Mariah McManus
Mariah Leigh McManus (born February 3, 1992) is an American indie pop singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Music career
Mariah McManus has been charting her fate for years, honing her MusicAL skills at the age of 13, when she and her older brother, Aaron were gifted a set of musical INSTRUMENTS from their father that Christmas. The rest is history. Six years later, this life long songwriter released her debut album, Nice To Meet You on September 27, 2011.
In early 2011, McManus embarked upon Nashville's Paper Swan Studios to work with local producer, Thomas Doeve. Together, along with Aaron, they crafted a ten track debut, showcasing her ability to marry intimate storytelling with beautifully produced harmonies and infectious twinkling melodies.
Drawing influence from an array of artists ranging from Portishead to Björk, McManus' channels Imogen Heap with textured vocals and the pop sensibilities of Taylor Swift. McManus infuses her songs with the sincerity of a teenager navigating the world, coupled with a vocal maturity far beyond her years, that transcend audience and genre, especially on tracks like "Nice To Meet You" and single, Say It Again
Reviews
NPR Music wrote an article about Mariah McManus in October highlighting her unique vocal features. "At 19, Mariah McManus has the kind of voice that L.A. producers pull all-nighters to replicate. Twinkling xylophone and resonant piano intersperse with 808 in "Say It Again," a love song which nuzzles somewhere between Taylor Swift's earnest puppy love and The Fray's "Over My Head," but without all the mess."
New York Times also wrote a review on Mariah in December, 2011. "But Ms. McManus is more complex than all that on the beguiling “Nice To Meet You” (Catcher and Rye). That’s largely because of her sweet voice, which is sometimes direct and clear, and sometimes works over syllables using an aggressive tongue (with faint flickers of Bjorkian strangeness amidst the Taylor Swiftish purity). But it’s always deceptive, because so much of what Ms. McManus is concerned with on these songs is rough terrain."