INTERVIEW: Mackenzie Shivers Finds Freedom in Rejection Letters

Mackenzie Shivers’ new album Rejection Letters captures a special moment in the singer-songwriter’s practice: having had a creative spurt in the beginning of lockdown, Shivers recorded her collection of experimental songs up in Woodstock, NY. The writing and recording process were both experiments for Shivers, leading to a group of songs that are as intimate as they are exploratory, loose but disciplined, structured but free. Shivers and I spoke about the album and the birth of some of the songs on the album.

To hear more about the song “Martha’s Vineyard” and Shivers’ discussion of parenthood, check out tomorrow’s episode of Adobe & Teardrops! You can subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Rachel: Mackenzie, you have been a long-time supporter of Adobe and teardrop. So I’m  really happy to have you on the podcast and on the website.

Mackenzie: Oh, thanks Rachel. It’s awesome to be speaking with you and seeing you virtually!

Rachel: I want to talk about your album, which came out on April 2nd, Rejection Letters.

Mackenzie: I wrote some of the songs before the pandemic hit and then I had kind of like this idea in my head of what the album was going to be.

I had plans to record the record with a live band and a very different way than I ended up recording it because of, obviously, the pandemic. So I was in Cape Cod at the beginning of the pandemic and I ended up just writing a bunch of new material, which was not planned.

Like, I did not go into this pandemic being like, you know what it’s going to be cool is writing a bunch of songs. That’s just not where my brain was, but it just kind of ended up happening. I guess it was sort of my way of processing what was going on. And then I recorded the actual record in Woodstock, New York.

I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of great art that comes out of the pandemic, but at the same time, I also know a lot of people who have said, “You know, I haven’t written anything in the pandemic because I have not been in that mindset. And I feel like I’ve just been more in survival mode,” which I think is totally legit.

Everybody’s different, which is why I was surprised that I was writing a lot at the beginning. That was the furthest thing from my mind I was more just trying to kind of come to terms with what was happening. The writing just kind of came on its own, I guess.

Mackenzie: Oh yeah, me too. I’ve realized when I’m angry, or especially if I’m angry with someone, I really like freeze up. And then later I realize, “Hey, I’m actually really angry about that.” And then I have to figure out what to do about it. It’s an ongoing work in my life for sure.

Rachel: I think that makes sense with the emotional palette of the album. Rejection Letters focuses a lot on expressing anger, but also processing it and learning how to channel it, which is relevant to me. ‘Cause it’s something I’ve been talking about in therapy.

Rachel: None of the songs on Rejection Letters ends up going where I was expecting it to, both musically and lyrically. Was there like something that you feel really enabled you to have that kind of like expansiveness or is this just sort of where you are at the time?

Mackenzie: Yeah, I think I think it was definitely just kind of how the songs ended up presenting themselves.

But also I think some of it was just writing on the guitar for the first time. I think maybe I just have felt a little more freedom with that instrument because I was really kind of discovering it for the first time, like I had taken lessons when I was in high school very briefly, but this was the first time that I really kind of sat down and.

Rachel: It’s interesting that you transferred a lot of those songs back to piano. I felt listening to the album that there were a lot of complex instrumental layers, and then it was all anchored by you and the piano.

Mackenzie: To be fair, a lot of the songs that are piano-driven on the record were originally written for piano. Usually when I make a record, we do everything live in the same room and this time, because of COVID, we just tracked me. So I did piano, I did vocals and then I did guitar, and then we put other things on top of it. We spent a full week on just the piano and the vocals and the guitar. Once we like felt in a really good place with those, we got to have fun with adding other layers.

Rachel: “Blistered Sun” stands out to me because it sounds so rock-driven.

Mackenzie] I wrote that right when the pandemic hit in the States. I was taking a walk in my neighborhood and I think we had just canceled our flights. And that song just came in my head, like in a flash.

Rachel: And “Butterscotch” is an example of the lyrics going in all kinds of different directions.

That is a song that also kind of wrote itself very fast in my head. A lot of times when I’m writing, it’ll just kind of like flow, usually the words and the notes at the same time. It sounds so cheesy, but it’s almost like it’s telling me where it wants to go. And so some songs don’t have a bridge, some have an extended Coda instead of a bridge.

Rachel: I was reading in your press materials that you want to make sure your listeners don’t feel like they’re alone and you approach some pretty subject heavy subject matter here. Have you had that connection come back to you?

Mackenzie: Yeah. I have a little bit so far. At the end of the day, that’s why I release the music into the world instead of keeping it for myself: hopefully people will see their own stories and my stories and feel less alone.

With “Martha’s Vineyard” I actually had several women reach out to me and say “this is something that I’ve been realizing a lot in my life. I feel like there’s not space for me to get angry. And I wrestle with anger.” This was something I figured a lot of people, women specifically, deal with. It felt good to, to hear people share that with me.

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