A gift from the Gods – Creole music royalty MARCELLA SIMIEN releases debut solo album

INFUSED with the spirits of her Creole ancestors, MARCELLA SIMIEN’s debut solo album, ‘To Bend To The Will Of A Dream That’s Being Fulfilled,’ is an exemplary study in the art of storytelling, a wondrous collection of campfire tales, reminiscences of loves lost, soulmates found, and pieces of our hearts long departed, yet who somehow always remain within touching distance.

Through the noticeably burning soul-searching, arrives the extraordinarily bold soul-bearing. A raw, emotive, powerful mix delivered with a rare blend of genius and humility by the Louisiana born, Memphis resident.

A proud, loud, triumphant voice for her family’s roots, it’s easy to believe the spirits of America’s Deep South, with their hands gently on her shoulders, have guided Simien throughout her career.

There’s definitely a great responsibility to think that we, and I don’t think you would ever know why you would be chosen to be a messenger of sound and music, but it just happens to us as a family,” she said.

“It’s wild, but we take it seriously and we have a great deal of respect, I saw that from my dad (two-time GRAMMY winner, Terrance Simien), but I acquired that on my own too, like understanding the platform you have when you’re on a stage or singing through a microphone and recording music. It’s a gift and you really want to use it in a way that is meaningful, and you’re open and creating space for more connection, and that’s a large part of what drives me to do it.”

And with music an ever-present in the family home, the multi-instrumentalist recalls the moment it became clear she had a voice destined to be heard, a talent deserving to be seen.

“There are a couple of different things that come to mind. It’s like I know I was conscious of it before anything else, I feel like it was this divine like connection, I felt something greater than me, like this magnet, and I was drawn to sounds from a young age.

“There’s footage of me as a baby before I was even talking, and I was clearly mirroring what I saw my dad do. I was singing into a highlighter marker and my mom was the ‘audience,’ and when I stopped singing, I would expect an applause, like this exchange. I didn’t know how to talk, I was just ‘singing’ and getting really into it, then I’d go and do more! I think I thought before I was even conscious of what performance meant, I was connected to it somehow.”

The words ‘swamp’ and ‘soul’ appear all too often in reviews of Simien’s back catalogue, a result of critics seeking a quick – yet erroneous – fix. However, her music deserves far greater appreciation and understanding.

“You’re right. I don’t think that those two words – swamp and soul – do it justice at all. It’s a weird thing where I don’t know if it’s also this way in the UK, but in the States when it comes to selling or branding your music – which is my least favourite part of this whole thing – you have to learn a lot about the industry, about your elevator pitch, how to describe your music in one sentence, and it totally takes away from the soul and the heart of why I do it.

“It’s hard for me to describe because I have so many influences, and I just want you to hear it, and I want you to make the judgement for yourself of how you feel about it. I don’t want to put it in that pigeonhole. It’s a mix of a lot of different things, it’s my version of my story and my interpretation of how I communicate. It’s a supernatural divine thing when it happens with music, it can transport you to another time another place.”

‘To Bend To The Will Of A Dream That’s Being Fulfilled,’ is a clear shift away from the relaxed ‘ANAHATA, Live At The Green Room’ album released earlier this year, the new recording being not only a true ‘solo’ effort, but a deeper one too.

“It is definitely my most personal album to date. I recorded and played all the instrumentation except for ‘Yogananda’s Affirmation’ which I did with a friend of mine, ‘QEMIST’ who’s a DJ/producer I’ve collaborated with in the past. He’s just this young, creative, beautiful little soul who does drum and bass music that I wasn’t like deep into, but I really was blown away by his radio show. He just has a great sensibility and is very talented with the machinery he uses.

“It’s a journey through healing ancestral trauma, through dealing with mental health challenges in the past, and just coming out of the darkness and what that feels like. It’s a hopeful piece, there’s one stream of consciousness, trippy moment in the middle, and there’s a love song too.

“For the album we worked in a studio with an engineer and I challenged myself, it really pushed me in all the ways that I needed to be pushed. And my husband really pushed me also because he would see me at home playing different instruments that I wouldn’t normally play and he was like, “you need to make a record playing all the instruments,’ he saw talent in me I didn’t realise was there.

“I explored more of the ambient experimental tones and textures that I love to listen to, like Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois so I was able to do some different things, like play guitar and just have my voice with the piano, something I’ve never really recorded much of.”

