Podcast 297: Meara O'Reilly

Art + Music + Technology

It was ages ago that I first talked with Meara O'Reilly. She was looking for help with a project, and put her in contact with some friends of mine that were in the Bay Area. This led to a series of great collabs, and gave me the opportunity to see her grow in her work. And this work is pretty stunning - if you take a look at her site (https://mearaoreilly.com/), you'll see what I mean.

She's about to release a new album on October 25th, on Cantaloupe Music (https://cantaloupemusic.com/), featuring some amazing vocal compositions. They are based on hocketing - the use of multiple 'instruments' that are responsible for portions of a musical phrase. While this typically provides interesting variation in the sonic palette of the piece, Meara has used vocal techniques to really extend the idea of both voice and hocketing to make an amazing soundscape, and I was glad to be able to talk to her about the process.

She's also done work ranging from installations at San Francisco's Exploratorium to iOS apps, and everything has the sort of inventiveness that instinctively draws you into the next piece. I hope that you enjoy this chat, and that you take the time to check out her website and give her new album a listen when it is released.

Cheers!