Mallory Merk - Strangers (2020) Hi-Res

Mallory Merk is 20 years old but, she says, she feels at least 500. The musician — born in Louisiana, raised in New Jersey and living in Los Angeles — credits her upbringing for allowing her to focus on herself and her music. “New Jersey’s winters were cold, so that shaped my habit of locking myself in isolation to write and make art,” she tells us, citing a “mad amount of creative energy in the area”. And it’s that energy that would ultimately take her from performing songs at home with her brother, to fast-tracking to the heart of the fashion world with modelling jobs for the likes of Yeezy, Fenty Beauty and Gucci. She embraced the experience and channelled what she saved into her music making.