Inside Amplifest: Marissa Nadler

With widespread acclaim still pouring over her latest record ‘July’ – released by Sacred Bones and with Randall Dunn on production duties – Marissa Nadler is finally set to make her debut in Portugal. Backed up by her band, the north-american folk songwriter will sing us her candid yet beautifully dark tales of broken hearts, dead cities and rainy days, with her ghostly voice drifting like a cloud through the gentle guitar strums and subtle orchestrations. Maybe it’s the weather, but we can’t wait for Marissa to empty all our hearts at Amplifest. Meanwhile, in the middle of her tour, Marissa had the sympathy to answer to our questions:

What do you expect of the Amplifest audience?
I expect a really good one! I think the lineup is really awesome so this festival is the one that I am most excited to play this year.

We like surprises, but what can we expect from your show?
I’m very much song based. I don’t think people expect me to dance and I just want to perform my songs to the best of my ability, and I hope we have a good line check and get that dialed in right. Although the fest has many heavy acts, I would suggest that people not be fooled by the soft volume… there’s just as much intensity.

What band do you really want to see at Amplifest?
Swans.. 🙂 I played with them last year in NYC and I just think they put on a great show.

If you had to pick a band or a musician of this Amplifest edition to play with who would it be?
It would be fun to jam with Pharmakon in this totally strange way.

What records have you been listening to lately?
Well, I’ve been on tour and we honestly put on a ton of different kinds of stuff. We have to keep it moving from genre to genre on the long drives.

Enough about music, Amplifest is also about other arts. What books have you been reading and what movies have you been watching lately that you want to recommend?
I would recommend Boyhood by Linklater. Amazing movie.