Ten performers tell us how they’re preparing in the days before their big fall shows. Maggie Rogers, 30, has come a long way since Pharrell visited her NYU Master Class in 2016 and anointed her for stardom. The singer-songwriter has since released three full-length albums and received a master’s degree from Harvard’s Divinity School, and she’ll be performing at Madison Square Garden on October 19 and 20.
I have an amazing band, and that’s where everything starts. Some of these guys have been with me now for eight years. We get out there together.
It’s about finding space for there to be as much improvisation as there is excellence, space for us each to bring a piece of ourselves to the music. What I love about live music is that as soon as you recognize something beautiful is happening, it’s slipping through your fingers. It’s about preparing for that perfect moment where you know that you have all the tools at your disposal and you can react.
Every crowd is really different. Your personal chemistry is a part of that alchemy every night. A song that I wrote when I was 20 will catch me in a weird or special moment on a Tuesday night, and suddenly it feels as if I wrote it yesterday.
The recording of an album is the first draft of the record. It really starts to breathe when you add different people with different influences and personalities every night. Before tour, I make a brief with the show creative.
Then I find the right collaborators: I interviewed ten g.