Madison McFerrin

Independent artist, producer, and musician Madison McFerrin has released her highly-anticipated debut album, I Hope You Can Forgive Me. The self-released record represents a personal artistic evolution in her career in which she learned to improvise, self-produce, and ultimately trust herself in the midst of an ever-changing landscape in the global pandemic. An astonishing meditation on the themes of love, self preservation, fear, and conjuring, McFerrin approaches vulnerability with a burning desire. Lush soundscapes bleed throughout the entirety of the project, cushioning it’s gristly lyricism with percussions and silky vocal blends. A majority of the tracks on I Hope You Can Forgive Me are self-produced by McFerrin, a newly refined skill she honed during the pandemic. In addition to being a producer and arranger, she is also an instrumentalist, playing bass, synth, and creating background vocals for several of the tracks. The intimate album’s sole feature is her father, Bobby McFerrin, who appears on the record’s focus track “Run”, a powerful song about her family and a spiritual connection with an ancestor who she learned escaped enslavement. Following the a cappella projects that corralled early fans (Finding Foundations Vol. I and II), she collaborated with her older brother, Taylor McFerrin, for her subsequent EP, You + I, her first project with instrumentation. I Hope You Can Forgive Me builds upon that next step sonically while thematically exploring self love and intimacy.

Throughout her fruitful independent career, spanning three EPs and multiple collaborations, Madison has earned accolades from The New York Times, NPR, The FADER, and Pitchfork, who named her a Rising Artist in 2018. Her artistry has led to Questlove dubbing her early sound “soul-appella.” In addition to a stirring performance on the renowned COLORS Studio platform, Madison has also performed at Lincoln Center, Central Park SummerStage, and BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, and shared stages with the likes of De La Soul, Gallant, and The Roots. Off the stage, Madison’s music has been featured in episodes of Comedy Central’s Broad City and HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness. Working at the intersection of artistry and community building, Madison co-curated programming for the BRIC Jazz Festival in 2021, and in 2022, aligned her MAD LOVE initiative with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy to provide some much needed space for healing from the collective trauma of the pandemic. Last fall, she mesmerized crowds at sold out shows in London and Paris during her It’s Been Too Long… European tour and made her debut at the Corona Capital Festival after releasing, "Stay Away (From Me)," which she performed live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s  #LateShowMeMusic series. Ahead of releasing new music in 2023, Madison has continued to blow away sold out crowds at shows in New York City, Los Angeles (where she recently opened for Ladysmith Black Mambazo at the Walt Disney Concert Hall), and Austin at showcases for The FADER, Rolling Stone x Bumble, Working Families Party and more during SXSW.