The New England musician pulls inspiration from '90s pop divas, classic rockers and jazz legends. And on her latest album, 'Til It's Gone,' she doesn't shy away from complicated issues.
In the summer of 1994 in Concord, Massachusetts, a small barbecue was taking place at’s house. At the time, McGuirk was around 6, but she had already begun to identify as a singer. On what was otherwise an ordinary day, her dad’s friend orchestrated what could now be seen as a wink from the universe. He set up a microphone and headphones in the living room and left her to it while the adults mingled.
In fact, her live performances caught me off guard. When I listened to her first album, 2017’s “Slow Burn,” I imagined she would have a typical jazz stage presence. I thought her head might be downcast, that the stage would be dark, and that she would sing and sway side to side. She realized that to write consistently, she had to make her own inspiration by taking in as much art as possible and being intentional about documenting moments when ideas struck. That realization seemed to free her up. With a more steady creative practice came more material to experiment with.
On “Til It’s Gone,” McGuirk is bluesier and louder; she was inspired by the Torch Singers, jazz divas who didn’t shy away from singing about pain and complicated issues. She wanted to write an album about heartbreak in a way that didn’t romanticize those feelings, and she succeeded. In the final track, “Milk,” she sings about longing for an organic kind of love with her signature blend of the serious and the playful.
McGuirk’s face lights up when she talks about authors she loves: Sally Rooney, Yaa Gyasi and Ottessa Moshfegh. “I actually feel like Sally Rooney does what I really want to do, which is, she just says it in a way that hasn't been said,” she explained. “I think all three of those writers have that thing where it's not overly flowery or complicated.”
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