Prolific New York singer/songwriter
Stephin Merritt was born in 1966. Raised by his counterculture mother -- he has never met his father --
Merritt spent much of his youth moving from house to house throughout the Northeast. It was during that time that
Merritt became enamored with Top 40 pop, specifically
ABBA. His interest in music began to take on a physical form at the age of 14 with a cheap synthesizer and an old four-track recorder, a sound that still captivated the artist in later years. In 1989 he formed
the Magnetic Fields in Boston with drummer and manager
Claudia Gonson.
Merritt, who is more often than not the sole player, producer, and arranger on each track, released numerous records under the name, including 1999's epic three-disc set
69 Love Songs. He has also released material under the names
the 6ths,
the Future Bible Heroes, and
the Gothic Archies. He has been a copyeditor at Spin and has written numerous reviews for Time Out Magazine in New York. He provided the soundtrack to the
James Bolton film Eban & Charley in 2002, followed by his first -- under his own name -- solo release titled
Two Chinese Operas in 2005.
Showtunes, which was released in 2006, featured selected compositions written especially for
Chen Shi-Zheng's Orphan of Zhao (2003), Peach Blossom Fan (2004), and My Life as a Fairy Tale (2005). ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
Hotmail
