Bay Area singer/songwriter Mae Powell has always been an advocate for living with your heart on your sleeve. “I wrote ‘Tangerine’ as a testament to my own squishy heart—this idea of a tender heart being akin to a fruit getting smushed in the bottom of a bag, making a mess but also making everything smell really good,” she says. “I’m also looking for the balance between open-heartedness and boundaries that can serve as an act of self-love and care.”
With all that top of mind, Powell composed “Tangerine” and the rest of Making Room For Light (Karma Chief/Colemine) while living on her mother’s farm a few hours north of San Francisco. Produced by multi-instrumentalist David Parry (Loving, Alice Phoebe Lou), the album was recorded at Risque Disque studio on Vancouver Island.
“We were channeling Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline on the beautiful, sunny day we recorded ‘Tangerine,’” Powell says. “We all wore sunglasses and drank whiskey while we were tracking this one. After Sam (Jones) tracked drums, he and David baked a pie. Garrett (Barley) rips the electric guitar and the Hammond organ. It feels like a summer day—and the drum fill into the organ set the stage, sonically and thematically, for the whole album.”
We’re proud to premiere Mae Powell’s “Tangerine.” Making Room For Light is available August 15.
—Hobart Rowland
