Madison McFerrin Radiates Divine Feminine Energy in “God Herself”
Embodying divine femininity can manifest in various ways, from finding the beauty from within or channeling a love and light attitude out into the world. Captivating vocalist, songwriter and producer Madison McFerrin releases her new, self-produced single “God Herself” accompanied by an ethereal music video directed by Sam Cannon. “God Herself” is the third single from the fiercely independent artist’s anticipated self-released debut album, I Hope You Can Forgive Me, out May 12.
“God Herself” is swirling with divine feminine energy and sultry vocals. Its accompanying women-led and directed visual references the goddesses Isis, Yemaya and Hathor and finds McFerrin gracefully donning attire by all women designers. McFerrin is angelic in the video’s cave-like atmosphere – a stone arch frames her against a backdrop of shifting, dreamy light, leaving the focus on Madison and the crisp, controlled power of her voice. A song that revealed itself through trial after McFerrin pivoted from what she thought it “should” sound like, “God Herself” unfolded in all its soulful melodies and harmonies exactly how she heard them in her head. Its vocally textured sonic landscape recalls McFerrin’s early a capella experiments while reflecting themes of confidence, authenticity and being unapologetic in style.
“Sometimes the stars align and you end up writing what is possibly the best song you’ve ever written. That’s exactly what happened with “God Herself.” Every idea I heard in my head came flowing out into a luscious landscape, creating a self-empowerment bop,” McFerrin says. “Since I started my solo career with a cappella music, I would be remiss to not honor that element of my roots on my debut album. I hope that everyone who hears it feels like a strong, uplifted, bonafide bad bitch.”
Madison’s forthcoming debut I Hope You Can Forgive Me represents an evolution in her career as she finds ways to improvise and self-produce in the midst of an ever changing global pandemic landscape. Following the a cappella projects that corralled early fans (Finding Foundations Vol. I and II), she collaborated with her older brother, Taylor McFerrin, for her subsequent EP, You + I, her first project with instrumentation. I Hope You Can Forgive Me builds upon that next step sonically while exploring themes of love, self preservation, fear, and conjuring. A majority of the tracks on I Hope You Can Forgive Me are produced by Madison, a newly refined skill she honed during the pandemic. The intimate album features her father, Bobby McFerrin.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. We're super excited to have you featured on the platform. Your latest release “God Herself” is a glimpse of your upcoming debut album. I love the messages of empowerment and the ethereal energy from it. What was the inspiration behind the song?
[MADISON]: I think I was really looking to write something that had that empowerment to it. I was initially going after what I thought ended up being a bad bitch song, but I was trying to go after something more in the vein of feeling myself or a savage sound, and it wasn't working out. Then I pivoted and made this acapella thing, fully not expecting that to be what it turned out to be. The bad bitch song I’ve been trying to write ended up flowing out of me very seamlessly, so I went with it and I think it’s pretty beautiful.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What did the creative process look like for “God Herself?”
[MADISON]: It was honestly pretty seamless. I made the whole demo over a weekend. First, I'd had this chord progression that I'd written on the piano that I had a voice note of that I hadn't used, and so I went back and thought, ‘Oh, I wonder what this would sound like acapella.’ I went into my production software and laid down the vocal layers and started coming up with a melody to it and trying to think of the flow of things. First, the melody came out, and it usually goes chord, melody, lyrics and that's definitely what happened here. I was just playing around with some melodies and the words came out very naturally, which is not always the case, so that was a nice little surprise.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “God Herself “also has an accompanying music video and it has a really dreamy feel to it and you're the center subject. What was the inspiration behind the video and how was your experience filming that?
[MADISON]: The experience was great. I worked with an incredible director, Sam Cannon, who we've been wanting to work together with for a while, so it was really awesome that we finally got the opportunity to collaborate in this way. I envisioned this ethereal, cave-like environment. When we were on set, we thought it looked like Venus. The set design is really amazing. It's actually miniature, and it was superimposed after the fact, but we had a really great time shooting it. It was initially just going to be a movement loop, but Sam had the idea of us like having me sing to the sped up version and playing it. It ended up looking really awesome, so we ended up doing that and getting a full true music video out of it. The whole team was really amazing, and it was a really fun shoot.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “God Herself” is the third single release from your upcoming debut album. What can listeners expect from this brand new era of music from you?
[MADISON]: I think they can expect a lot of confidence, a lot of musicality. I've produced 70% of it myself, and so that was a really big stretch for me personally, and there are only like 2.8% of music producers who are women. I wasn't going after that intentionally, but I think that obviously that number should be much bigger. I'm incredibly grateful and honored to be putting my hat in the ring in that regard. I think it's overall an expansion of the sound that people have come to know and love before and just really shows where these next steps are going.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What was the inspiration behind the album title, I Hope You Can Forgive Me?
[MADISON]: Oftentimes, I'm writing a lot of music to myself about how self-sabotage can really be a thing that can get in your way or being highly self critical. I think that a lot of the title comes is about trying to forgive myself for the things that I may have done that got in the way of the little girl version of me that had these fantastical ideas that oftentimes get subdued as you grow into adolescence and have all of these things that come into the world outside forces. I think it's a letter to myself to just accept growth, accept pain, accept the things that you may have done in your past that you're not necessarily proud of that you want to absolve yourself of the shame and guilt that comes with that.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Have you taken any creative risks or have been experimenting more with I Hope You Can Forgive Me since your 2019 release You + I?
[MADISON]: The fact that I produced this one, my Brother Taylor McFerrin did a lot of the production on You + I. I've produced seven out of the 10 tracks on this album, so that was some major growth and extension. It was definitely a big risk, especially being so nervous, it's a skill that I have gained in the pandemic. I'm very new to this and this is my debut album and to do that with my first full length, I think was an incredible risk. I think it's paid off.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What do you need in your space when you feel creative inspiration hitting you?
[MADISON]: I always have some kind of writing tool for sure and I usually need to be alone. I like to write with other people as well, but when I'm having a moment where I'm feeling really inspired by myself, lots of times I really just like to isolate myself and be alone with my thoughts. I think it's also about being silent and still enough to hear the idea that is coming into my mind and being able to not have any external noise get in the way of that creative process.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Unpublished?
[MADISON]: I feel really great about it. I think a lot of things are happening momentum-wise that I'm super proud of. It's been quite a journey and not the easiest road and I think that a lot of things are coming to the surface that I've been working on for a really long time. Myself and a lot of people were putting out things in 2019 and 2020 and thinking that 2020 was going to be our big year, and obviously that did not happen. I'm really grateful that people have stuck around in this time since the pandemic hit and since things have definitely slowed down from a production and touring standpoint, I'm so grateful that things are picking back up. I think that very much contributes to my ability to be able to really go full steam ahead in this moment, and present myself to the world in the way that I was hoping to a couple of years ago but now with more music and more wisdom.
