Mori Einsidler has seven songs on iTunes and a music video on YouTube with more than 3,700 hits. Her recording studio: her room in Elder Hall.
The Communication freshman, who goes by the performing moniker MORI, said she is determined to make waves in the music world.
“She’s really talented and writes great songs, but also she has a passion for it and she’s really dedicated,” said McCormick freshman Andrew Abramowitz, a long-time friend of Einsidler’s who is also the drummer in her band, “MORI and the Moonwalkers.” “You can tell she really wants to make it in this business.”
Einsidler is a communication studies major with a minor in music technology.
“It has always been and remains an extracurricular thing for me,” said Einsidler, who describes her music as alternative-indie-pop-rock.
Though she took guitar lessons and started voice lessons in high school, Einsidler said she is not classically trained and doesn’t read music.
“I used to be the joke of the middle school chorus until I started trying,” Einsidler said. “I didn’t really care so I would get up there and make a fool out of myself.”
She said her attitude changed when she started listening to recording duo Tegan and Sara. Their unique style inspired her to sign up for voice lessons, she said.
“Mori was one of the most eager, self-motivated, organized, talented, intelligent students I’ve ever had,” said Claire Cloud, Einsidler’s voice teacher at Lagond Music School in New York. “She has a great ear for harmonies and a very good ear for how to arrange songs.”
When Einsidler arrived at Northwestern, she started putting her band together, which consists of Medill freshman and Daily staffer Emilia Barrosse, McCormick freshman Eric Cross, Communication junior Jeff Eiden and Abramowitz. Their first performance was at Dance Marathon Battle of the Bands and they will also be playing at Dillo Day Battle of the Bands.
Einsidler said she met Barrosse through another friend. The duo was in Bobb Hall one day when they heard someone playing bass, so they sought out the source and found Eiden, she said. They got him to join the band.
She met Cross when he was serenading someone on her floor with his guitar, she said. Abramowitz is a friend from home.
Her first music video, which has racked up thousands of hits in its first week on YouTube, is for “Prom Song.” It was written as a joke, she said, adding she didn’t intend for anyone to hear it except the person she was asking to prom.
“I showed a handful of people, and they liked it and asked for copies of it,” she said. “So I sent it to a few people and then it spiraled out of control.”
At NU, Einsidler gathered students and put together a music video, which was directed by Communication junior Jacqueline Reyno.
All of her songs are written based on her own experiences, Einsidler said.
“I take a feeling and extrapolate it so more people can relate to it,” she said.
She said she identifies with a quote by her musical inspiration Tegan Quin regarding songwriting: “All of my songs are kind of about the same thing, me.”
Einsidler said she wants to make a career out of music.
“She is going to make her mark in the world of music,” Cloud said. “I think she’ll be the next KT Tunstall.”
Like Tunstall, Einsidler has worked with a loop pedal, a recording machine that enables an artists to record their voices, and then allows harmonies to be recorded over the original segment, she said.
Einsidler will next appear April 15 at Evanston SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave. In the meantime she keeps busy writing and recording new songs, all while managing her schoolwork.
“The sky’s the limit for Mori,” Abramowitz said. “She definitely wants it bad enough.”
