Biography
I am not in favor of writing these things. I normally avoid it at all costs. How do I write about myself? How does someone who doesn’t know me write about me?
I have been putting this off for many years and so today, here it is. It is far from brief, unedited and in first person dialogue. All three being the things that you are not supposed to do when writing a biography.
Originally from a farm in Canada, I grew up with a loving supportive family and a fairly normal childhood except for a few dark demons that chose to arise at the most inconvenient of times.
I spent most of my late teens and twenty’s traveling the world on the ‘model train’. Being a ‘house mother’ to twelve year old girls wanting to model in NYC. Winters in Italy and summers in Germany riding a bike through the English Garten in Munich and catching trains up through Hamburg and Bonn. Rollerblading (yes in a bikini) during Versace’s last days, drinking Café con Leche at David’s corner café in South Beach. Turning 22 surrounded by Flamenco dancers in Barcelona and a trip to Ibiza for the cover shoot of a magazine to living in the mountains of Tirol making pressed sandwiches and sewing curtains whilst drinking local schnapps as my friends opened their dream restaurant in a small town outside of Innsbruck. It was there where I had my first taste of music, singing, ‘As Tears Go By’ by the Rolling Stones to a room full of drunken Austrian men. Every night for two months I would sing the same song to the same men until the snow failed to stay and I had to get back to Italy for the collections.
A few years later on a trip to France and Spain, I took a 48 hour trip in a mini up through Spain to St. Jean de Luz on the coast and across the south of France and back to Barcelona airport to pick up some friends and head south to Tarifa at the southernmost tip of the country. During this mini trip, with no sleep and no stereo came my first song. Entitled, ‘Industry’ it had absolutely nothing to do with the scenery or the brisk ocean waters I dove in.
It is here my memory starts to elude me. I remember seeing my friends off on their excursion to Morroco, then getting chased by a stray bull while hitchhiking on the side of a dirt road next to the ocean. I remember closing shut all the windows and having to stay inside my dingy hotel room fearing for my life as a terrible rainstorm traversed across the country, but I have no idea after that as to where I went or how I got there, or what city I boarded a plane in to fly home to Canada. This may in part have been due to the fact that I had been recently diagnosed with a rare heart condition and so I often wonder if that somehow caused a short memory loss of time and place.
Upon returning to Canada, I quit modeling for a while and moved with a guitar and a backpack to LA where I would sit on El Matador beach and write songs while watching strangers surf as the sun was setting. I also had my first heart surgery during this time, thinking it would be the last.
A couple of years later, NY and Ralph Lauren were again calling my name and feeding my need for a change.
I started playing shows at east side dive bars and then venues like CB’s Gallery and Piano’s. I was doing wardrobe styling for a couple of famous Broadway actresses at the time and would spend the weekends upstate gardening, dog sitting for my friend and writing songs up in the barn until once again my gypsy soul started yearning for travel. When Diesel offered me the job as their US Talent Relations Manager and a move to LA, I thought it could be an interesting change of pace.
Three and a half years later, two heart surgeries and a third one around the corner, I have finally picked up my guitar again. I still work at Diesel. I am currently on bed rest living in an eco-carriage house built from salvaged and reclaimed materials eating tomatoes from the garden and awaiting my next heart surgery in four days time. I’m trying to recall lost memories and working on getting these songs and stories finished, so that I can finally put my record out post surgery.
Coming soon-Butch and Marnie EP-Butch Walker and Marnie Herald
Instrumentation
Marnie Herald-guitar, vocals, harmonica, piano
Discography
Butch and Marnie EP-coming soon
Marnie Herald EP-coming soon
Links
| http://www.myspace.com/marnieherald |
| Butch and Marnie |