Mary Epworth: Momentum
Mary Epworth has been making significant waves in the UK since releasing her debut album Dream Life in 2012. From the bold album openers ‘Long Gone’, with its brass, synth-droned chords and stately chorus, the all-out fuzz and drum assault of stand-out track ‘Black Doe’, through to the magical and psychedelically epic closer ‘Ray Of Sunlight’, Dream Life makes nods to psych, soul, krautrock, shoegaze, and even gospel, without ever falling squarely into any genre.
Overwhelming radio support has included 3 singles playlisted on BBC 6 Music and ‘Black Doe’ picked as BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record In The World. Much praise has come from national press, including Q magazine calling the album “Psych pop splendour… Experimentalism, melody and narrative co-existing in appealing balance” and Record Collector awarding the album five stars and hailing it as “A work of bracing originality… Immaculately sung and graced throughout with intelligent, song-serving arrangements and inspired production touches.” This attention has lead to Mary and her band performing sold-out shows in the UK and many festival appearances including Festival Number 6, Bestival, The Great Escape and SXSW.
In 2014 Mary joined Boy George, Bernard Butler, Tim Burgess and Mark King for a one-off collaboration at the Liverpool International Music Festival. The same year also saw Mary embarking on a 20-date sold-out tour of the UK and Europe supporting the cult US phenomenon Welcome To Night Vale, culminating in 2 sold-out nights at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Mary has been invited to tour again with Welcome To Night Vale, this time for a 36-date US tour in April and May 2015.
Momentum funding will be used to record and promote Mary’s second album. This includes both the creation of the record, paying a producer, mixer, studio time etc, and to enable better visual presentation of that work. This would cover fully realised videos, photos, and the live on-stage presentation for the tour that will accompany the release. The funding will also contribute to the marketing campaign for press, radio, online, and for social media and an overhaul of Mary’s website.