Biography
Marian Mereba lives in a few different worlds—Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: her father’s land, where the Queen of Sheba once reigned; Philadelphia, PA: proud hometown of her music heroes The Roots and Jill Scott; and Atlanta, Georgia: where she’s laid her own roots as a young woman and artist. All are at the heart of Mereba’s music—and let’s get this out of the way—that is not neo-soul. “People think, oh she got an Afro and she has a guitar, that that’s how I sound but my voice has a weirdly folk soul feeling to it. That’s the best way I can describe it.”
She’s right. Her voice, at times mystical and then measured, hints at influences from Joni Mitchell, Sade and Amy Winehouse. But she raps too, so there’s the earthy edge of Lauryn Hill and silky delivery of Eve. “Singing was always a part of my life from when I can remember. I’ve always been fascinated by melodies.” Her parents witnessed her passion early and bought her piano at age 12. Mereba started teaching herself to play but “me and the piano didn’t click so I got obsessed with the guitar.” At 15, she began lessons with a hippie guitar teacher who taught her how a song should feel through the music of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.
From that experience, Mereba knew what type of artist she wanted to be: a singer-musician who told her own stories. “When I started performing in front of audiences, people wanted me to do covers but that’s never been me. My life has been writing songs and singing. Once I put a song together, I can never tear it a part.”
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Mereba’s passion for storytelling has been the one constant throughout her many travels. From her days of performing acapella at lunch tables in Philadelphia and Greensboro, NC; writing a catalog worth of songs while attending Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh; hearing traditional azmari and Ethiopia acoustic soul for six months in Addis Ababa; and finally becoming the girl with the blue guitar at Spelman College in Atlanta, where she would graduate, Mereba has held true to her artistry. Thankfully the thriving music scene there reciprocated the love. “Being on the scene in Atlanta for the last two years, I’ve grown as much as I did the first 10 years of becoming an artist,” says Mereba. “It has forced me out of my comfort zone as a musician.”
That it did. After her professional debut at Atlanta’s Apache Cafe, word of mouth and chance encounters brought Mereba more and more gigs. But while her artist life was blossoming, her personal life was in turmoil. Feeling overwhelmed with the reality of becoming an adult and being a self-described “rolling stone,” Mereba found herself writing again “to make room for myself in the world.” With encouragement from friend and producer John Key, Mereba recorded the magical acoustic EP Room for Living. She released it, through support from friends and family, in February 2013. Mereba’s fans have found favorites with “Go to London,” a soulful affirmation about when you have to leave your present to have a better future; “Overseas,” a wistful memory of falling in love; and “Blue for Mr. Green,” a folksy showcase of Mereba’s melodic voice and guitar skills.
With the praise for Room for Living and on the strength of her live shows around Atlanta, Mereba performed this year at two music meccas: Austin’s SXSW Festival (opening for Anthony David) and New York’s S.O.B’s Real Art Work showcase, where she headlined. In May 2013, she found a kindred artistic spirit with the Atlanta-based label, Red Kotton. Today, Mereba’s back in the studio and will release her first album on Red Kotton early next year. “We champion artists who give all of themselves willingly only to share very intimate, personal experiences in their own unique way, serving a daily dose of ‘life’ medicine. Marian is such an artist,” says label CEO Edward Lewis. Mereba couldn’t agree more. “My situation is a dream come true for an artist like me. I feel it’s my mission to go in this direction, to have my artistic freedom, so that I can produce art that I can have conviction in and that I want to sing the rest of my life.”