Massachusetts based musician / singer-songwriter Meredith Sheldon, aka La Mere, returns with a brand new track her version of the Cocteau Twins classic ‘Cherry-Coloured Funk’, released this July. Today, we are debuting the video below.
Following on from her recent single ‘Devil In The Day’, ‘Cherry-Coloured Funk’ continues La Mere’s musical evolution, paying homage to 4AD Records it is a heady concoction of hazy melodies where Meredith’s vocals shine through with Johnny Marr (The Smiths) on guitars alongside Anthony Saffery’s (Cornershop) deft production.
Meredith says: “This Cocteau Twins’ song has always been very moving for me. My producer Anthony and I had the idea one freezing cold night in Cambridge to make a version of it in our style with Johnny Marr’s shimmering guitar layered in and loads of vocal layers. It was really a joy to make.”
Johnny Marr adds: “Meredith has been on my songs and on our bus since 2014. She’s the Angel of the family with the voice to match. Now I get to play on her new songs. It’s a buzz.”
After taking a break from her music career to put down roots and start a family, LA MERE’s Meredith Sheldon—who previously toured internationally with such acts as Johnny Marr, MARINA, and the Lemonheads—returns with a genre-spanning series of dance/pop singles.
Meredith explains: “Adopting the name LA MERE struck me as hilariously fitting because Mer (or Mere) has been my nickname since I was a kid but recently I put together that it also means “the mother” in French. It seemed like the right thing to take on a new name for this new chapter, seeing as the music is so different from anything I’ve produced before.”
The tracks, which feature Johnny Marr of The Smiths on guitar, and production by Anthony “Saffs” Saffery of Cornershop/Portugal.The Man, represent a leap in songwriting for Sheldon, inspired by the years of experience gathered along her own spiritual, physical & emotional journey, and culminating in becoming a mother in 2018.
Sheldon wrote, produced and self-recorded 2 EPs and an LP during this time; working with industry titans Tony Berg and Bob Clearmountain in Los Angeles to put together a full-length record. She released her own recordings in 2015 before going on hiatus for nearly 8 years.
During this time she relocated to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, attending the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, immersing herself in energy healing and homebirth midwifery, attending births, focusing on self-healing and starting her own family.
In 2021 Johnny Marr enlisted Sheldon to sing backups on his new record, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4. This opened the gates for her to begin writing again, and by the start of 2023 she had begun to amass new material of her own.
