Manners McDade Signs Artist and Composer Mara Simpson

Brighton-based Mara Simpson is a British musician and story-teller, who performs solo as well as with her band (Poppy Ackroyd, Fiddes Smith, Jools Owen, Jamie Patterson). She has collaborated with visual artists (Becky Lu, Gudrun Olsen) and local communities. Mara is supported by Arts Council England and PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music. 

Mara is classically trained in composition, piano and guitar as well as fine art. She has performed over 300 shows, from festivals to intimate concerts and most recently she has appeared on stages including Fusion (Germany), Kaltern Pop (Italy), Together the People (UK) and Sazavafest (Czech). Mara’s music has taken her across Europe, to New Zealand, Australia, the US and around home shores in England, performing in venues small and large, some conventional, some extraordinary (including canal boats, caves, and a hospital!). She has become known for captivating audiences with her soulful melodies, rich lyricism, captivating voice, unassuming charm and wicked laugh.

Growing up in Hertfordshire then flying back ‘home’ to Kenya where her parents were born, shaped in Mara the traveller, the outsider and the romantic, that have become hallmarks of her music. A born storyteller, Mara’s music will resonate with fans of Patti Smith, Laurie Lee, Patrick Watson and This is The Kit. Mara paints a beautifully rich soundscape, setting the scene as she takes her audience on a journey with her.

“Music has held doors to the sublime and the ridiculous wide open to me. It’s been my passport to countries all over the world and the invitation to different venues, homes, journeys and conversations I could never have imagined. From shimmering roof tops to hospitals, festival main stages to 90 year old great-grandmother’s kitchen tables, music has granted me access to a world I’m thankful for. And when I get caught up within the war inside me, the confusion and torment, it’s the stories and the music that help sort everything out., that draw lines between all the souls who are not alone, those lines moving, dancing, igniting. Because without the dark there is no light”.

Mara’s new single “Baby You’re the One” is out today: https://open.spotify.com/track/1cMD4S6rzgaRYfqq7DkWJ0

The full album ‘285 Days’ will be released January 11th 2019.