Anna Murphy

Episode 1 • Season 2 - Musicians in Conversation

In this episode Natalia talks with Anna Murphy, the lead singer of the band Cellar Darling. She is a multi-instrumentalist, a sound engineer, a producer and is also a coach at the Helvetiarockt Bandworkshop.

We discuss what it was like to leave school at 16 years old to pursue a music career and her departure from the band Eluveitie. We also talk about transitioning to Cellar Darling and how she got into sound engineering and producing.

Anna shares the song, “Dance” from her band Cellar Darling and the track she produced called, ‘stell ab’ from the artist, Second Daughter.

About Anna Murphy

Born in Lucerne in 1989 and raised in an opera family, Anna Murphy came into contact with music at an early age. At the age of 16, she joined the internationally successful band Eluveitie as a hurdy-gurdy player, singer and flautist. At the same time she played in various other bands and realised her own projects (godnr.universe, Lethe, Anna Murphy). During her 10 years with Eluveitie, Anna Murphy released 13 studio albums and played over 1000 concerts worldwide. In 2014 she was awarded a Swiss Music Award for “Best Live Act” with Eluveitie. After Eluveitie, Anna founded the folk-prog-rock band Cellar Darling in 2016. With Cellar Darling followed two studio albums acclaimed by audience and press and two world tours. In 2019, she was awarded the Progressive Music Award for “Best Video” for “The Spell” in London.

Anna learned the profession of sound engineering at Soundfarm Studios Lucerne and has been working as an independent sound engineer and producer since 2017. Among other things, she was responsible for the engineering of two Philipp Fankhauser albums, receiving a Gold Award after the successful release of “Home”.

In addition to her studio work, Anna Murphy passes on her skills as an instrumental and vocal coach and composes songs and music for video productions. Anna is committed to supporting women and non-binary people, who want to gain a foothold in the world of producing and sound engineering.

Anna’s Influences

Glossary of terms mentioned:

Hurdy-Gurdy: A string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin.

Audio Interface: Converts microphone and instrument signals into a format your computer and software recognize. The interface also routes audio from your computer out to your headphones and studio monitors.

Logic: Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform.  It is considered the professional counterpart to GarageBand.

MIDI Keyboard: A MIDI keyboard or controller keyboard is typically a piano-style electronic musical keyboard. It often includes other buttons, wheels and sliders, used for sending MIDI signals or commands over a USB or MIDI 5-pin cable to other musical devices or computers. MIDI keyboards lacking an onboard sound module cannot produce sounds themselves, however some models of MIDI keyboards contain both a MIDI controller and sound module, allowing them to operate independently.

SAE: Creative Media Institute offering students access to industry equipment and facilities.

Neve Console: The Neve 8078 was the last of the “80 series” hand-wired analogue mixing consoles designed and manufactured by Neve Electronics. Neve Electronics was founded in 1961 by the English electronics engineer Rupert Neve, for high-end recording studios during the 1970s. Some were custom built for major studios like CBS Sony.

Audience questions

If you have a question for the musicians in conversation, simply send a DM to Helvetiarockt on instagram!

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