Text: Jeremy Whitaker
The career of indie-folk singer Michael Marcagi seems to be moving at whirlwind speed. After parting ways with his band The Heavy Hours, the newly solo, self-funded singer found accidental virality with his song “Scared to Start.” What quickly followed was a record deal, the release of his critically acclaimed EP American Romance, a sold-out Euro-American tour, and a new collaboration with Joy Oladokun. Yet, things are still accelerating.
After finishing the European leg of his self-titled tour, I caught up with Michael during a short-lived moment of respite in his family home in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sat just under a classically framed family photo, and with nothing but a gracious attitude, you wouldn’t know that just days before, Marcagi was on the stages of sold-out venues from Norway to Ireland. In this way and many others, he oozes the authenticity of great folk singers of the past.
“I was in Europe in total for over four weeks, and so just being back home and being around my friends and my family again, it feels weird, but I'm getting used to it,” says Marcagi.
Packed in a sprinter van on the narrow European cobblestones, Marcagi and his supporting band seem to have been caught in the old paradox of life on the road. “Tour is so fun and I wouldn't trade any of those experiences for the world, but it's so weird. It's just not normal life. At the end of the day you kind of want to come back to something normal. You want nothing to change.” While yearning for normalcy, it is palpable the gratitude in which he possesses for every performance, and his undeniable craving for new experiences.
“You are never going to get as much time as you want when you're in places like London or Amsterdam or something like that. It’s not really realistic… but maybe one day.”
Touring is not particularly new to Marcagi, but touring solo at this level feels fresh. As he prepares to embark on the U.S. leg of his tour, the two shows that excite him most are Los Angeles, where he will play the incomparable Troubadour, and his performance at Bogart’s, in his hometown of Cincinnati.
Playing the Troubadour, he says, “feels like a little bit of a bucket list thing for me.” What continues to astound Marcagi is that people actually come out to his shows. “I don't even really have words. It was just so wild to go to a foreign country where English is not even their first language and to hear them singing back. What has my life turned into?” For the artist, this will be especially surreal in his hometown. “I've played in bands before and even though it's my hometown, it's hard to get people to come out to shows here. The fact that we finally have people who want to see us in our hometown is really cool.”
Although it seems like the singer popped up as an overnight sensation, Marcagi has been pursuing a career in music since his days as a collegiate golf player. I couldn’t help but ask him about this journey. “Walk me through the transition from golf to international songwriter, indie-folk sensation,” I begged. “Golf was… a little bit of a different crowd than the music scene,” he laughed.
Little did he know that his days in golf would prepare him for life as a musician.“Honestly, it wasn't too different from touring. You're in a van and driving around and playing different events, lugging around heavy stuff.” But even as he was touring America’s fairways, music was always the dream. “For me, I'm not one of those people that's born to be on stage. It is a pretty anxiety-inducing thing for me. It's a tough vulnerable position. It's still a nerve-wracking experience. It took me a while to get into the mindset to actually share my music and even perform. Once I made that first step, I knew pretty quickly that music was what I wanted to do.”
His industry experience was informed by his time in the band The Heavy Hours, but more than anything, his appreciation for folk music originates from the artists who raised him. “I grew up listening to John Prine, just simple stories, and that's kind of what I was connected to. Prine’s influence is evident in the deeply emotive narratives that Marcagi weaves into his songs.
Marcagi’s lyrics can only be described as deeply personal. It is this forthcoming nature that likely draws fans into the music. “I always connected with singer-songwriters and bands that have nothing to hide. There's a lot of beauty when an artist sings specific vulnerable lyrics. Noah Kahan has people from all over the world screaming, ‘I love Vermont.’ It’s so specific to him, but that translates to such a universal feeling of having a love-hate relationship with your hometown. I think the more vulnerable I am, it almost makes me connect with people more.”
These songs which are attractive in their floating simplicity are quite a challenge to write for Marcagi, who I diagnosed with an acute case of perfectionism. For him, it all starts with a melody, the guitars, and then the lyrics. As he sees it, “If I am going to be singing these on stage for the rest of my life, I want them to really connect.” This is the process in which he approached writing his debut EP American Romance, released earlier this year.
“What is an American Romance?” I asked. His response? There is none.
“Where I'm from, it’s a certain part of the country where you're kind of pressured to get married young and do things a certain way. Getting older, you're seeing a lot of those things turn out to be lies or not be as truthful. Behind [the EP] was all of these relationships I've either been in or seen around me. No one really has it all figured out and there isn't really an answer to it.”
The idea of American Romance is intentionally ambiguous. There is so much yearning in the EP that surely it felt that this idea is something out of reach, unrealistic. Yet an idea people raised in conditions similar to Marcagi are trained to want desperately.
The concept all started with the viral single “Scared to Start,” which has amassed nearly 275 million streams across platforms. “I wanted to do the solo thing and only really had the money to record a few songs. I didn’t even know where to start. I didn't even have a TikTok at the time, so I downloaded TikTok. Nothing ever really happened with it. Then finally, it wasn't even a video of me playing, it was just a snippet of the song with the lyrics on it. I posted it one morning, and I went to bed and it had almost a million views by the next morning. Honestly, I don't even remember much after that because it was such a whirlwind.”
After finding success outside of the digital world, Marcagi still feels pressure to keep up with the ever-increasing demand of his followers and online fans. “You have followers now that want more content from you, it's kind of a big pain in the ass. You also want to make sure that you're still focusing on being a musician and playing shows and writing new songs. So it's one of those things that I'm trying to keep a nice balance with.”
Part of this balance is combating the negativity, and what better way than to collaborate with singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun on a new version of “Scared to Start.” In a year of pinch-me moments, this was one that felt too good to be true. It is almost like his first real entry into the global folk community.
When “Scared to Start” was doing numbers on the charts, Marcagi wrote down a dream list of possible collaborators, with Oladokun at the top of the list. “Being on the outside for so long and watching all of these artists work together and write songs together, I was so jealous.” What Joy provides on the song is silky smooth vocals that seem to elevate the storytelling to unforeseen heights.
The sky's the limit for Michael Marcagi, it is only a question of what comes next. Folk fans hope to see more collaborations from the artist, anywhere from Noah Kahan and Adrianne Lenker to his beloved The Lumineers, we’ll just have to wait and see.
“Scared to Start (feat. Joy Oladokun)" is out now.
Full Credits:
Text: Jeremy Whitaker
Photos: Tracy Allison
