Shiloh Mae is a Bay Area singer-songwriter with a deep love for words. Lyric driven, she seeks to give language to human experiences we all share. Anyone with a penchant for melodrama but a bent toward hope might find themselves somewhere in her songs.
Shiloh Mae began sharing her repertoire songs and performing as a solo artist in 2018. She’s a 90s throwback, Mazzy Star fading into Sheryl Crow, with the vocal charisma of Dolores O’Riordan. Shiloh cites influences from 70’s folk classics, to 90s soft rock, to the indie pop of today. Her first single, Smoke Signals, debuted on March 12, 2021, an introduction to her nuanced, emotive lyricism.
Previously, she wrote and played with her band, Bird and Willow, formed with her brother Jared. Bird and Willow shared many Bay Area stages over the years, both with fellow local artists and some of their influences including Sherwood, Fialta, Tyson Motsenbocker, and Mike Edel. Shiloh has now also performed alongside Zach Winters, Josiah Johnson (previously of The Head and the Heart), and Landon Elliott.
In 2019, she completed her first tour of the West Coast with Americana/Roots artist Will Payne Harrison from Nashville, TN, and now she is focused on completing her debut EP with Bay Area producer Justin Kawashima.
“‘All My Metaphors’ began as a self-reflection on my own songwriting,” Shiloh says. “I knew I had centered metaphors for years as a tool to write songs that are personal, yet universal. But one day when I stepped back, I began noticing the theme of the ocean and storms, so I jotted down that chorus line. The rest of the song was written soon after, in the literal dark of my bedroom.”
“As I meditatively plucked the opening chords, they formed a question — how far have you twisted to protect the ones you love, and how is that working out? It became clear that my adherence to the imagery of oceans and thunderstorms revealed something about my deep internal turmoil, and that the only way out was through. So I began to tease out the truth that had been waiting on my proverbial front porch for months.”
“This song is about disidentifying with the needs of those around you, and courageously distinguishing yourself as a person — “you wanted to be branches, but we’re really separate trees” — this is the only way to grow and move forward, and ultimately it is better for you and those you love. This song doesn’t come to offer answers, just to acknowledge the turbulence and pain that shadows codependent relationships.”
Shiloh played the acoustic guitar and rhythm electric. Producer Justin Kawashima played lead electric as well as bass, and Gary Seligson played drums. It was mixed by Chris Keene, and mastered by Troy Glessner at Spectre Studios.
