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AO…You were born in Boston and raised all over the country. What made you decide to come back to Boston to go to school?
MP…It was mainly just going to Harvard. That was good enough reason for me. It was where I wanted to go. My father went to Harvard. Once I got there, it was the scene for singer/songwriters that made me stay. Harvard Square…it's got club happenings, it's got House of Blues, it has the street performance aspect to it and that's just so good.
AO…Did you perform on the street a lot?
MP…That's how I made my money last summer. I quit my job and just did street performing.
AO… What was your major at school?
MP…It was biological anthropology, physical anthropology.
AO…Do you ever plan to do anything with that?
MP…(laughing) Nope!! It was just interesting. I didn't want to do anything with it; I just wanted to learn it.
AO…You have had classical voice and piano training so there was obviously something there from the beginning. When did you start playing and performing your own music?
MP…Ever since I was little, my mother gave me and my brother piano lessons. My brother hated it, and I loved it. I think that's when they first knew that I was into music because I practiced longer than the hour they made me practice each week. Ever since I was little I wrote classical piano pieces. They're terrible (laughing) I think it started that I wasn't writing and performing, but I started singing in junior high. I loved being on stage solo. Then in high school I was in a punk garage band. We were bad too, but it was fun. Once I got to college I started the solo thing because I didn't have a band, all I had was an acoustic guitar and I ended up liking the way that worked. Just me and my guitar.
AO…You have no plans to get a band?
MP…Eventually I will but I think it's what I like more is having it be my own thing it writing my own music, no matter whose playing, it's still mine. As opposed to the garage band where it was like the guitarist writing all the music and I'm putting words on top of it and it wasn't really mine. That's more of what I was aiming at. It wasn't just the solo work but the fact that it was my music and my interpretation.
AO…Who were your first early influences and who do you admire now.
MP…My early influences were vocal influences, it wasn't songwriting. Anyone from Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, and Ella Fitzgerald. People I admire now are Ben Harper, Sarah McLaughlin…those are the two people that I really love.
AO…You have been compared to Sarah McLaughlin and Aretha Franklin. How does that make you feel?
MP…(laughing) It makes me feel awesome! They are both people that I look up to and it was independent. They didn't know that these were people I looked up to.
AO…You have switched gears from a folk genre over to a more soulful sound.
MP…I think what it more was is that I was never in the folk genre. I was never influenced by it growing up. I didn't even know there was this neo-folk movement going on before I came to Boston. I think it was the fact that I had guitar and I sang my own songs that I got put into the folk genre. I think more of what it is, I'm making a conscious effort to expand out of that genre a little bit. Not leave it behind, just have it a wider appeal than simply just folk coffee house.
AO…Do you think it' harder for a female to be successful in the singer/songwriter category than a male since it seems to be male dominated?
MP…I think there are benefits to being a woman that guys don't have, but vice versa. I don't think there is any sort of uneven playing field. Most of the people I am playing with are male. In folk there is a ton a women. It think when you get more into pop/acoustic it is very male dominated and maybe I'm just bridging that.
AO…You have won several songwriting awards. Do you find writing the lyrics more challenging and or appealing or the music?
MP…There's a quote from Bob Dylan. He says he hates writing but loves haven written. Lyrics are such a pain for me to write. It's so hard. I can feel an emotion, but I can't put it into words. It's always later that I have to look back. But after I have written a song and listen to the lyrics, it's such an incredible experience because sometimes I don't thing the words even come from me. It's wonderful to look back and see it.
AO…When did you write your first song?
MP…I wrote those little classical pieces in first grade. They are just simple little ditties. And then I wrote "pop" music when I was in junior high school. I don't even know if that counts. From what I am doing now, from the early songs that I wrote, was probably just junior year in high school. So six years ago.
AO…Do you have a most memorable experience in regards to your music? Whether it be being able to share the stage with a certain artist or a most embarrassing moment?
MP…(laughing) I have plenty of embarrassing moments! This really didn't have anything to do with my performance. One of those songwriting competitions was the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I got to do a troubadour contest. We performed on the side stage and had a little competition. That night I got to stand about forty feet from Ben Harper. I didn't get to share the stage with him but I felt like it was all part of the same experience. And he put on this show and it was in the Telluride Valley. And just looking back and seeing a ton of the people all the way to the back completely enraptured with what he was doing on stage. That was incredible. It didn't have anything to do with me on stage, but just having that is part of the experience. Just going out for music and being able to experience that was awesome.
AO…Do you want to tell us one of those most embarrassing moments?
MP…(laughing) I just do stupid stuff. Like after countless shows, I pick up all my stuff and then trip. And that's the last thing you see. It's not my last song; it's the fact that I trip. Then I bow.
AO…Do you have a personal favorite song of your own?
MP…I think it depends day to day what I'm going through at the time. Right now, there is a song that I co-wrote with a friend of mine, Jeff Cohen. It's called Run. It's kind of cryptic, but it's about me formerly being trapped in something I didn't want to be in and running out of it and doing what I want to do and doing my own thing.
AO…You will be on the Rock Boat again this year. How did you enjoy it last year?
MP…I had an absolute blast! I was just a random kid who won a songwriting contest (that's how I got on) and they were just so nice to me! It wasn't like "let the kid do her thing, let her go up" and then not deal with her. Like Edwin and Edwin's people and Sister Hazel's management. They were so nice and they didn't need to do that. I was just psyched to be there. I don't know what I expected but they were just so great.
AO…Who are you currently listening to in your CD player right now?
MP…I am obsessed with this girl Res. She does this sort of R&B, hip-hop, rock fusion. But not fusion in the sense of the genre but fusion of those genres. Res, How I Do is the name of it. The first time I heard it, I was like "What is this?" But you have to listen to it, and then listen to it again. It's so different. It's so cool. I have listened to Maroon 5 for the first time. That was pretty cool.
AO…What projects are you currently working on?
MP…We're in the very preliminary stages of working on a CD. I want to, but that's as far as it's gotten. We're talking to some people but that is definitely something that I want to do this year. My project is just trying to get out and play as much as possible. Just get out in front of anybody, not just in Boston and play.
AO…Where do you hope to see yourself in the future?
MP…Just doing this full time. It's random right now. I've been doing it full time since June, but I never know month to month if I will be doing it next month. I would like to be a little more secure in the future just doing this. I want to get more involved with the scene. I have met the coolest people, whether it is the audience or people singing. And I just want to continue doing it. And to just know that I am always taking a step up no matter where I go. So not all the way to the top because then I always have some place to go.
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