Madison McFerrin’s Analog Voyage
WORDS: RAINEY CRUZ
PHOTOGRAPHY: BUDDY NIEDERHOFFER
Imposter Syndrome: The persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills.
It takes a large amount of self-awareness to even suspect imposter syndrome in oneself. The word isn’t something that the average person regularly considers. Artist and vanguard Madison McFerrin mentioned the term while on stage last Spring. It was a notable comment about the complexity, power and privilege of having a platform for their talent. Her’s is actually a formal and familial music lineage that consists of brother Taylor McFerrin, father Bobby McFerrin and even grandfather Robert McFerrin Sr.
Yes, it does indeed “run in the family” for the McFerrins. Legacy, unfortunately, wasn’t enough to curtail the woes of a 2016 gig that temporarily hindered Madison. The event left the usually bright and well-received singer wavering in front of an audience of thousands—a last-minute booking for a Hillary Clinton presidential rally. Things went awry when the crowd unexpectedly began to sing the national anthem instead of letting Madison go solo. The participation threw the artist off, thus crippling her rendition. To make matters worse, news of the reportedly botched singing hit The Web hard with comments proliferating all over social media. Things reached critical mass when Snoop Dogg felt it oh-so-necessary to post his own video feedback about the performance. Damn Uncle Snoop! It’s the kind of mishap that sends, even the most resilient talent, to the dumps on foot. What a terrible time for Madison. Then the 45th U.S. president was elected. What a terrible time for everyone.
Fast forward to 2021 and you won’t find any residue from Madison’s unwanted viral moment. Thankfully The Internet hate didn’t veer the artist forever. In fact, when her management shared a press release about an upcoming analog EP titled You + I, we, and countless other music purveyors, couldn’t resist. The news was accompanied by an intimate gathering at Public Records in Gowanus Brooklyn to celebrate. The new vinyl EP was intended to sustain an upcoming tour. One that included a grand stop at SXSW 2020. Little did we know that all of those plans would come to a halt, however, as the gathering became one of, if not the very last, public events that many of us experienced right before COVID-19 shut down New York City. It was one of the first hard hits of a never-before-seen worldwide pandemic and quarantine.
Looming COVID aside, our Brooklyn night was an exciting one, with the venue’s seating and standing space reaching visible capacity. Madison’s got a strong following, you know. Rightfully so. The singer’s charisma and charm take up welcomed space next to her musical talent. She’s sweet, but insanely sharp-witted. Transparent and humorous at the same time. A difficult thing to pull off in front of 100+ audience members and no opening-act or host to lead you in. The effortless jokes flew nonetheless. Not any knock-knock or pandering ones either, but frank ones like when she politely asked folks that didn’t listen to Stevie Wonder to kindly “get the fuck out!” Madison’s intellect also touched on more serious matters that evening, like being intentional about making space for black women in music. Remember, this gathering wasn’t only pre-COVID, but also pre-BLM uprisings. Another note is that her grandfather, Robert, was the first ever African-American singers to sign with the Metropolitan Opera House in 1955. There goes that musical lineage again.
Familial legacies may run deep, but this alone isn’t enough to insulate an artist from the harshness of a tough world, especially a social media-obsessed one. Imagine now, if you can, thousands upon thousands of strangers that had never even caught a glimpse of Ms. McFerrin in person, circulating a terrible rumor based on a timing mistake. It’s enough to make anyone feel like an imposter, a failure even. Fortunately for us, Madison was able to spark fire from misfortune. She actually used her national anthem story as an opening anecdote for our night in Brooklyn—a testament to her mastery of vulnerability. It spoke mountains about her resilience. It also entertained the hell out of us.
We’ll admit, it wasn’t easy to complete this story, especially as COVID-19 hit and flipped everything upside down. But here we are, an entire year later, thankful. Grateful to be able to share the story of the last physical project that we purchased and were able to see performed in 2020 B.C. (Before you-know-what)
Madison’s also been able to continue sharing her story and music in new and unique ways. Quarantine concerts, socially distant performances from the heart of nature and even fresher vinyl pressings are all currently available on her various channels including Bandcamp and Instagram.
In fact, the leading lady’s got a new limited a cappella soul EP dubbed Finding Foundations: Vol. II available for pre-order now on Bandcamp. Supporting on this Friday, March 5th in particular, will provide artists like her with 100% of the revenue!
The rest of this feature is the transcription of a personal sit-down with Madison and partner Ned in 2020. In it we discuss the motivation behind the You + I vinyl EP.
UVS: What inspired you to go analog for this EP and release?
Madison: We always wanted to do vinyl. I think that was a pretty easy decision, especially since, as I'm sure you guys know, vinyl is now the top selling medium of music physically.
Ned: People were asking for it at our shows.
Madison: Yeah, we were getting a lot of requests for vinyl, but with my last two EPs it didn't really make sense because I only had three songs per EP.
Making vinyl is a costly endeavor and we wanted to make sure we were doing it as responsibly as possible. This project is six songs, a little over eighteen minutes and we figured that's a good A side. Then we threw in two songs from my past EPs and two bonus tracks. We wanted to make sure it was an opportunity to show another part of the creative development.
Ned: We [also] just wanted to make something that we thought people would value and appreciate. Each one is hand numbered and only 500 were pressed.
UVS: Tell us about the inspiration behind the cover art and design.
Ned: This [cover] photo is from a disposable camera that we shot in Switzerland. When Madison had the opportunity to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Madison: [The photo] ended up exactly how I’d been envisioning it because of the reflection of the sun. It made the image so white. There's actually mountains and people on boats back there but there’s nothing photoshopped about this photo.
UVS: Is there a theme behind the EP’s title?
Ned: You + I is all about reflection. The water and the sky are a mirror of one another. This idea of you and yourself, your relationship with you and society, your relationship with you and your friends, your relationship with you and your romantic interests.
UVS: Do you remember your fans’ first reaction to the vinyl?
Madison: We brought it to Newark and that was the first time we ever took the physical product anywhere. And that was just like an elevated house party essentially. We sold out of the copies that night. It’s really wonderful to have this product in hand. To know that when we have a show people are going to buy them.
