Mercury and the Architects
Interview conducted on March 2, 2022
By Dan Locke
A-based, Alt Pop/Hip Hop trio Mercury & the Architects announce their fiery new single, “I Don’t Fit In,” due out 2/4/22. Mercury & the Architects are defined by their unfailing renaissance in the face of every challenge: always coming back with a stronger, grander vision in support of self-love, and the pursuit of absolute truth. Influenced by the many cultures that touched them growing up in NYC, M&A’s songs similarly flow through genres in a unique and authentic way that makes them both new and risky, yet timeless with a heart of rock and roll.
Founded in 2014 by TJ Ferranola, an all-star athlete with musical talent no one expected, and his sister, Chelsea Rae, a visual artist and musician.
What is your upbringing?
TJ and Rae are from Staten Island, NYC and LYNZI was raised by elven fairies on a ranch in Texas.
How did you discover music?
The universe + our father’s are musicians.
How did you start to write music?
The universe. TJ and LYNZI both started writing around 13.
What is your guitar of choice now? Year, make and model?
Epiphone custom acoustic
You have been a band since 2014. How did your band form?
TJ was writing music his whole life but never really with an intention. Then when he was about 18 years old, he started listening to all the music he had written, and it felt more relevant at the time he was listening to it than when he wrote it. His sister Rae as well, and his father, all listened to the music and felt it was a lot bigger than just them. That’s when Mercury & the Architects was born – to bring that music to the world
How did you get your bands name?
The name was inspired by the music. Mercury is the message. The Architects are the messengers.
What did you mean by the statement The Architects, the Poet, the Pixie and the Painter?
The whole worlds a stage and we’re actors in a play. Those are the architects delivering the message.
Describe your music.
New Rock N Roll.
What was your first performance as a band like?
Natural. Felt like we’ve done this already in many past lives.
Royalties never appear like magic. Royalties are only sent to you through work undertaken by a PRO to ensure that their members are getting paid. If you’re not yet signed up to a Performing Right Organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you may not be receiving all the royalties you deserve.
Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP ?
ASCAP
What makes a good songwriter?
Someone with a story and a passion for the truth.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
TJ’s first song he ever wrote was called “Fallen” and yes it’s recorded. LYNZI’s first song she ever wrote is called “Through it all” and yes it’s recorded. For architect member ears only 😉
What is the process of writing your music?
Always different but it usually starts with the lyrics and asking hard questions. Like “what do you need to hear right now that you’re scared to tell yourself”.
Tell about the day you record “Punching Bag” video?
Epic. Didn’t even plan on shooting a music video. The initial plan was that we were gonna take some pictures then we decided to record some video and it just happened to come together. Great art.
Tell me about your new record?
It’s fast, fun, and timeless 🙂
What the back story of “I Don’t Fit In”?
TJ started writing it in high school. Then LYNZI finished writing it with him and sang the chorus right after the pandemic hit. Then Rae laid down the keys, made the album art, and the rest is history.
How long before we see a new video for I Don’t Fit In, since LYNZI had leg problems?
She’s stronger and healthier every day. Nothing’s gonna stop us. Video dropping before April.
What is your favorite track on your album?
The Fire
What are your feelings about streaming music?
It’s cool but we miss owning music as music fans. There’s something about discovering a new song and downloading it or owning a physical copy of it. Now that everyone has everything all the time it feels like it doesn’t mean as much to people anymore/it’s not as personal.
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes/ Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag. Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
We’re all classically trained musicians and we don’t think it matters much. Symbols have various definitions, and those definitions will always evolve along with humanity. We think it’s cool that # means multiple things to different kinds of people in various contexts.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Vinyl. There’s something about owning music and having a physical experience with it. Plus it just sounds better.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Means that art can be anything. There are no rules.
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
No, we don’t think anything can kill live music. If anything, it will come back stronger than ever.
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
No. Artists need to be out in the world connected to real people and society. We think Covid-19 has been challenging for most artist careers.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Making music for the world.
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
Wim Hoff breathing techniques + lots of recording.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Board Games for sure. Catan specifically.
How was it to play the Viper Room?
Legendary.
Recently the virus has come back with the Delta outbreak then the next variants Omicron, which as cause many people in the industry to worry about the future of live music.
How would you like live shows to be held and still keep you and fans safe.
We think they should be held as they always have been. People who are sick with the virus or any illness for that matter should not attend.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
Yes it’s still a thing and it shouldn’t be.
The show Star Trek introduced people to the holodeck: an immersive, realistic 3D holographic projection of a complete environment that you could interact with.
