Val Merza has always wowed fans and elevated to new heights as she began to release new music. Her debut EP, Colors, sparked Charlotte’s music scene with her vibrant lyrics. Following the EP’s release, she released two singles, “Hard To Love,” featuring Jay Hoff and “2641 (The Mom Song,)” which both express honesty and vulnerability through her personal experiences.
On May 9th she released her newest single “Manic Pixie Dream (MPD).” In the song, she explores the idea of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, a young female character in pop culture who has a quirky and unique personality who often is seen as a love interest to the male protagonist. This character is sometimes described as an idea – someone that is the male protagonist’s love interest, and helps him with finding a meaning to life, and giving him a sense of purpose.
“In a lot of media, she’s only important because of her association to the male protagonist. It’s like the typical sad and depressed boy meets a girl who’s basically the personification of a fairy – bubbly, full of life and exciting,” Merza described.
As she delves more in-depth into the character trope, she describes it as a person that is mainly just an idea, how this idea does not exist, and that people are who they say they are, regardless of the expectation that many people make up. Eventually, Merza put the idea of the trope to music.
“She doesn’t really have much substance to her,” she says. “There are some variations of that character. In real life, that’s not how it works. People are people. The way I always introduce this song when I am about to perform it is: ‘This song is about how someone will fall in love with the idea of you instead of your actual personality, and then get mad when you don’t meet those expectations that they made up in their own heads. This isn’t about a real person.’”
In some of her most recent songs, she explores her vulnerability, delving into her past experiences, writing thoughtful lyrics, and transforming them as a way of healing. In “Manic Pixie Dream (MPD)” Merza defies expectations, knocking down ideas and perceptions, and gives way towards a confident evolution of her music.
“It’s way more upbeat, especially than the most recent songs I’ve released, like “The Mom Song” and “Hard to Love.” Those were more sad and thoughtful. “Hard To Love” sounds like what healing feels like, while “MPD” is the petty version of that,” she says. “I’m kind of coming to my senses and realizing, no, I’m not hard to love.”
Within the lyrics of her newest single, she gives encouragement and a reminder to her fans, that they are enough, and it is no one’s responsibility for being an idealized version of what someone may think of you.
“It’s okay to just be yourself. No guy is worth making yourself smaller for because that is eventually what I did, and I’m still working on getting it back. Never love anybody more than you. That’s kind of the message of MPD and what I want people to take away from it. Don’t let any man or anybody make you feel like you’re too much.”
“Manic Pixie Dream” is the first song Val will be releasing since her two latest singles. Returning to the studio brought back excitement, especially when she showed the song to her band.
“There are parts where my guitarist was getting excited about playing. It’s going be so much fun to play live. I could just imagine people screaming back, ‘I never lied about who I was,’ and I’m just excited!”
In addition to her single, Merza will be having a joint single release party and will be celebrating her birthday at Petra’s on May 10th. A year prior, she had a similar party around the same time, and the Charlotte community that she has received so much support from. She’s excited to share Manic Pixie Dream with everyone.
“Last time, it was so much fun. The entire community showed up, and I had really great talent. I had Lisa de Novo and Zach Robbins with their full bands.I’m especially excited to play “Hard To Love” and “MPD” the way that we’ve been rehearsing it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun!”
Stream Val Merza’s song Manic Pixie Dream (MPD) on Apple Music and Spotify!
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