Mary Lambert | en

Mary Lambert is good at two things: crying and eating. Nowhere is this better reflected than on her debut EP ‘letters don’t talk’ released in July of 2012. Burrowed away with her friends in the woods of Sequim, Washington recording with the production team of Dungeness Records, she spent 2 years finessing and crafting the poignant and earnest collection of songs. Resembling the subdued softness of artists like Feist and Bon Iver, Lambert has carved a niche for herself, winding profound lyricism around breathy, haunting melodies.

As a performer, Lambert exemplifies the traditions of a singer/ songwriter while melding a background in spoken-word. With the KEXP debut of the track “the machine” earlier this year letters firmly established Mary as a formidable unsigned artist. This status was cemented when the lesbian singer-songwriter paired up with Seattle treasure and hip-hop duo Macklemore X Ryan Lewis to help write and sing their revolutionary single, “Same Love”. The track, an honoring of gay marriage, has lead Mary to tour nationally with Macklemore X Ryan Lewis, allowed her to reach millions by performing live on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and garnered over 6.5 million views on YouTube. It is no wonder that Mary has become one of the most talked about new artists in Seattle.

Mary is a music composition graduate of the prestigious Cornish College of the Arts. Surrounded by talented composers and faculty such as Janice Giteck and the Seattle Symphony’s Adam Stern, it was at Cornish that she honed her classical composition skills, wrote quartets, world music and a full symphony piece for the Seattle Philharmonic. Although established as a bright modern composer, Mary’s songs are far from the pretension of academia. Her writing is accessible and thoughtful, and her charisma and sense of humor shine on stage, providing a great juxtaposition for her thought-provoking and sometimes dark lyricism.

Lambert’s work has been featured in the indie short film “This Is How We Are,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2012 and is also a songwriting contributor to the highly-regarded Bushwick Book Club.

Mary Lambert is also revered as an accomplished spoken word artist. She competed in Russell Simmons’ “Brave New Voices” International Competition in 2008 (on HBO), and was a co-founder of Seattle’s first College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) collegiate team. Mary Lambert is Seattle’s 2011 Grand Poetry Slam Champion and the 2012 Northwest Regional Slam winner. She plans on releasing her first book of poetry independently in the upcoming months. .