Photo by Cesar Pedilla
Audio By Carbonatix
When New Times called Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields in late August, he apologized for his respiratory distress. He sounded a little congested, but his dulcifer baritone voice was unaffected and quite a treat. The last time he was this far south was back in 2004 when the Magnetic Fields performed at the Manuel Artime Theater on First Street for their album i. He remembered the neon-outlined skyline and a previous tour with Damon and Naomi in the ’90s that included a pit stop in the nascent town of Celebration, Florida.
Growing up, Merritt moved around a lot with his Tibetan hippie Buddhist mother, Alix. His earliest memory was of the canals of Baden-Baden, Germany, when he was just a baby. By the time he was 23, he recounted that he had lived in 33 different places.
His first concert was folk singer Odetta opening for Jefferson Airplane. “They’re killing children over there,” Grace Slick said, referring to Vietnam. As a 5-year-old, Merritt thought she meant stage left, and he was terrified. He wrote a song about this experience on 50 Song Memoir, released in 2018 for his 50th birthday. Merritt attended the Harvard Extension School in the late ’80s but was one credit short of graduating. He remembered a class in college called the Biopsychology of Waking, Sleeping, and Dreaming, where he used to write down his dreams in a journal.
In the 2010 documentary Strange Powers, you can spot Merritt wearing brown, a color that has been his signature for over 20 years. It matches his eyes and hair, and it’s practical for shopping — plus, he looks good in it, a quirky anecdote of this musical genius.
Stephin’s musical output is vast, ranging from the Magnetic Fields to Future Bible Heroes, the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, solo albums, and theatrical and film soundtracks. Stephin began writing songs at a very young age. In junior high, he performed Bach cantatas and was able to recall his parts, singing a few words to us over the phone.
It was surprising to find out that Merritt does not find singing therapeutic.“I’m not big on singing for pleasure,” he mentioned, and clarified that when he does sing for enjoyment, he doesn’t usually sing an entire song.
On his discography, his voice makes its debut on the third release of the Magnetic Fields’ The House of Tomorrow from 1992; the first two albums are sung by Susan Amway, who died in 2021 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. Many of his other projects, like the 6ths, have other vocalists. Merritt admitted to doing “wrong words karaoke,” where you sing one song to the tune of another (although he would never be caught dead doing regular karaoke as he considers that for scabs). His party trick? Singing “Hound Dog” to the tune of “Love Me Tender.”
Although he doesn’t like to comment on future dream collaborations or projects, he did share a wish to work on a musical of H.R. Pufnstuf with the Brothers Quay. He continues to write songs in gay bars, but he could never hold a songwriting workshop because he doesn’t have a formula, and if he did, he would change it.
Merritt no longer attends amplified concerts due to hyperacusis, a rare hearing disorder characterized by increased sensitivity to sounds. The last show he remembers attending was the Chills in a small Brooklyn bar in 2022, before Martin Phillips passed away. Thankfully, it wasn’t too loud, and he always wears earplugs now.
In a hypothetical who-would-you-see-if-you-could-see-anyone-alive-or-dead, he mentioned Joe Jonas, who created self-playing machines and was part of the Fluxus art movement and Harry Bertoia, a sound sculptor. When asked who he would cast in a biopic of “69 Love Songs,” Stephin paused and then said, “Heaven forfend,” but after another long pause, he said the obvious choice would be Tilda Swinton. She’d be perfect for playing 69 different characters — one for each song.
The Magnetic Fields. 8 p.m. Saturday, November 1, and Sunday, November 2, 2025, at Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 786-468-2000; arshtcenter.org. Tickets cost $55 to $95 via arshtcenter.org.
