Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant
Natalie Anne Merchantis an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the American alternative/folk rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993. She has since released several albums...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth26 October 1963
CityJamestown, NY
CountryUnited States of America
nerd research phases
The research phase was really fascinating - I'm not a closeted nerd, I'm an out-of-the-closet nerd.
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That kind of violence is dangerous to me, to be beamed out via satellite to the rest of the country. Since I don't watch television very much, when I do check in, I'm horrified. But I don't think it took a massacre in a high school in America for me to see that there's too much violence or that children aren't being taught to use their own judgment when they watch television.
believe came compete horrible involved kids putting record situations
They came back to me and said, 'No, you have it wrong. This is all about getting these kids together, putting them into antagonistic situations and getting them to compete over a record contract.' It was horrible and mean-spirited. I couldn't believe they would want me to be involved in something like that.
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My sister works in an inner-city school in Greenville, South Carolina, and she brought many of her at-risk kids to our show yesterday to the sound-check. It was amazing how these kids opened up with music. Music teaches so much about focus and concentration and group dynamics and appreciation for subtlety and beauty. And that's being taken away from schools.
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I just wanted to get all this stuff in one place, ... A lot of it was scattered around or out of print. There are songs here that I thought would never get heard, the ones with Billy Bragg, for instance. The lyrics are kind of embarrassing - we wrote them in the middle of the night during these song-writing marathons - but I feel they are still documents of my work and that this is the place to let people hear them.
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I just want to be known as a good songwriter who wrote songs that were enduring. I hope my music gives people a glimpse of how empathetic we were and how desirous we were of a better society.
gay years following
I've had a large gay following for many years and have been quite aware of that.
thinking people sexuality
I think I don't invest so much time in thinking about people's sexuality. I just take people as individuals.
car television our-society
TV holds a close second to cars for destroying our society. It's a failed experiment.
thinking years play
I would never do a printed memoir. I've been asked to publish a memoir from years by different publishers and literary agents. I think it wouldn't be great for me because all I'd really want to talk about it music and I'd rather just play it.
sweet philosophy life-is
Life is sweet, life is also very short.
philosophy crazy rivers
I go to the river from time to time to ponder over the crazy days in my life. Watch the river flow, ease my mind and soul where I go.
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There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, I disagree. We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President.
careers interesting people
I don't have a lot of thrilling anecdotes about my career or personal life. All the stuff that is interesting is private and I wouldn't want people to know.