Reclaiming voices through music: London gig

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MacEagon Voyce

U.S. singer-songwriter MacEagon Voyce invites you to collectively explore your relationship with stammering at his gig in London this May.

Meridians: A Collective Reclamation of Voice Through Music will be a night of music and much more, created by Minnesota-born MacEagon.

It was inspired by the 'mask' he subconsciously made for himself after being bullied for stammering growing up. MacEagon found solace in music, writing about his experiences and playing live, which helped him to heal (read more about his story below).

"Each of us has a 'meridian'", MacEagon explains: "that liminal space between the 'true self' and the images we present to the world. My Meridians gig on Thursday 15^th May is a collective reclamation of voice through music — an opportunity for you to be part of the healing process."

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MacEagon

"I'll be joined by Serena Clara, who makes existential poetry pop that morphs organically to the point of feeling alive. Her music has roots in folk and explorations in experimental electronic, while clearly honouring the powerhouses of femme alt-pop.

'As we perform, you'll be invited to explore your hidden self, and to express what comes forth on a leaflet you'll be given. Grounding us in reflection is the incredible wellbeing and relationship specialist, Dr Adriana Candeias, who for decades has supported transformational journeys in authentic relating, embodied mindfulness and cultural transformation.

'We'll reflect on the cycles within our own lives and how we can align more fully with our truest selves. This heart-centred activity will help us connect deeply to ourselves, creating a space of openness and receptivity for the music to unfold.

'Come along as we gather in celebration of balance, renewal and rebirth, and consider how we too can find poetry in our pain, and morph organically to the point of feeling alive."

'Meridians: A Collective Reclamation of Voice through Music' featuring MacEagon Voyce, will be on Thursday 15^th May at Made by Many in North London. Read more and buy tickets (£10 each) on the Luma website.

My 'Moon Man'

MacEagon tells us more about the story behind the gig…

As a child, my stammer was debilitating and I was a hopeless bearer of my own last name. Over time it became difficult to trust my voice. But through singing, where I didn't stammer, I found a way to sidestep my speech, to 'cheat it' in a way.

I studied vocal performance & composition at Carleton College in Minnesota, singing my way through my stammer while beginning to find solace in the written word, transitioning into a career as a music journalist (for Vice and Nerdist). For many years I hid my voice behind my pen, until I interviewed the stammering composer Alvin Lucier, a premiere name of the 20th century avant-garde. That conversation began a slow, painful embrace of a defining part of myself. 

In my self work, I've traced much of my trauma/mental health challenges back to about the age 7, when I became conscious of the fact that my stammer wasn't 'acceptable', ie when I was teased and bullied for it, which forced me to turn inwards. I subconsciously created a mask that was more likely to survive the unfriendly confines of school. I've named that mask 'Moon Man'. On reflection, Moon Man didn't gain full form until later, when I was a teenager, but he was born at the same time I started stammering. In time, a rift emerged between me and the image of myself, and they grew in tandem until I could no longer tell them apart. 

I started to explore this in my music, which manifested as a conversation between these selves. Me and Moon Man are one and the same, spanning myriad unseen thresholds between life and death, darkness and light, love and loathing.

Eventually, I stepped in front of people to play my music — a terrifying place for a stammerer — and learned to heal a little each time I played. Today, drawing from brooding melody makers like Angel Olsen and Thom Yorke, as well as prodigious vocalists like Jeff Buckley and Joe Cocker, I invite audiences to take part in that healing process.