The Magnetic Fields

A studio project

The Magnetic Fields began as Stephin Merritt's studio project under the name Buffalo Rome; the name Magnetic Fields comes from Les Champs Magnetiques by Breton and Soupault. Claudia Gonson, who played in Merritt's high-school band the Zinnias, helped assemble a live band in Boston. The first performance was in 1991 at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, misbilled as Magnetophone. Susan Anway was the early lead singer, and Merritt took lead from the House of Tomorrow EP onward. Albums include Distant Plastic Trees (1991), The Wayward Bus and the Charm of the Highway Strip (1992 and 1994), Get Lost (1995), 69 Love Songs (1999), i (2004), Distortion (2008), Realism (2010), Love at the Bottom of the Sea (2012), 50 Song Memoir (2017) and Quickies (digital, May 15, 2020, Nonesuch).

Merritt also makes records as The Gothic Archies, The 6ths and Future Bible Heroes with Chris Ewen, and scored films including Eban and Charley and Pieces of April. The 2010 documentary Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara, won the Grand Jury Prize for Feature Documentary at Outfest. They played All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead in March 2012, curated by Jeff Mangum. For the 25th anniversary of 69 Love Songs they toured the full album over two nights per city in 2024 and 2025, including the Barbican in London in September 2024, and played an NPR Tiny Desk Concert on November 20, 2024.