Welcome to the Aural Apothecary
I’m James Mercer, a songwriter, singer and musician in the Shins and Broken Bells. As much as I love music, I thought Substack would be a great outlet for all the other weird ideas in my head. But also: music. I’ll be sharing demos, works-in-progress, new songs, acoustic covers, and BTS recording, rehearsals and more, as well as conversations about the writing process and any other topics/questions you want to throw at me.
I’m calling this the Aural Apothecary because that’s the name of my record label and studio. So this will be a digital extension of those. Back in college (before I dropped out and started my own chemistry experiments and playing in rock bands), I studied organic chemistry and loved all the accoutrement that came with it, like the graduated cylinder and mortar and pestle. Aural means “of the ear,” so the Aural Apothecary is like drugs for the ear. That’s kind of what a record label is! I also love that what you get from the apothecary is healing, and ideally, that’s music as well.
What am I doing?
I’ll be posting at least once a week here. It’ll go straight to your inbox, so you’ll never miss a thing.
There’ll be videos, voice memos, art, and lots of music. Much of what I post will be free to anyone who subscribes. If you decide to upgrade to a paid subscription, there will be more exclusive music, behind the scenes, Q & As and more.
I’m grateful to every single person who subscribes, paid or not, so my sincere thanks in advance. I’m looking forward to building more of a community here than social media has allowed, so let’s go.