Today holograms are already being used in a variety of way, such as medical systems, education, art, security and defense
Performers like Tupac, Michael Jackson, Roy Orbison, Frank Zappa, Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse, Buddy Holly, Ronnie James Dio, Marylin Monroe, and Whitney Houston have done it already. The band ABBA just announced that they will be doing a comeback together after nearly 40 years as holograms on their next tour. With ABBA it was with the help of George Lucas .
If the cost was down to the point you could do it also, would you be willing to do Holographic concerts in our living room?
Hell, yes that’s sick. But it’s still not the real thing 😉
In the past if a musician stop doing music they find a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants.. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Rae- Making dreamcatchers
LYNZI- Marine Biology
TJ- Coaching Football
What is your happy place?
On the stage and in the studio. That’s why we do what we do.
Red Hot Chili Peppers are about to sell their entire song catalog for $140 Million. In the past year a lot of musicians such as Stevie Nicks ($100 Million) , Bob Dylan (over $400 Million), Taylor Swift, Journey, Def Leppard, K.T. Tunstall, John Legend, ZZ Top and Shakira have sold their catalog rights within the last year. Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog for a reported $300 million. Neil Young song 50 percent of his worldwide copyright and income interest in his 1,180 song catalogue to Hipnosis Songs Fund limited . Once you get to the age of about 70. Publishing is far more lucrative then the mechanical royalties paid to artist based on sales, airplay and streams. A good example of this is Michael Jackson brought the rights to the Beatles catalog in 1985. And in the late 80’s the Beatles Revolution appeared in a Nike commercial.
The lump sums being offering by publishing firms are more tax friendly concerning estate planning.
On January 19, 2021 Hipgnosis Song Management acquired 80% of Kenny Chesney’s recorded music royalties, covering the country superstar’s discography from his 1994 debut In My Wildest Dreams through 2017’s Live in No Shoes Nation.
Someone who was totally against selling his rights was David Crosby. He did not want to sell his publishing rights. In addition, it was not an easy thing for him to do. However, by making a deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, it took a big weight off his shoulders. He could pay off his house and cover other bills. Now he does not have to work for a living. It should be noted that David is battling tendinitis in his hands, which hurts his ability to play guitar. Do you think you would be willing to sale your back catalog if someone like Universal is will to buy everything, such as all the rights to all your songs?
We think the world is rapidly changing and that ownership is extremely important. Really depends on the exact circumstances but we’re in this for the music. The goal is to inspire as many people in the world as possible. If we make a ton of money along the way that’s cool too.
There are many platforms out there that allow artists to get their music heard. Artist Republik, DistroKid, Tunecore & plenty others offer distribution services. These services enable independent artists to put their music on some of the most popular streaming services globally, from Spotify to Apple Music & everything in between. If you’ve been in any part of the music industry in recent years, you probably know someone that has distributed a song.
Spotify reports that in 2021 there are about 8 million artists on the platform. Of those 8 million artists, about 57,000 are raking in a whopping 90% of the total revenue from streams. That means that .71% of the artists on Spotify are making good money. In 2020, there was a total of around $5 billion paid out to artists on the Spotify platform alone.
Therefore it’s reasonable to assume that, by the end of 2021, SPOT will be home to over 90 million tracks. And that in the early part of next year, it will surpass a catalog of 100 million for the first time.
What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
We think it means that it’s noisy. It’s not good or bad it’s just different. Artists can get their music out faster and easier than ever but there’s more music being released which means there’s more competition.
Over half a billion active users around the world share their favorite music on TikTok either with something like a dance challenges and lip-sync videos or creating a funny skit or candid camera moment.
TikTok has became a great platform for music promotion, sharing songs, and finding new listeners. In which it has become a place for music artist to earn revenue when people use their music. Which in many cases the daily promotion on TikTok has led to hug boosts on other platforms like Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.
TikTok does this with the the algorithmically generates a feed of content for each user, which you see as the displaying of #. The more a user engages with content, the smarter TikTok gets at guessing what kind of videos the viewer wants to watch.
Because a song can go viral because of this.
Sony Music and Warner Music Group- , The ByteDance-owned video app revealed that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
Breaking news: TikTok is launching TikTok Radio, a full-time SiriusXM music channel going live this summer.The station will be available in vehicles and as a streaming channel on the SiriusXM App, desktop, and all connected devices.
Some of the on TikTok include Cassyette, YukoEXE, Ashinikko, Palaye Royale, Josh Dun (Twenty One Pilots), Yungblud, Morrissey, Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett, Gene Simmons, and Mick Jagger.
The station will be part of a new TikTok collaboration with SiriusXM and its subsidiary,Pandora, to jointly promote emerging talent. Do you think this platform could became a force in the future of streaming music?
Yes, but Web 3.0 is probably going to crush everything.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Rock N Roll can never die. Think for yourself
