Like many musicians in the pandemic, Maggie Rogers was living a solitary life. She had recently moved to Maine after earning a Grammy award for New Best Artist for her album, “Heard It In A Past Life.” Even when the tragedy of the pandemic hit, Rogers decided she wouldn’t stop making music, so she listened to her favorite songs, and made her own beats in her kitchen.
In the pandemic, she also enrolled in Harvard Divinity School. “I wanted to build a framework for myself, for how to keep art sacred,” she said. She graduated in May with a master’s degree in religion and public life.
As she was studying, she completed her second album for Capitol, “Surrender,” a danceable ode that was produced by Kid Harpoon. “Surrender” was also part of her thesis, which examined cultural consciousness, the spirituality of public gathering and the ethics of pop power.
“It’s a hard-won hope, which — politically, culturally, environmentally — might be the vibe of the moment,” said Rogers.
“Surrender” is more of a 70s New York punk song with electrical beats, but the song ends in a wishful tone, banger percussion, which symbolizes togetherness. “I think part of creating anything is having hope that there is something else that’s possible,” she said.
Her first album “Heard It In A Past Life,” was full of nature sounds, but her newest album, “Surrender,” uses distortion, which Rogers hardly worked with before. Her life in Maine was very quiet and she found noise therapeutic. So, when she introduced the album, she called it “a chaos I couldn’t control.”
She is still working out how to apply what she learned in the last year from school to her music and creative life. But one way is just to pay close attention. Rogers always sees performance as a practice of presence and pays close attention to the life around her.
Link to Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658696288084x153942472528834300/Maggie%20Rogers%E2%80%99s%20Higher%20Calling%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
In the pandemic, she also enrolled in Harvard Divinity School. “I wanted to build a framework for myself, for how to keep art sacred,” she said. She graduated in May with a master’s degree in religion and public life.
As she was studying, she completed her second album for Capitol, “Surrender,” a danceable ode that was produced by Kid Harpoon. “Surrender” was also part of her thesis, which examined cultural consciousness, the spirituality of public gathering and the ethics of pop power.
“It’s a hard-won hope, which — politically, culturally, environmentally — might be the vibe of the moment,” said Rogers.
“Surrender” is more of a 70s New York punk song with electrical beats, but the song ends in a wishful tone, banger percussion, which symbolizes togetherness. “I think part of creating anything is having hope that there is something else that’s possible,” she said.
Her first album “Heard It In A Past Life,” was full of nature sounds, but her newest album, “Surrender,” uses distortion, which Rogers hardly worked with before. Her life in Maine was very quiet and she found noise therapeutic. So, when she introduced the album, she called it “a chaos I couldn’t control.”
She is still working out how to apply what she learned in the last year from school to her music and creative life. But one way is just to pay close attention. Rogers always sees performance as a practice of presence and pays close attention to the life around her.
Link to Article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658696288084x153942472528834300/Maggie%20Rogers%E2%80%99s%20Higher%20Calling%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
