Culture Cabinet

Cornelia Murr can find inspiration anywhere. 

The London-born singer, who just released her sophomore album, Run To The Center, has returned to music six years after the release of her first album, and three years since the release of her latest EP. But, that’s not to say Murr stepped away from music in that time. Though, she did have a series of life experiences that inspired the album. 

Most notably, she felt inspired by helping her mother renovate an old house in Nebraska. 

“I wrote the record in Los Angeles, where I was primarily living,” she explains. “Basically, I came into this surprising turn in my life where my mother had decided, kind of out of the blue, to move to this very small town in the state of Nebraska, which was completely new to me. It’s not at all like where I’m from or anything. One thing led to another, and it was this great opportunity, financially, to take over this insane project for someone who’s never done anything like that. I guess it was sort of a leap of faith, to decide to fix up the place. Maybe because I’e moved so much and haven’t had a lot of stability on the home front, I just thought it was, in a very affordable way, a way to have a base, even if I didn’t really live there.” 

After spending time in Nebraska with her mother, working on the house, and providing manual labor into the restoration, Murr started to find the threads of what would become Run To The Center. 

“I recorded the record for the most part in LA, between Pasadena and Long Beach. But then, Luke Temple [the album’s producer] came out to Nebraska, basically to finish it with me. At that point I had moved out there, but it was the very early days. The house had a very long way to go. So it was pretty rough. It hadn’t been lived in for seven years, it was a mess. We did our best with the makeshift situation, and I made a little recording rig and did some arrangements in there, I finished the vocals there.” 

And in this unconventional creation of the album, Murr was able to find the album’s title. 

“The title of the record speaks to a lot of different things,” she says, “but, basically, I found myself smack dab in the middle of nowhere, and also the middle of the country. That was simply not like anything I’d considered before. I was thinking about how I knew I wanted to leave LA, but I was thinking about moving back to London, or maybe New York, and I was feeling very overwhelmed with the choice and feeling a real sense of urgency to figure out y life and define it and kind of settle somewhere, and then funnily enough, this place ended up being the last place I ever imagined. It served as a kind of perch to survey the options. It was very quiet, peaceful, and lonely, but it felt like a middle ground. Something between all of the extremes.” 

Run To The Center offers ten ethereal tracks of dreamy pop goodness, showcasing Murr’s airy vocals. She sounds tonally reminiscent of artists like Suki Waterhouse or Sarah Kinsley. Though, make no mistake, Cornelia Murr is distinguishing her own voice. 

At the literal center of the album stands the title track, symbolizing the centric themes of the album, a track that Murr cites as one that stands out as having a particular significance for her. 

“It’s about taking responsibility for your life and your art. Not letting anyone else be an ecuse for why you’re not doing it, which is sort of in its lyrics. It’s less about the actual house, but just the act of committing to myself. It’s kind of a more emotional song. It’s easier to think about the meaning.” 

On top of the release of the new album, Murr will also embark on a tour this spring, as both a headliner, and as support for the French pop band, Papooz. 

“This is my first headlining tour,” she says of her excitement about the upcoming tour. “I haven’t toured all that much, so I’m still figuring it out, exactly who’s going to join me on it. The tour starts in May, and I can’t wait. It feels really overdue, and I’m ready. I’ve done a lot of opening acts in the past, and headlining is a very different thing, there’s more pressure. You gotta sell the tickets, and the buck stops with you. But, I think it can be so much more rewarding, when people are there to see you. I’m looking forward to that for sure.” 

There’s a lot more to be said about Cornelia Murr. Her aura in conversing with her seems to match that of what is transcribed in her music. An artist who’s thoughtful, insightful, and well-spoken. Someone who understands where she’s been, and is charging forward in where she’s now going. And, of course, someone who is still managing to find her way back to the center, whatever that looks like in a particular moment. 

“The very last song on the record is called, ‘Bless Yr Lil Heart,’ and it’s kind of a funny song to me. Not like a joke, but after all the twists and turns on the record, it acknowledges how absurd this life is at all, and having a heart and wanting so much. I feel like that a lot of the time. I hope this album makes people feel like that. I hope it allows people to give themselves grace. I think across the board, that seems to be echoing around lately. There’s so much going on in the world. That’s the only thing we can do, remember to give ourselves and everyone else more grace.” 

You can stream Run To The Center below. 

You can purchase tickets to see Cornelia Murr on tour here.