“There’s something distinct in my music that people like, and I’m discovering it along with them.” (An Interview with Shelby Merry)
2018 has sprung itself open in our hands, and this first month has been a sharp inhale, a stretching of the limbs. We're so glad to be conversing with a musician who's ready for the long run ahead. With her multidisciplinary work and equally far-reaching insights, she's headed for the horizon—and we're honored to be along for the ride. Please join us in welcoming the brilliant Shelby Merry.
HM: You first gained a following for your musical contributions to fandom—but you've been moving into storyworlds of your own. How have your beginnings in fandom informed your current creative direction?
SM: I feel as if I’ve done a 360, to be honest! Before I began writing music, I was in school to become a writer. I loved writing abstract short stories, and that informed my writing style in music. So naturally, it was a fit to adapt something like Maze Runner to music. Working on that along with the Divergent series helped me sort of flex that muscle and develop that storytelling style even more. I feel like my personal work now has never been stronger because of it.
With that in mind, how does having pre-existing characters and storylines to draw from influence your process of making music?
I think of music as tapping into a certain vein of emotion from a story. So because the stories and characters are already there, I can focus on what I'm connecting with and work from that. If stories are a large-scale picture of different emotions and connections, a song is just a magnified moment. That’s how I see it, at least.
At what point, for you, does a song go from 'good' to ‘great'?
If a song isn’t working from the start as simple chords and words, it’s not going to be great when you do the full production! I usually write up to the end of the first chorus and decide from there. If it’s not there, it’s not there. No amount of fluff or production wizardry is going to make it so. And besides, if you don’t feel like it’s great from the start, what’s going to drive you to keep working on it for hours? Maybe that’s the lazy side of me. (That’s definitely the lazy side of me.)
What draws you to science fiction as a genre? How do you seek to stretch its boundaries?
I love space. I love the otherworldly vibes. I am especially drawn to themes of existentialism, and you can’t get there until you’re back far enough to look at how tiny and insignificant we are. There really is no other genre that can offer a real platform to explore that. Maybe I just like to look at things from far away. Always more clear that way. Genres such as historical fiction get exhausting for me. If you were to drag one of those characters to the ISS and say, “look at that,” the story would be over. They wouldn’t give a crap about what was going on anymore, their problems would be so trivial.
Your debut novel, Second Planet, released in June 2017, and you're a composer on the forthcoming TV series Final Space (congratulations!). What is the most challenging aspect of making a career in multiple mediums? The most rewarding?
Than you so much! I think the most challenging part after self-publishing a book is that nothing scares me now, haha! I feel like I should have been more afraid of being brought on as lead composer on such a massive project like Final Space. You look at the list of names on this show and you’d think I’d be dribbling on the floor in fear, but it’s been great! Writing Second Planet has prepped me in ways I didn’t know it would. It’s made me a better songwriter, I think. Your job as a composer is to tap into emotional themes and basically act as a generator to amp those moments up. I think being on the writing side of things sharpened that sense in me. So it hasn't made it challenging, but more rewarding for me. Like speaking two languages fluently. My partner Alex and I are in the process of pitching Second Planet as a TV series, so working on Final Space has influenced that in a way as well. Rewarding and challenging all the way around!
With so many projects in the works, how do you personally combat creative burnout?
I don’t overwork myself. I have been there, and the time it takes to bring yourself back to life is exhausting. When I hit that wall, the computer gets turned off and I go to bed or leave the house. It’s hard working from home and not becoming a house troll haha! Taking care of yourself is taking care of the work. That works well for me. I think ingesting content as often as you create helps, too. I’m basically talking about myself like a car, aren’t I? Use high octane fuel and rotate your tires often!
What are three things that you wholeheartedly love about your own work?
Wow, what a great question!
One, that it acts like chapters in my life. I can go back and visit whenever I want to and reminisce. I’m a creature of nostalgia.
Two, that it connects me with other people. If I ever feel like I know it all, working with other writers reminds me how deep of a well each person is in their own creative process. It’s fascinating to me how different everyone’s realities are, and that’s reflected in how we process and create.
Three, that it’s my own. I think every creator aspires to have their own style. I was so transfixed on figuring out what that was for so long that it held me back. It’s a nice feeling to sort of just, emerge one day and go, “oh, look, I’ve done that” and casually go back to work. I also love that people like Olan, the creator of Final Space, see what I do and want it. You build your own little space from nothing, not sure if anyone will admire what you like about it, and then someone does and it’s the greatest feeling.
If you could teach every musician working today to do one thing, what would it be?
To put away the books at some point. I don’t understand musical theory, or know how to read music properly for someone at the level of work I'm producing. But I spent more time figuring it out organically. I think knowing the technicality of music is great, but if that’s all you have, you’re missing a big world beyond it. I think it’s helped me tremendously. My partner on Final Space, Jake Sidwell, works the same as I do. We both know music from tone, feeling, practice, and from our own understanding through just listening to music. We both sort of speak the same language. I think that language is important to know, and it didn’t come from school or books alone.
Along with that, the biggest piece of advice I can give is don’t wait for permission. Do it, then the right people will notice.
Where and when do you learn the most about your music?
When I work with other people or listen to music, that’s my classroom. I am more of a producer than a writer, I think. I love constructing a large amount of detail on a big scale. That’s what I’m good at. Writing a book or producing a song is like that. So when I can deconstruct someone else’s work and understand it, it makes me happy. Production is a psychological puzzle. Why do people enjoy this song? Why does this part make you feel good? Why does a slow, structureless violin piece make you feel unease? It’s all fascinating to me. With composing, it’s basically psychological manipulation. I can make you feel whatever I want. So I can learn the most about my music when people tell me how it made them feel. Did I convey what I was feeling well enough? It’s a study of understanding people better, and therefore connects us.
The start of a new year often brings hope for reinvention or renewal. Are you carrying those ideas with you now? If so, how are you implementing them?
I think my reinvention this year isn’t so much to change, but to trust in what I’ve been doing and to take care of myself. I stuck to my guns and knew there was something to be valued in my work, and I was lucky enough to find people like Jake and Olan who saw it and wanted it. There’s something distinct in my music that people like, and I want to find out how to get closer to that. I’m discovering it along with them. It’s a good feeling to know that whatever I’m feeling, people feel it, too. It’s real.
Bio: Shelby Merry is a musical artist, composer, and author who resides in Nashville, TN. She is the lead composer on Final Space, a TBS serialized cartoon by Olan Rogers that will air February 26th. Her personal music work was noticed after her success with Maze Runner, it going viral with the films first release in 2014. Shelby released an EP following in 2015 titled Oracle, which she self-produced and distributed. This caught the attention of Olan Rogers, and coupled with her work on Allegiant Pt. 1 and Maze Runner, was offered to work for his company Star Cadet in Nashville. In 2017, she launched her first novel titled Second Planet along with a self-produced full-length soundtrack, which was tapped for TV potential in its first two weeks out. You can find Second Planet online at all major book retailers, as well as her music on Spotify and iTunes.
Explore more: Spotify | Second Planet on Amazon