Track By Track: Alice Merton on her debut EP

Having moved around throughout her youth, Merton’s four-track EP explores this world of travelling as well as the struggles and walls she has had to face in her career thus far. The singer-songwriter is a dual citizen of the UK and Canada and studied pop music in Germany where she got her bachelor’s degree at Popakademie: a conservatoire for popular music in the city of Mannheim.

It was in Germany that Merton really honed her craft and began to develop her sound. These songs which would eventually make up this, her first EP. “Hit The Ground Running", for example, was one of Merton’s earlier works and saw her win a nationwide competition, the Jugend Kulterell prize for Acoustic Pop. Today “Hit The Ground Running” is a reminder of some of the many roots which Merton has planted. Here, she explains the ins and out of the EP in her own words.

No Roots

The No Roots EP shows a lot of what I processed in the last two years. The feeling of not really being at home anywhere in the world had the biggest influence on the music and the biggest effect on my wellbeing, so I decided to call the EP after the song.

Looking back I realise that a lot of my actions and feelings at the time were all connected to my vulnerability of wanting and needing a home. I see that now in each song on this EP. I see the thread that connects all the emotions and leads back to the origin. No Roots however helped me feel better about it and helped me see the positive sides of living a nomadic life.

Hit The Ground Running

I needed to write a song that reminded of what I want in life, an empowering song that makes other people and myself want to be the best they can be, that encourages them to find that inner drive and let it run loose. To not always wait for opportunities in life to happen but to start making your own. I wanted to recreate the sound of running, so me and my producer spent long nights playing around with different sounds and different basslines, trying to make it sound as energizing and powerful as possible.

Jealousy

It was the longest and most difficult song process i have ever been through. The song took me over 6 months to write. I wanted to portray the feeling of Jealousy as a person, and imagined it like a fight between two forces, but in this case I was the weaker force by far.

Lie To My Face

Dishonesty isn’t a pleasant experience, but it’s an experience a lot of people go through in relationships. I wanted to make the production of the song as dramatic and dark as the moment, when I discovered the truth about someone I had cared about a lot. And instead of getting upset about this, I wanted to do the exact opposite in the lyrics by encouraging this behaviour, to keep on lying and keeping secrets.