Laura Jinn and Tatum Gale were set on making music as solo artists. The catch, though, was that the music they made together was really good. “It was obvious to our close friends much earlier and we were really rejecting it,” says Gale on a recent video call.
For a handful of years, though, the two New Orleans-based musicians would play as solo artists who collaborated with each other. “It was a little bit confusing for the audience,” acknowledges Jinn. The performances, though, helped shape would become their new project, Mercy Land, whose debut EP, Termites, dropped on Halloween. “I think the process of playing together also built a lot of trust between us, in the sense that, together, we were something different and better than we were individually and the music that we had made together was our best music and all that stuff,” says Jinn. “So, it emerged from that process.”
Take “Kid A,” from the new EP as an example. It’s actually the first song they made for what would become the Termites collection. “I think that it really captures how Mercy Land came to be,” says Jinn. “It’s a song that we made by playing live together, which is not something I really did in my early music-making days. I was always so into the computer, but Tatum is more of a live performer. He encouraged us to try that out.”
Gale plays the organ used in the song’s intro that helps set the vibe. “I always think of it as this pine green melancholy,” Jinn says of the song’s mood. “It’s like you’re in the woods and you’re at a bonfire and there’s someone that you’ve never seen before and you really like them, but you’re like, I’m never going to get to know them,” she explains. “It’s that sense of frustrated longing and that was the start of the song.”
And then there’s the Radiohead reference, which Gale says represents “being in touch with the sensation of discovering what music could possibly be when you’re in your early parts of your journey with music.”
Jinn cites “Kid A” as her favorite song off Termites, while Gale selects “Route 42,” named for the highway that runs from Kentucky through Ohio. It’s a highway the two have been driving often, as they were staying in Cincinnati at the time of this interview, and a song with twists and turns, traveling a road that quickly shifts from an ethereal intro to breakbeat jam. “ It feels like it represents where we could go,” says Gale. “It’s the highway that we’re driving almost everyday right now because we’re in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati and it’s a statement.”
There’s a sense of possibility on Termites that might also represent where Jinn and Gale are right now. For the past few years, they’ve been based out of New Orleans and the city has had an impact on both the music they’re making and how they put it out into the world. “There are so many creative modes, it almost feels like every single person expresses themselves creatively in some way,” says Jinn of the New Orleans scene. “I think that, to us, was the biggest thing— an act of making for making’s sake and a sense that it’s not just that I’m making this music and it has to be like this and then I promote. It’s very much like why don’t we do this performance and let’s have our friends do some kind of dance or whatever. It’s so freewheeling in that way and people love to support each other.”
After their visit to Cincinnati, where Jinn grew up, they were heading to New York to both get married and hold their EP release show on Halloween. They’re also in the midst finishing their forthcoming full-length album and preparing to shoot the corresponding videos for it. Early next year, Jinn and Gale are planning to move to Los Angeles. “We’re going to get into our car and go and figure it out when we’re there,” says Jinn.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates.
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