The new songs present an artist at peace, confident, but were there any reservations about revealing so much of herself?

“No. I bared it all because I was going through some major shifts in my life and started to witness other artists here in Memphis who I felt weren’t being genuine or true to themselves, and I felt now was the perfect time more than ever to be completely raw and real, and not hide anything. I had for a very long time in my life felt very concerned with how I was presented, or viewed, or perceived, and that started to fall away in the last few years. Thank God I found the freedom that I didn’t know was possible, and I just decided to not give a fuck so much!

“I went in a really deep dive in my life, my personal history, my family’s history. I had some dreams that were really heavy, and during meditation a lot of things came up with my great grandmother, her life, and just the way I started to realise I was struggling, it was probably the darkest period of my life, and I realised there’s a reason that I’m still here today.

“I’ve had a lot of challenging, near-death experiences, and felt there was a divine force propelling me forward. I felt there was a reason I was still here, so I explored deeper through yoga, meditation and mantra work, and I was able to lift the veil. I journaled every day, and these things started to come out. It turned into something beyond what I would have imagined, this body of work, and I’m excited. I have made music in the past that’s pretty accessible to people and this one’s a little bit of a different direction.”

And track by track, those directions appear. Opener ‘Bloodline’ acts as the perfect introduction. A raw, gospel-tinged, keyboard driven statement that seamlessly hands the baton to ‘Time Is Wild,’ the quasi-religious experience quickly enveloping you with heavenly harmony.

Finally, ‘Lelia’ completes as strong a three-track opening to an album you will ever hear. Sublime word sorcery leaving you all the calmer for having spent time in her comforting presence. However, there are parts of ‘Lelia’ that appear to have been lost on some.

“The order of the songs came together as we were making the album, it started to make sense and I knew going into it I wanted it to run as a seamless long play where each song ran into the next throughout the whole piece.

“But with ‘Lelia?’ Man, it’s interesting. I don’t know, maybe the narration didn’t work for some, maybe they’re not looking for me to tell a story in that way and they just wanna hear me sing, who knows? One of my cousins had a question about why I was doing it, and I explained that it was in celebration of our family. You just can’t please everybody and that’s what I’m learning, as much as it’s coming from the purest, most sincere place in my soul, and my heart, and so it is a little confusing sometimes when people don’t receive it, but it’s like hey, this is just this is the way the world works, you’re not gonna please everybody and it’s just a fact!”

But even the album’s harshest critics will have to applaud its diversity. For example, the trip-hop Massive Attack ambiance of ‘Daytime Dream,’ sits close to the stripped back, emotive tale of love ‘Eyes On’ – a song demonstrating musically, less can be more, simple is often powerful, and another song showing an artist at peace with their very being.

“It’s so amazing you said that, I’m a huge Massive Attack fan and I love Gorillaz, and Thom Yorke, there’s so many great British artists that have inspired me since I was young, and I just internalised a lot of that and it comes out whether it’s intentional or not.

“My parents were well travelled and exposed me to a lot from a young age. My perspective was vast, I had a great knowledge of music, of people skills and how to communicate with adults. I was an only child and thrown into the mix of my parents lives in the music industry and I learnt a lot from a young age, but there was still societal programming and bullshit that you just let get in the way, and it wasn’t until I started to grow out of some of those old habits I was able to really, really just dig deep and say ‘fuck it,’ I’m just going to bare it all because that’s what I wanna hear from an artist, I wanna hear truth and integrity, just genuine, the realist, real power, ‘raw power’ like Iggy!

“But I’m hoping for the best, I’ve had really great feedback, and I hope the audience will come along for the ride, I have a good feeling about it.”

Work began on the album five years ago, and ‘To Bend To The Will Of A Dream That’s Being Fulfilled‘ deserves your repeated, undivided attention – ears and mind, both fully wide open.

“The recording process was from January of this year to April, and I started writing the ‘Eyes On’ lyrics in 2019, and then all of the other songs came within the last year or two lyrically. 

“But it’s wild, I don’t have one specific formula about writing that works for me. Sometimes a line will come when I’m driving, I get a lot of creative inspiration on the highway, or I’ll sit at the piano sometimes and I will hit the recorder on my voice memo and just let myself unload, just a stream of consciousness, whatever’s on my mind, and I’ll loop a chord progression.

