Meet our 5th residency artist Madge. Who are they & what are they you might ask… they’re a self described ageless wizard without numbers.
Get to know Madge below.
Where are you from?
Madge:“Utah. I’m from Utah. I grew up Mormon, very traditionally so. A lot of people think Mormons are polygamists and there are certainly orthodox, fundamentalist people who do that - but Mormonism isn’t like that for most folks. My household was pretty normal but I was super religious. There were 7 kids in my family and we were all really close in age. We followed the rules: no coffee or tea, no smoking or drinking, no showing your shoulders or above your knees. On top of all that, I also did classical piano and that was my whole childhood. It was a really intense/hard/difficult/weird way of growing up, but I am grateful that it forms the creative basis of where I am now.”
When you moved from Utah what did you notice?
Madge:“On one hand it felt really normal and I never had trouble connecting to kids that weren’t Mormon but on the other hand I did feel a deep sense of difference from a young age. I did initially go to college in Utah and then I moved to New York and went to NYU for my Masters degree.”
What did you study?
Madge:“Performance Studies. It was just thinking a lot about naked people in museums[laughs]. You know, people will be like“Wow I can’t believe you studied performance and you’re a performer” and I’m“eeeeeh it’s a little headier and weirder than that.” Performance was still a part of it and I did do some performance art - that influences me still. I’m definitely a performer in many ways and going to school there really helped me blossom.”
When did you move from NY to LA and how did that feel in comparison?
Madge:“I think it was a few years ago and I was only here for 6 months because it was awful. I was finally going through my major spiritual crisis. The trauma that I went through was not necessarily just from the church but a lot of it connected to that - some family trauma, some sexual trauma… all of a sudden when I was in LA and didn’t have the structure of school and I didn’t have a community of people, I just imploded and I was in a horrifically dark place. I ended up going to rehab. I went back to Utah. I didn’t know what to do with my life. I had all this schooling and I had all these random skills, but I didn’t know what to do. So I moved to Germany and I lived there for about a year and half and that’s where I realized I wanted to do music full time.”
How did being a musician and artist naturally evolve for you once you got to Germany?
Madge:“I connected with a friend in Utah who was a producer and we started bouncing things between us... and um that little project is called New Shack. It got signed to a label and I was like“Oh this feels great and this is something I can do that combines all my skill sets - writing, music, self expression, creativity and film - into this funny wholistic world that doesn’t feel overwhelming in the way that maybe being a visual artist does.” Music to me feels like a very doable artistic thing. It’s 3 minutes at a time. As an ADHD person it’s the perfect thing for me to do because I can create this little masterpiece with visuals and a whole word that goes with it and then be like‘GOODBYE’and then also make ten of them at a time. It’s a great way for me to synthesize a lot of my emotion and trauma.”
Ok that must have been such an awesome realization and what happened to the project?
Madge:“Oh it’s still happening! I’m released a full EP last month. On my own label. I’m an imprint. I’m super stoked with it. It’s called Menadgerie-spelled with a D.”
Ah yes I get what you did there. How else did you grow as an artist in Germany?
Madge:“Oh right, I feel like I diverged away from the interview. So after that, I moved back to Utah for a minute because that’s where the other half of New Shack was based and started writing songs for Warner Chappell. I thought that was really fun and I thought I might want to learn how to produce. So I started messing around in studios and learning how to use Protools and Logic. That’s kind of the origin of me becoming a solo artist and after I was in Utah for a year, I came here - so I’ve been here for just over 2 years.”
How is being a solo artist in a city like LA?
Madge:“So stressful![laughs] I do so many side hustles and so many jobs and every once in a while it works out and I’m like‘Wow I did it. I’m an artist now!’ Living the dream and then a month later I have no money and I have to go back to one of my other ten careers. I haven’t give up hope that what I’m doing is going to lead to something. Inevitably something will pop and I’ve already seen so much growth in myself.”
Totally, what area do you think needs the most development? Is it production? Because personally I think your production is so strong for someone who just started messing around with it 2-3 years ago.
Madge:“To an extent I’ve always written music. Like I said, I’m grateful for that classical background because if there's anything with a keyboard, I can sit down and make something and it makes sense to me. It’s not guess work. Other things like guitar are more guess work. I think that compared to most people who are trying to get into production, my background gives me an advantage.”
Meet our 5th residency artist Madge. Who are they & what are they you might ask… they’re a self described ageless wizard without numbers.