Discovering Molly Durnin
by Jessica Nguyen
Discovering Molly Durnin is exactly what I was lucky enough to do on a random by chance crossing at a local Harvest Festival in upstate New York. She was playing her music for all the craft vendors and I was slowly walking by- money burning a hole in my pocket. I was stopped short by Durnin’s soft voice and guitar playing. Quickly, I found myself abandoning whatever plans I had to spend money on something I probably didn’t need. Instead, I ran over to her merch table and picked up her album, Run, which took her a year to record. It’s her first release.
In this new era where smart phone’s take over your brain, it was easy enough to gather some research while she was still on stage. Durnin grew up in Grafton, NY and started playing music at the age of six. It started with the piano lessons her mother enrolled her in., though she didn’t really like the piano. With the help of her mother, she taught herself the guitar. At 19-years-old, Durnin got her first big gig, opening a show for Missy Higgins on a Rocking on the River show in New York.
When I asked Durnin how her parents reacted when she told them she wanted to pursue music I was happy to hear it was positive. “ I have always had really positive, supportive parents growing up. I come from a very creative family,” she says. I was surprised to hear that she didn’t even own a radio until the age of 13. She lived on the music her mother played for her and she does credit her mother being one of her biggest music influences because of this. Her parents have a special music room in their house. However, her parents are also realists and wanted her to have a degree as back up. She successfully finished getting one in Civil Engineering. Now that she took care of school, Durnin says it’s “full stream ahead on the music career.”
One of her favorite musicians today is Jack Johnson . I asked if she would ever want to work with him. “I would be too flustered,” Durnin says. As I usually do, I asked this musician to share an interesting story about her music and travels. Durnin is a girl who knows how to find humor. “I was playing a show in Black Bar Inn and while I was playing, a fight between a guy and his girlfriend broke out. The girlfriend attack the boyfriend- who I will call Cowboy- and he went flying through the air yelling the girl’s name. I kept playing the show the whole time while this went on like nothing was happening . I felt like I was in a bad movie scene.” Durnin assured me this was a rare thing that happened at this venue because she plays there a lot.
With the holidays approaching faster than we hope them to, I also asked her about one of my favorite songs on the album “Snowman.” Turns out, it’s one of her favorites to play as well. “I wrote “Snowman” around Christmas time before I recorded the album . I was sitting on Facebook and someone put a picture of an overweight women with a shopping cart full of food. In a split screen of this wall post, there was also a picture of a starving child with his bones showing through. It made me really think of how Christmas has become so commercialized. I hate it and it disgusts me. So, “Snowman” is a dark song. It’s an anti-Christmas song.”
Molly Durnin is a girl of many talents. “I rebuilt my Jeep piece by piece with my father. I gave him the puppy dog eyes. It took two years,” she says. She doesn’t have upcoming shows in this area. But if you want to see her, take a drive to New York. Don’t worry if you are concerned about your car falling apart on the way, Molly will know what to do.
