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While the rest of the girls in her Washington neighborhood
were giggling away their golden hours with Barbies and playing
dress-up, little Muffy Nixon was penning freaky tunes about
her friends and family. When she wasn't taking piano lessons,
the seven-year-old would perform in her parents' living room,
which also happened to be the waiting room for her mother's
in-home psychiatric practice. It was total chaos all the time,
recalls Muffy. Sometimes I'd eavesdrop on my mother's sessions
and make up songs about the conversations. Then I'd burst
into her office and sing. The patients must've been horrified,
she laughs. They're trying to get help, when some insane kid
suddenly interrupts with songs about their problems. I remember
one patient went into labor in the middle of her session and
I started singing to her as she began to deliver. There was
always something to sing about.
Fifteen years later, Muffy is still writing twisted songs
about emotional wreckage, but this time it's her own. Her
stunning self-titled debut is filled with sharp pop melodies
and pointed barbs about broken hearts ("Shoulda Known"),
addiction ("Planet Earth"), giant drag queens
("Fame") and unrequited love ("Hey Dude").
Muffy fleshes out her feelings with a powerfully emotive
voice that alternately conveys feelings of love and fear,
yearning and regret, hope and longing. Over the grooving
backbeat of "American Blue Jeans," she struggles
with the painful memories of a faded relationship.
Muffy fell for the promise of music after seeing Madonna's
"Like A Virgin" Tour at age four. She spent her
early teens taking voice lessons at a Pentecostal Church
and singing in the choir (including a performance at Clinton's
presidential inauguration). "The church was in Southeast
Washington - very hardcore", says Muffy. "It was
the most liberating, experience. It taught me how to sing
freely and just be myself."
Years of dues-paying on the New York club circuit followed,
as did collaborations with the likes of Stephen Trask (Hedwig
and the Angry Inch) and Meredith Brooks. "Co-writing
is like dating", laughs Muffy. "Sometimes you
write just one song and it's kinda like, 'Wow, that sucked.'
Then other times you'll write 10 songs and think, 'Ohmigod,
I'm in love.' I've been in a few writing sessions where
I felt like, we should just skip this and go get a drink
somewhere."
Muffy, currently living in New York, co-wrote the album
with up-and-coming producer Chris Rodriguez, a partnership
she describes as "magic." "We met in New
York at a time when I was open to trying anything so I flew
to Miami to work with him," she says. "I expected
it to be just like all the rest, but we really clicked in
an unusual way. We wanted to tell stories and write songs
that would transport you, and I think we accomplished that
with these songs."
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