“Sometimes it goes somewhere, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s how ‘Lelia’ started, and the messaging, some of the ideas, came from a dream I had about her, and so I just let it come through me, whatever it is, and leave my brain, my heart, open for the download.

“I think so much of this whole thing with music is chance and luck of the moment, of like, ‘wow these words fit’ it makes sense, or ‘this is poetic to me.’ It’s just so much taking the risk of believing in what your output is and believing in yourself.

“With connecting with an audience, I think that is like a perfect goal I’m unconscious of. Of course I want people to get it, to feel and understand where I’m coming from in my writing. I want them to feel whatever comes up for them, it doesn’t have to be even what my intent is behind the song or the lyric or what I’m trying to express, but that it moves something to maybe inspire them to do something they’ve never done before, or feel more confident, because when I’m on stage I don’t hold back in any way.

“A lot of the time I’ve had people come up and say, “I don’t know how you do that, how you can be so vulnerable,” and it’s like, well I don’t either, but I know that I need to, there’s something inside that’s pushing me to do it and it’s very cathartic afterwards. A lot of the time, in the middle of it, you don’t realise, ‘Oh wow I’m really moving something out that I’ve been holding on to for a long time,’’ and so what I appreciate is a listener that’s just there to listen in their way, and if they don’t get it, they don’t get it.

“It’s funny with this new album I’ve gotten mixed reviews from people that I respect, and I’ve gotten really amazing feedback where it feels like people really tapped in and they get where I’m going. But there are others who are expecting a ‘Got You Found’ album like my ‘Marcella and The Lovers’ music, and they are kind of being thrown a fastball and don’t know how to process it.”

With several albums already under her belt, , Simien’s career highlight’s an artist unable to remain in one place for too long, each recording possessing its own vibe, it’s own connectivity.

“I think my albums are just a snapshot of who I am during that time, I’m ever evolving and changing. There are things I think are consistent throughout – its always honesty and really just letting it all out because that’s what I wanna do. I want to inspire other people to let go and set themselves free, so if I can do that on stage and through my recordings, that feels like part of the gift.”

To date, her career has developed into one long, ‘pinch me’ experience – including meeting Bob Dylan, working with Boo Mitchell, performing with Memphis keyboard legend Reverend Charles Hodges, and having Carla Thomas sat in her audience – but has she allowed herself time to appreciate those incredible times?

“Those feelings definitely pop up when I’m on a long drive, or if I’m alone in the house for a little while. I’ll have these moments where I’ll revisit those memories and it’s just absolutely magical. I never would have imagined when I was a young kid that I would ever interact with my idols and these people that I think are just geniuses, it feels like there’s an angel guiding you through a dream.

“Reverend Charles Hodges, I got a chance to work with him when he played with our band. We did a show in Cleveland, Ohio, and brought him with us, he is just an angel, he’s amazing. And Boo Mitchell, he used to come out to see the band a lot when we played the DKDC club. He’s a fan and comes from such ‘soul royalty,’ it’s been fascinating to get to know his sister, his aunt, they’re just a really special family.”

To hear music as intense, as moving, as powerful as Simien’s is nothing less than a privilege, that this also includes the feintest touches of Aretha Franklin, Grace Jones and even Bob Marley is a bonus we barely deserve.

“Growing up singing I really felt passionate about it before I really understood it. I would just find these songs and get obsessed. Etta James, ‘I Would Rather Go Blind,’ Aretha Franklin’s ‘I Never Loved a Man The Way I Love You,’ that whole album I would just wrap myself around, Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black,’ start to finish, all those albums I would just obsess with and sing, Irma Thomas too.

“I embodied those songs as a teenager, and I think maybe you can’t even help it that they come through. That’s just the best feeling and I’m so glad Aretha’s coming through when I’m singing, I love them on such a deep level, I have so much respect for, and love and obsessed with their music, and as a vocalist, that’s an insanely amazing compliment.”

‘To Bend To The Will Of A Dream That’s Being Fulfilled’ is now available via all streaming services, with various pre-order vinyl packages here: Pre-Order Bundles – but whatever your listening preference, don’t hold your breath waiting for a better album to be released in 2024.

However, if you’re looking for a direct line to the divine, it’s right here.

CONNECT: Marcella Simien

(Interview © Mike Bradley 2025)

(Photo © Jenny Max)

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