About
Bailey Merlin holds an MFA in fiction from Butler University and is pursuing a Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health at Harvard Medical School. Her work has been published in The Lascaux Review, ellipses..., Honeyfire Literary Magazine, Bandit Fiction, Anti-Heroin Chic, Chantwood Magazine, Drunk Monkeys, Dime Show Review, Streetlight Magazine, Into the Void, Crack the Spine, among others. Her spoken word short story album Bug Eyes was co-performed with award-winning jazz guitarist Richie Smith and was produced by Shoreside Records. She is the librettist of the opera ¡Dime! An Opera in Four Acts. She writes in Boston, Massachusetts, where she lives with 5 to 9 other humans (depending on the day), a toddler, a dog, and a friendly ghost. Find her work at baileymerlin.com.
Featured Work
Bug Eyes
merch community
Bug Eyes
by Shoreside Records
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Blueberry Poundcake 00:00 / 04:58
Bug Eyes Scentscape Experience
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Enjoy the album Bug Eyes with 3 brand-new signature scents by Oswald & Ari Soy Candles! Taken from pivotal narrative moments, you can enjoy the herbal, fruity, and earthy aromas of Bug Eyes, Amanda Creighton, and Blueberry Poundcake. To complete the experience, you'll also receive a download code for the album and a full-color manuscript with artwork by Elizabeth Noble.
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Digital Album
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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Bug Eyes 02:38
2.
Blueberry Poundcake 04:58
3.
Lemon Pop 03:03
4.
Don Quixote 01:54
5.
Brown Bag Lunches 03:48
6.
Amanda Creighton 01:55
7.
Hot Copper 06:22
8.
"Adjustment Period" 02:49
9.
Dust & Dandruff 05:06
10.
Compound Imaging 02:24
11.
Deviated Septum 06:27
12.
Cervantes 02:24
13.
Wherever Flowers Grow in Europe 03:04
14.
Beatrice Ann 02:27
about
Written over the course of 5 years and recorded in a continuous take during a quarantine afternoon, Bug Eyes is the combined efforts of author Bailey Merlin’s lush storytelling and guitarist Richie Smith’s synesthetic sound painting. In this spoken word, ambient jazz hybrid, live the life of Beatrice Ann (or “Bug” as her mother would call her) who sees the world unlike any other. Complemented by Smith’s baritone guitar—chosen for its full spectrum of sound—Merlin’s dramatic reading invites audiences to completely cocoon themselves in this 45-minute scentscape.
“While Mama cooked supper, I pressed my nose to mesh crisscrosses to inhale heated oak and fresh-cut grass, trying to live in a world that I was not often allowed to wander. My own orbit was made of sweet, mildewed wood, smooth-smelling olive oil in a Teflon pan on the edge of burning, vanilla beans, wet tea bags, kosher salt, freshly-cut oranges, and captured rainwater.”
The sensuous, playful, and occasionally heartbreaking improvisations of Bug Eyes presents listeners the chance to get lost in perfumed impulse; to feel frustration through the sharp sting of pepper; to experience adolescent jubilation in rolling pitches that conjure up late nights with best friends, the bittersweetness of first loves, and the quaking breath that comes from the freedom of growing up.
Fans of The Moth, minimalism, Brian Eno, Julian Lage, Noveller, and Robert Fripp will enjoy this experience.
