mercury

Today, mercury – the Franklin, Tennessee-based project architected by Maddie Kerr – has debuted “Together We Are One, You And I.” Recorded in Asheville, NC with producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Snail Mail, Indigo de Souza), the new three-track collection premieres today alongside an ambitious extended short film directed by Harrison Shook.

The trio of new songs, titled “Born in Early May,” “Special,” and “Crick,” float between sludgy grunge and iridescent indie rock as they wander through the depths of human suffering and emerge resilient. Infinite black voids, spiritual iconography, and the scarlet glow of embers and flames define the visual companion to the music, following Kerr and a cast of characters from different walks of life through narrative vignettes, contemporary dance, and poetic abstractions.

An experimental voyage of grief, pain, and loss, “Together We Are One, You And I” officially premieres today via Big Loud Rock. 

“Together We Are One, You And I” also arrives in tandem with a handful of new summer live dates for mercury: a June tour in support of Dreamer Boy that will kick off this weekend in Washington DC, followed by a pair of headlining performances at The Blue Room at Nashville’s Third Man Records and their Los Angeles debut at Gold-Diggers in August. The shows mark mercury’s first since the noise-making releases of their 2023 singles “Trying” and “Woolgathering,” which received praise from Paste Magazine, Nylon, Under The Radar, Billboard, FLOODFM, Northern Transmissions, Ones To Watch and Sheesh, and landed on dozens of playlists across Spotify & Apple. 

For mercury, songwriting is a form of survival, a means of finding clarity in an often cruel world. It’s everything Kerr has known dating back to the day 22 years ago when Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” blasted as she was born.

“Together We Are One, You And I” was born from another kind of place; a uniquely difficult period of personal hardship. “It was the first time in a while I’ve allowed myself to put my emotions into words and to tell myself that it’s okay, I’m allowed to be hurt,” says Kerr of “Born in Early May,” the pummeling opening track that served as a breakthrough for her, the beginning of chipping through an emotional block.

The second song of the three, “Special,” opens with a scene of surrender: “Removed my clothes/The color left my face/Lowered my body into the water.” Nature and elemental wonder are recurring motifs for Kerr, resonating deeply throughout the bones of mercury’s previous singles “Woolgathering” and “Trying.” In “Special,” Kerr once again finds solace in underwater depths. “When I think about being in a dark place mentally, it feels like I’m suspended in the deepest part of the ocean with nothing around me.” In this peaceful purgatory, far from other people, Kerr nurses her wounds and admits a universal human desire atop sparse ambiance: “I wanna be something to you/I wanna be special too.”

If “Born in Early May” looks outward, “Crick” directs its gaze inward for the finale of “Together We Are One, You And I.” “When I was writing ‘Crick’ I was angry at myself for not being able to say what I meant in moments where I really needed to,” Kerr says. “I was angry at other people for not giving me the opportunity to speak, but part of that was because I had waited too long to get my own words together.” Mounted with towers of guitars, the song hurtles toward a tremendously thrashy conclusion to the project: a reminder that noise can convey an inner chaos beyond words.