Back in February, singer-songwriter Cornelia Murr released her second, full-length album Run to the Center. Murr takes listeners on a beautiful sonic journey while exploring the question of “What do I want?” For the past few weeks, Cornelia Murr has been on the road opening for Matt Maltese. We got to sit down with Murr to talk about the making of the album, tour, her relationship with Oracle Sisters, and more.
I read that you went to Nebraska and that’s kind of when you started writing for it. Was the plan to move out there and start writing an album? How did that come into place? I know you restored a house, right?
“It wasn’t really a plan to make a record out there. I started spending time out there. I was still living in LA when I started making the record and we made some of the record in LA, but I was going out there intermittently to begin work on this old abandoned house that came to my life. The songs were written in both places, but I did eventually move out there and the record was finished there. My producer Luke Temple, who’s based in LA, came out to the house, which is quite a trek. It’s not easy to get there.”
“I barely had any furniture and it was the beginning of the process of fixing it up, so it was still kind of a wreck. We just set up a very makeshift recording rig and did the arrangements together there. I did the vocals there alone. That was the last step. So, the album is over this period of time of change and eventually moving.
“Lately we’ve been playing one of the B sides called “Gotta Give,” which I never thought I would do. It wasn’t one that I was initially considering in the set list, but it’s been so fun to play and it’s probably because it’s new and fresh. I get tired of things quickly. I always have the most fun with the newer material. It’s taken on a different life live and it’s really fun. It’s like what I look forward to in the set every night.”
Do you find when you’re on, on the road you’re writing a lot or you’re just taking everything in and then you will go back from tour and then sit down to write?
“It’s more like the latter. To be honest, I don’t have a lot of free mental space on tour because I’m tour managing myself too. I’m just so busy that I don’t really have a lot of time to sit down and write while on the road. I mean it might happen. It has happened in the past. It’s possible. I don’t really choose when songs come. I am just a bit busy all the time. At the end of the tour in November. That is what I’d like to do. Spend some time in that kind of polar opposite part of the process realm.”
After tour, do you go back to Nebraska?
“I will for a little while and then I’m gonna probably leave again in a few weeks. I think I’m going to try out living in the Hudson Valley in New York State again. So I’m gonna head to that zone for the winter.”
You’ve lived on both coasts, right? Do you have a preference?
“I’m a little more of an east coast gal when it comes down to it. I have more family roots out here and it feels more like home, but California is always going to be a huge part of my life. It’s like yin yang, you know, they balance each other out.”
What’s after tour? Anything else planned for the rest of the year?
“I’m working on some new recordings, so writing and recording will be the main thing. The following year I’ve got a show in February that’s actually in Red Cloud in Nebraska, which is like at the Opera House, which I’m really excited about because it’s like a one off kind of random thing, but my band is all coming out from New York and it’ll just be cool, unusual. Then we’re doing a headlining tour in March. So, between the end of tour it’s just like writing and recording.”
Mic Drop would like to thank Cornelia Murr for talking with us about her stunning new album. Make sure to stream Run to the Center and catch her on the road on these final dates of tour.
