Singer Merce Lemon shares new video, talks about balance, new album, Pittsburgh as a home base

If all goes right, Pittsburgh musician Merce Lemon may be making a splash nationally when her new album, “Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild,” drops in September.

Lemon made a different kind of splash recently when she dropped her phone into the Allegheny River near Aspinwall, where she was working her day job in landscaping.

“We planted this prairie that has no irrigation,” she said while on a lunch break. “So I was with my crew and we’re getting buckets of water from the river to put in the truck and water this prairie, which sounds actually absurd, but I jumped from one dock to the other and it comedically bounced in and disappeared into the depths.”

Although a co-worker dove in looking for it, the phone was lost. With everything saved to the cloud, it proved to be more of an annoyance than anything.

“I was relieved,” she said. “And then I was, logistically, this is really annoying. I feel free for a moment.”

The two fields — music and landscaping — are each satisfying in different ways.

“I think they actually balance each other out really well because I get to be outside in the dirt and then music is a lot of inside and computer stuff,” she said. “So I enjoy the mix of the two.”

The new album, recorded in March 2023 at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, N.C., references the natural world, among other inspirations.

“Loss is a huge theme, I guess, or just figuring out how to be a human in connection with other humans,” she said. “It seems really nothing that totally different from what I’ve written about in the past or what I’ve taken inspiration from in the past, I guess, but maybe I just like how I said it better this time.”

The album’s first single, “Backyard Lover,” came out on July 9, followed by the title track today, ahead of the album’s release on Sept. 27 on Darling Records.

Lemon fully expects dual meanings and interpretations of the song, which was based on a real-life story.

“I was like, how much do I want to give away and how much do I want to see how people interpret it because that’s always really interesting,” she said. “I feel like this one, I don’t think anyone really has gotten the perspective I wrote it from, which I don’t mind at all. But this song was inspired by a story that my friend Jim Lingo told me about staying with (folk singer) Michael Hurley in Oregon. That’s the origins of its inspiration and I kind of rolled with it.

“But the imagery of a man howling at the dogs, it directly comes from that story. I really loved that imagery. It’s still in my head. When he told the story, it was like a movie was playing in front of me. And I kind of wrote it from the perspective of an old man.”

Musically, the song originated when her friend Spencer Smith, who used to play keyboards in her band, sent her the initial chords via a voice memo.

“I just kind of looped it in GarageBand and sang over it because I had this idea for these lyrics and I had tried some things that I hadn’t really found a home for them,” she said. “And we kind of worked this song out together, which was the first time I had really not written the original chord progression. So that was actually a really helpful way for me. I couldn’t have made the song if he hadn’t have done that. He’s always sending me things and this one finally clicked.”

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The latest iteration of her band — guitarist Reid Magette, bassist Ben Brody and drummer Pat Coyle — proved integral to the album.

“I feel like all of what they bring helped bring these songs to life. I mean Pat, my drummer, is an amazing drummer and then does harmonies from the drums so I feel very lucky to have that. He has like the voice of an angel. … Benji and Reid all bring such good energy and ideas that I couldn’t have made it without them.”

Lemon’s last album, “Moonth,” came out back in 2020. In the time since then, she slowly accumulated songs, never sitting down with the intention of writing a full album, while the covid-19 pandemic reshaped the music industry.

“I didn’t know what music was going to look like, so I wasn’t really thinking about that,” she said. “I was just kind of doing other things, and then all of a sudden I was like, huh, I might have enough songs for an album.”

While Lemon describes her sound as “melody- and lyric-driven music,” there are tinges of Americana, country rock and more.

“With the full band, we have some real four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band moments,” she said. “It gives you a little bit of everything.”

The guitar solos on songs like “Backyard Lover,” “Foolish and Fast” and “Slipknot” help to add some “louder” moments to her shows, and the diversity of sounds is welcome.

”I think they all have their place, but I think it’s been really fun playing these like more rock ‘n’ roll songs live,” she said. “It brings a lot of energy, but I like having an eclectic mix of songs because it keeps it interesting for everyone involved including us that have to play them.”

With the album being released via Darling Records, it could be a chance for a national breakthrough. But she isn’t putting any pressure on herself, ultimately being content with getting the opportunity to play music. There has been a slight learning curve as she moves from DIY to a larger label.

”I’ve been learning the ins and outs of the music industry which is like, I feel a little — what’s the word? — just resistance to because I’ve been doing it DIY for so long,” she said, “but just trying to figure out how to keep my values and my vision with me through all of it has been a challenge, but I feel very supported in it.”

The community support she’s received at home in Pittsburgh, after living in the Northwest for a few years, has been instrumental. As to whether Pittsburgh will be her home?

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately just cause with touring and stuff, it’s funny to not be in the place that you call home very often,” she said. “But it’s a really special home base for me that I think it would take something bigger for me to leave. My whole band lives here. My whole family lives here.

“It’s like I have a very special community that is really nice to come back to every time I leave.”