Welcome to the Aural Apothecary!

I’m James Mercer, a songwriter, singer and musician in the Shins and Broken Bells, based in the Pacific Northwest. 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 acoustic covers, demos, works-in-progress, and new songs. There will be behind-the-scenes recordings and rehearsals. Conversations about the writing process and songwriting tutorials. And we’ll have Chats where you can throw any other topics/questions you want 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, you’ll have access to all the music, tutorials, behind the scenes, “Ask Me Anything” Chats, 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.

—JM