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Rising Stars: Meet Marissa Mulder

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Marissa Mulder.

Hi Marissa; we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started singing when I was three years old. My biggest influences on me as a kid were my grandmother and grandfather. I grew up in Syracuse, NY, right around the corner from them. I was lucky enough to see them almost every day. My grandmother directed many musical revues and concerts at the church down the hill from my home called St. Ann’s. She gave me my very first solo when I was 5 years old in a review she directed called Manhattan Melodies. The song was “Tomorrow” by Annie. My grandmother had a piano in her basement and dozens of songbooks filled with music from the Great American Songbook and Broadway shows. I’d spend hours sitting next to her at the piano. She would play, and I would sing. My grandfather and I were extremely close and had an extraordinary connection. He loved jazz. When I was young, he introduced me to artists like Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald. My favorite memories were riding with him in his beat-up old Toyota Camry to the Native American reservation so he could buy huge cartons of parliament light cigarettes tax-free. On these rides, we would listen to the music he loved, and he was always so delighted that I liked it as much as he did. Growing up, my parents played lots of music at my home, The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, and John Prine. I loved those songs too just as much as the jazz standards because I could sense, even at a young age, that they had the depth to them and told meaningful stories. I was lucky to be exposed to great music as a kid. I soaked it in.

I knew from a very young age that I wanted to sing. And I always knew that I wanted to go to NYC to do it. I sang throughout my childhood. I studied privately from age 11 on. I went to SUNY Geneseo near Rochester, NY, for college and majored In Musical Theater with a minor in Creative Writing. Shortly after I graduated in 2007, I moved to NYC to pursue my dreams of performing. When I first got to NYC, I auditioned for musical theatre. However, after a time, I had the urge to sing. The audition process was hard. Often in auditions, you sing only 16 bars of a song, sometimes even just 8 bars.

I was craving singing. I connected with a cabaret and jazz artist from my hometown of Syracuse named Karen Oberlin. She introduced me to the Cabaret Scene in NYC. I fell in love with the art form of cabaret. I saw many wonderful shows in beautiful rooms like the Cafe Carlyle and the old Oak Room in the Algonquin hotel. I loved it because it was so intimate. Usually, the stage and the room were on the smaller side. The singer was right there in front of you, making direct contact. In cabaret there’s no fourth wall; the singer connects deeply with the audience. It’s almost like you feel like you’re in their living room! In cabaret there aren’t any rules or limits.

I can sing whatever kind of music I like. I love putting together shows that have a theme and tell a story that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. I have performed shows with music from all different genres. I still love jazz and the songbook and frequently sing those songs, but over the last 8 years, I’ve done shows featuring music from more current artists. I’ve performed shows of songs by artists like Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, and my latest show is a tribute to John Prine. I also did a show, more like a theater piece, called “Marilyn In Fragments,” an homage to film icon Marilyn Monroe. All the spoken words in the show were Marilyn’s own words, and I sang songs from all different genres to tell her story.

I’ve been lucky enough to perform my shows at some of the most esteemed rooms in NYC, such as the Cafe Carlyle, 54 Below, Birdland, and Joe’s Pub. I’ve also been able to travel to various clubs, theaters, and performing arts centers around the country, presenting my shows. There’s nothing I love more than getting to travel and sing and meet new people. I’ve met so many wonderful people on the road. I’m so excited to return to the Blue Strawberry here in St. Louis Thursday, April 21st, and Friday, April 22nd, at 7 30pm with my John Prine show. I’ve been listening to John Prine since I was a kid in Syracuse; my dad had all his records. Over the last several years, I’ve sung some of Prine’s songs, but my dad and my pianist Jon Weber finally convinced me to do a whole evening of Prine’s music. I put together the show during the height of the pandemic in NYC. It was a great project during a difficult, sad, and uncertain time. Sadly, John Prine died from Covid in April 2020 at 73. He had beaten cancer twice in his life, but Covid took him. After he died, the outpouring of love from other artists was astounding. Everybody from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews paid tribute and spoke about how much Prine’s music had influenced them. Prine’s songs are rooted in country and folk. His songs are haunting and sad, and some are extremely funny. John Mellencamp once said, “there are only two people who write songs like that, God and John Prine.” With my Prine show and all the other shows I perform about specific songwriters, I strive to find personal information and stories about the writers that perhaps aren’t widely known. I think of these stories as little gems illuminating the songs and giving the audience a chance to get to know the artist on a deeper level. I’m so excited to share these incredible songs and stories with the people of St. Louis.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being an artist is challenging. It’s quite hard to make a living as a singer. Since I moved to the city in 2007, I’ve worked many different side jobs to pay my rent and bills and stay afloat. I tried my hand at waitressing at a jazz club in Times Square, and on my first real night working, I somehow managed to lock myself in a walk-in freezer. I had five very unhappy tables wondering where the heck their waitress was. Luckily one of the bus boys let me out quickly, and I warmed right up, but needless to say, I was let go from that job. I have always loved kids, so I started working as a nanny in NYC. I was working for a nanny agency and got connected with a family of 6 children. I ended up nannying for them for 8 years! It was a fun, exhausting adventure. I would be with the kids during the day and sing at night. I’ve been lucky to connect with families over my time in NYC who support my singing career, and when I have to leave town for a gig, they are flexible and understanding. I hope one day to support myself from my singing fully, but being able to spend time with children is also so rewarding. They are so present, and you can’t fake it or phone it in when you are with them. They know if you’re distracted or your mind is somewhere else. Being with them keeps me grounded and, at the moment, makes me a better person and performer. When I feel discouraged or tired, I remind myself to be grateful. I chose this life. I wanted to be a singer, and that’s precisely what I’m doing, and I feel so lucky to get to do what I love. Living in NYC has taught me to be strong, independent, and self-sufficient. I’m grateful for all the struggles because they make me better.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have released three albums on Spotify, iTunes, CDBaby, and Amazon. I worked hard to pay for creating these albums all on my own. And that makes me proud. I felt like I’d built a name for myself on the cabaret scene and did that alone by constantly creating shows, getting up in front of audiences, and performing them. The audiences have been three people, sometimes three hundred, but each time I feel like I’m building a following of people that will follow my career, buy my albums and attend my shows. My shows have received wonderful recognition, including 5 rave reviews from the New York Times. The New York Times called my show “ Tom in his words, the songs of Tom Waits,” “ Far and away, the season best cabaret show, everything the genre can be but rarely is.” The Wall Street Journal said, “ Ms. Mulder has given us a virtual definition of what cabaret is all about, the projection of one’s soul through the lens of songs written by someone else.” I strive to make every song I sing my own. I try to dissect and understand each lyric in a song so that when I’m singing it for an audience, I make each note count, and the meaning comes through. Although many artists influence me, I don’t try to sound like anybody else. I think this is what sets me apart.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
The culture, the houses, the pizza, and the gooey butter cake! The delicious Italian food, but most of all the people. Each time I sing in St. Louis, I meet the warmest, kindest, most down-to-earth people. They make me feel at home.

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Image Credits
Stacy Sullivan for the 1st photo and last three photos.

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