What is that story?
For a lot of those songs, the writing started in my early twenties, so some discovery and relationship issues were dealt with in a lot of those lyrics. But I didn’t want it to be just about me. I was looking at it as a way to honor my ancestry. So I inscribed on the vinyl that it was dedicated to my paternal grandparents. I used my grandfather’s voice on the end of the song, “Creole Cowboy.” I wanted to touch on my Creole connection and the effect that their lives, their struggles, had on me. They both came from big families, working on a farm, raising cattle, making their own soap, and living off the land. Those stories and the French they would speak in the household, where I spent a lot of time as a kid, made me who I am in so many ways. I wanted to touch on that deep connection I have with Louisiana and my Creole heritage. That’s also expressed in the song “Indian Red,” a cover of a Mardi Gras Indian song.
When you’re 25 years old, you have all these ideas of how to tell this great story. And I did the best I could with what I had. Listening now, it’s almost like getting to have a conversation with that person. There’s so much I wish I could have said to her. I wish she would have had the confidence that I have today. But it’s cool to know that she was still strong enough to make this album happen and to be vulnerable. Because some of the relationship stuff was hard to write about and go through at the time. And I did it anyway! And it felt good.
Hear Simien’s new album at the listening party, February 9th, 6:30 p.m., at the Memphis Listening Lab. The release show is February 10th, 10 p.m., at Bar DKDC.
