Is it possible, in the actual frantic musical scene, to meet artists who can answer you quickly and gently, with no intermediations at all? Yes, it is, if you come across Marissa Nadler, a young songwriter from New York able to break many hearts in 2005 with her second album, "The Saga Of Mayflower May". A collection of sepulchral and touching ballads, enriched by her pure soprano and by a sober acustic instrumentation (twelve strings guitar, ukelele, flute, banjo, organ). The main international musical magazines (from The Wire to Pitchfork) exalted her two albums, but in Italy she's still not well known. On Onda Rock we proudly go counter-current: we consider Marissa as the best female songwriter of the 2005 and we tell her about at the beginning of this interview.

Marissa, first of all I must confess you that I chose you as the best woman songwriter's of the 2005. For who maybe still don't know you well, can you please in brief tell us something about your musical career?
I am honoured at your compliments... I am a writer, singer, painter. I suppose music is just another face of me expressing or attempting to express the feelings within. As a child, I was very immersed in the arts, and I was into music of course, but was much more trained as a painter. I had it in my mind that I wanted to grow up to be a famous painter or sculptress or fashion designer. My mother is a painter, and I wanted to be just like her. But I always loved to sing, and have been singing my whole life.
I didn't start playing music seriously until I was 16, in a rock garage band. Then I learned my voice was better suited for other styles. I got into traditional Appalachian music and folk, blues and jazz, but grew up listening to classic rock. I still think the "White Album" is amazing... The older music always appealed to me more. Tales of woe and despair appealed to me, and soon I started singing and writing my own tales of woe and despair, really wanting to be a blues singer.
I have been too shy in the past for many years to perform and it wasn't until two years ago that I got the courage up to fully explore my musical terrain, and get the guts up to perform.

Your second album impressed us from the first listening. Can you explain us what The Saga Of Mayflower May means? Is there some kind of "concept" behind the story or a leitmotiv among the eleven tracks?
Mayflower May, Flora Barone queen of the vaudeville throne, Mr. John Lee and his velveteen mistress, Lily and Henry and Lily's fateful demise, Calico of the mountain range, Shannadeeah the war victim, returning in a coffin, Annabelle Lee (not my own character), Mary of the yellow lights. You could say I am quite character driven. I like to write stories as symbols, often standing for my own friends, lovers, and dreams. I don't think I need to go into it more than that. But, If you listen to the song Mayflower May of the first record, it is quite clear exactly who she is.
Mayflower May is one of my many characters. She is not make believe, but rather an alter ego of myself, living and dying in ways that I wish I did, experiences the real pains I have from things like heartbreak, but taking it further than I would in life. For instance, Mayflower May commits suicide in a number of different ways in some of the songs, off of both records. All of the characters, like Mr. John Lee, are real people in my life, but living in a fantastical time period. Dying all sorts of crazy deaths, having intense love affairs.

Listening to your record, I can say that you had in mind two important referents: Joan Baez, for her technique of singing and modulate the voice, and Leonard Cohen, for his ability to create melodies in very sober contexts. Is this correct?
Leonard Cohen is a huge influence on me, but Joan Baez is not. I suppose I can see why you would say that but the closer influence would be Joni Mitchell or Nico, for female influences. Joan Baez didn't write her own songs for the most part, and was more political, and had a much more operatic style. I suppose Joni Mitchell is my biggest female influence. But, you are spot on with the Cohen comparison, and I am flattered you would hear him in my music.

The "ballad" is a never-ending genre in pop music: it seems as if it is always on the verge of dying but in the end it can always find a new life. What is your approach to this genre? How do you manage to keep its magic alive?
Well, all I can say is I love to listen to sad heartbreaking songs. I feel as though I would never have the urge to write a happy song. I suppose happiness is something I may not be familiar with yet, for all of the evils of the world affect me and the little stories I read in books and hear on the radio make me want to write about them. To give voice to the sorrow, in the ballad form. I am a traditionalist at heart, and I love old music. I suppose I like to pay homage to the age of antiquity.

The atmospheres of your songs are always ghostly and melancholic, almost "wintry". just as the colours of your website. Is it true that you are especially inspired by those kind of atmospheres and landscapes?
Yes, winter. I love winter. I am cold at heart, maybe. I like bleak surrealist landscapes, and my paintings also seem lonely and wintry, like a Giacometti figure, or a Turner watercolor. The aesthetic of sadness is my terrain. I find gore and death, rape and sorrow, winter, and loneliness very very beautiful things. I like to create an atmosphere in my music for people to travel to, to escape the boring trappings of modernity and the bleak plasticity of the modern world.

What are your favourite kinds of music? Who are the artists do you like more?
Nina Simone, the Band, Nico, Lee Hazelwood, Josephine Foster, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Leadbelly, Billie Holiday, all kinds of medicine for me. I love lots of music. Opera, fado, country, folk. I play a bit of an amalgam of the styles I love.

You, Joanna Newsom, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic, Josephine Foster and even the return of the legendary Vashti Bunyan: it is a great moment for the woman folksingers. How can you explain this renaissance of the folk movement in general, considering also the male singers (Devendra Banhart, Bonnie Prince Billy, Sufjan Stevens etc.)?
Well, perhaps people have just a yearning for honest music, female of male. I think the renaissance of the folk movement is a good thing, it gives voice to a lot of non commercial, honest to the bone expression. I love all of the artists that you mention.

Your website announces the imminent release of a new Ep: can you tell us something about this new project?
It is a brand new full length record, and it will be out by March. Picture psychedelic Carter family. Helena Espval of the Espers plays cello, Greg Weeks plays synth. I am really excited about it and I think it will be my strongest record to date. It was going to be an EP but the muse of sadness has hit hard these days!

In another interview, you mentioned that your style may be moving more towards the experimental. Can you explain how and by what means?
I am just ready to progress. I have made two records that are very unified in style and am now ready to start playing my banjo more, my autoharp more, and experiment with some beats. My aesthetics though will always remain sorrowful so I wouldn't expect too much of a departure in terms of making sad subtle music, because I am a sad girl...

I know that you are interested in the fine arts, I saw your portfolio with some paintings and woodwork. What about this activity of yours?
I was going to be a painter. I went to Art school, and it is still a big part of my life. I never imagined that my career was going to be as a musician, I always thought I would be a painter. But, music came more naturally to me, and I love it. Painting was more of a torturous relationship, a striving for perfection. In music, I feel free and untrained and explorative.

Can we hope to see you playing in Italy in 2006?
Yes, I will be in Italy in May with Jana Hunter. I am very much looking forward to it.