Marian Call – A Little Bit Scared (of the Microphone)
Sharing an early draft of a song about 2020 Marian Call has released a home recorded version of A Little Bit Scared (of the Microphone) on YouTube, for those who are finding it hard to be heard or find a place in the chaos.
Artist: Marian Call
Track: A Little Bit Scared (of the Microphone)
Label: self-released
Released: 9 October 2020
Find it: YouTube
For all our time spent apart this year, with our thoughts and our fears and our shock and dismay, it has been a year of so much noise. As populists shout down protestors holding the line, as social media corrupts public discourse, and the planet literally burns we’re a people facing an existential crisis with numerous battlefronts. It’s no surprise we feel overwhelmed.
Here our Government keeps the creative sector under financial siege, diminishing their importance in giving life purpose, their huge contribution to the economy that same government so loves, and the established chain reaction between arts and wellbeing, wellbeing and economic success.
The practicalities and politics aside, the pandemic is cramping the creativity for many. And it is this maelstrom of circumstance from which the early draft of track A Little Bit Scared (of the Microphone) by Alaskan musician Marian Call is born. Recorded at home the stripped bare track layers vocals, and nudges with hushed percussion to become a gentle yet urgent reassurance that we all matter right now. It is a lullaby of letting yourself lean back if you must as long as you don’t let go.
Sharing the track on Twitter Call said it was for, “for the quiet folks who are being outshouted right now, feeling small and wondering if you’re necessary in this world.”
She continued on YouTube, “It’s hard to see yourself as essential sometimes, yeah? But it’s easy to see each other that way. I can’t always see the value in my voice, but I see the value in yours – so bring your voice, bring your own. We need everyone right now. We’re less without you; stick around.”
The quiet build of the track, the emotion held in the soars of vocal, and the reflection of feeling silenced by the cacophony of current chaos is sure to resonate with many.
Marian Call also released garage rock EP Swears in July 2020. Described on her website as ‘an angry loud little record, because certain times demand we make noise and certain feelings are too big to sing pretty’ it also dealing with the shitshow this year has been in – available now on digital platforms (but please consider using Bandcamp to download and support the artist).
Find Marian Call: Twitter | Facebook | website | Spotify | Bandcamp
Image: Brian Adams – http://baphotos.com.
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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