“Free Press Live,” last published in 2017, was a short-lived series in which student artists performed original arrangements inside the Free Press’s newsroom. Musicians such as Free Press alumna Mecca Russell, aka Neffy, — the 2021 NPR Tiny Desk contest winner —, created sonic and visual experiences of love and breakups, and in the case of classical musicians, like Julie Kim, or jazz musicians Quincy Chimich and Nathan Kamal, virtuosic musical poetics.
Joining the rank is Hale, a third-year Culture and Media student at Eugene Lang., ’s who performed an original folk piece in The New School Free Press Newsroom.
In an interview before her “Free Press Live” performance, Hale explained her appreciation for folk singer Karen Dalton, how she came to The New School and what she wants audiences to take away from her performance of “Bury Me”.
Gillani Peets for Free Press Live: Where are you from originally?
Marley Hale: I was born in Austin, Texas, and then I grew up in the Bay Area in California. I moved back to Austin after high school for a year.
GP: What inspired you to come to The New School?
MH: Well, I was at school in Portland at Lewis & Clark College for about a year and it didn’t really seem like a good fit for me. I — kind of on a whim — applied to The New School, like super late. And then I ended up getting in and got a scholarship. And I was like, you know, I’m going to do it and so I just transferred. So, the spring semester, 2021, was my first semester at The New School.
GP: Before your performance for the Free Press Live, how many times have you performed live?
MH: You know I just started. I’m definitely very new to the New York music scene, but I have been going to open mics. When I was younger, like in high school, I was actually performing a lot — at some points it was around once a week. And I was doing cafes and bars and restaurants, and a few times, bigger clubs. So I used to perform a lot. And then, I moved around a few times and I kind of lost momentum for a little bit and just had to settle in. But, I finally started to really get back into it and find that passion again for music.
GP: Who would you say inspired your early writing and your writing today?
MH: When I started writing music I was 14 [or] 15 and at the time I was listening to Hozier a lot, in fact [I listened to] Hozier and Lake Street Dive. Lake Street Dive has a really great lead singer, [Rachael Price], with a wonderful voice. And then Hozier is just a great songwriter. Very Irish folk. At this point, lately I think my music has been most inspired by Karen Dalton. I would say she’s the biggest influence.
GP: Can you go into why she is?
MH: Yeah, she didn’t write most of her songs. I think she wrote a few songs. But most of her albums were covers with other artists. Every song that she recorded, she changed to make her own in like a really, really beautiful and creative way. And [she’s] just a very authentic and talented musician. And her voice, [which] I really admire, constitutes something. It’s really unique and powerful and deep and I don’t know anyone else who sounds like she does.
GP: Finally, what do you hope audiences take away from your music, and from your Free Press Live performance?
MH: I’ve heard a lot about mental illness and struggling with finding yourself and figuring out relationships. I hope that everything that I write about people can hear and can relate to and can feel a little bit less alone — just feel like the things that they’re going through are normal. Maybe that’s not so much an original hope, but I think it’s really powerful to relate to music. And I think that’s what I want to start people to feel, like they’re not alone.
Follow Marley here
Listen to “Bury Me” here