Musician and multidisciplinary artist Merryn Jeann’s latest album, DOG BEACH is playful and bold. Comprised of ten diverse tracks, the album sits in its own genre: an amalgamation of experimental folk, pop, and indie-rock that explores themes of spirituality, friendship and coming of age. Conceptually, the album acts as a love letter to Jeann’s younger self and a recognition of the woman she sees herself becoming. Lisabel Link sat down with Jeann to discuss the inspiration behind the album and the role storytelling plays in her songwriting practice. 

I was 14 when I first heard Merryn Jeann sing at our high school assembly. She was a shy girl whom no one knew. This anonymity changed as soon as she started singing. 

Over a decade later, Jeann has played for thousands of people, collaborated with musicians such as OSOO, Kyson and Tora, founded an independent record label, Rescue + Return Records, and worked with esteemed producers like Rob Ellis, best known for his work with PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull, and others. 

The Dog Beach (of which her latest album is named) is a literal place:a stretch of white sand just twenty kilometres or so up from our high school. The Dog Beach is also a feeling. It is this feeling that serves as Jeann’s reference when considering where the album would take its audience.

“I was visiting Australia and I went down to the Dog Beach and I was like, I just fucking love this place and I want the album to feel like this,” Jeann says. “[The Dog Beach] hosts feelings of life, which are sometimes darker, more chaotic, or silly, or happy and loving, or whatever.” 

While there are darker, more ethereal songs on DOG BEACH like ‘Pigeons as Doves’, ‘Present’, and ‘Talking to Angels’, which hark back to Jeann’s self-titled EP there are also moments of pure pop fever like ‘Thank God! For Astrology!’ And ‘MeB4U’.

“MeB4U is made to make you feel like a teenager,” Merryn shares. I wanna tell you how I feel, but I'm nervous' is the song's opening line, and the spoken words that follow invite listeners to plan with the young country girl on how to win over her all-consuming crush. The song's upbeat tempo and accompanying electric guitar riffs serve as a reminder of the exhilarating feelings of adolescence. Offering listeners a glimpse backwards into the excitement, trepidation, and promise of youth.

This urge to tap back into Merryn’s teenage self comes from a desire to shed all the, “Fucks I gained in my 20s” She tells me. “This album allowed me to be more playful and take everything less seriously.” 

Before DOG BEACH, Jeann  was working on a conceptual album using characters from films and themes as inspiration. She quickly found that the album was too stiff and that music-making should be an emotional and intuitive process. She would soon discover that the songs, the characters, and the stories would come on their own. 

I asked Jeann what role storytelling and spirituality played in her practice, particularly in 'Nun at the Airport’, which was born out of seeing a cloister of nuns dressed in their habits in her airport hotel room during quarantine. “They were this concrete image that seemed like they had a higher purpose,” Jeann tells me. 

Jeann’s interest in  pop music came largely from the instruments on hand. “I was so inspired by this synth I found that I was like, ‘fuck it’, I’ll write some pop songs.” 

But Merryn’s aptitude for experimentation went beyond instrument decisions. A , standout on DOG BEACH is her use of WhatsApp voice memos in songs such as ‘Subconscious Connections’. 

“The song was based on dreaming about a friend,” she says, “I like the idea of having the friend who the song is about in the song. I hope that when she’s older she listens and still feels the love.” 

On the cusp of entering a new decade, Jeann has re-grounded herself in the Northern Rivers with a stronger sense of the music she wants to make, who she wants to make it with, and who she is as an artist.

Merryn Jeann will be touring the album in Australia in May, with shows in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, and in Europe in July 2024.