Anna Murphy

Anna Murphy at Soundfarm Studios, where she has worked since 2011.Photo: Elia Meier

Singer, composer, engineer, producer, mastering engineer and hurdy‑gurdy virtuoso, Anna Murphy is a woman of many talents.

A household name within the metal community, Anna Murphy rose to fame as hurdy‑gurdy player and vocalist in the band Eluveitie, which she joined at 16. Since then, she has developed her own solo project Cellar Darling, and been part of numerous other acts including Fräkmündt, Maer, Lethe and Nucleus Torn. In parallel to her career as an artist, Murphy has also worked at Lucerne’s Soundfarm Studios since 2011, and more recently joined the mastering team at Zurich’s echochamber.

Although Murphy was born into a family of opera singers, she forged her own path: “I grew up in a nice, artsy, empathetic, and very kind bubble, a very privileged environment as well, because I’ve always been surrounded by artists and music. The funny thing though was that when I was a teenager in high school, I stopped playing instruments. I wasn’t really interested in music from about the age of 13 to 16, and I wanted to study. I was interested in philosophy and history. I didn’t really want to pursue the artistic path, and then things just changed rapidly. The genes took over, I guess. Now, I can’t really imagine doing anything else.”

Remarkably, Murphy taught herself how to play the hurdy‑gurdy only three months before joining Eluveitie. She then rapidly cultivated her abilities as a vocalist after the group’s founder, Chrigel Glanzmann, asked if she could sing. Murphy’s early explorations as a sound engineer and producer were likewise self‑guided, though she would eventually find mentors. “I just always wanted to take things one step further. I really enjoyed making my own demos at home, so I just got more and more into the audio production part.”

Eventually Eluveitie’s Meri Tadić, who has also joined forces with Murphy in godnr.universe!, asked Anna to mix a solo album for her, and Murphy became part of the Soundfarm team when Marco Jencarelli, a friend of her uncle, invited her to take up an apprenticeship. “I learned how to record, how different microphones work, how the recording software works, and how to mix. With every production that I did, I just learned a little bit more. It’s been a really rewarding journey.”

Farm Favourites

Over the years, Murphy has updated the equipment in her space at Soundfarm: “Being a studio engineer is a very expensive passion, especially if you like analogue gear, which I do. I worked in the box for many years. Now, I’m getting into what analogue equipment does, how it sounds, how it feels to use it. Since I am a human being that makes really fair studio wages, I can only get a new piece of gear every once in a while. But it also makes it more special. I cherish it more than if I could just buy tons of stuff all the time.”

The gear that Murphy selects naturally varies based on the particular project: “For vocals, I don’t have one go‑to microphone, because the choice of mic depends on the type of voice, the type of genre, the type of sound. I really love the [Neumann] U87. But if I were to be recording something for a lo‑fi type of project, it would be way too nice. So, sometimes, I might actually use a dynamic microphone rather than a condenser just because of the sound I’m going for in the end. For bass and guitars, it’s kind of the same thing. We have a lot of amps. I like recording real amps, real cabs. I always record separate DI tracks as well, just in case you want to tweak, or you messed up the amp settings and need to re‑amp or do something else.

“We do a lot of live recordings at our studio because we have so many rooms and such a big space, so complete room separation is possible. You can stick the drums in one room, and you could put the guitars and the amps in another room. We have three recording rooms. We have three control rooms. So, it’s more like a communal studio. But we like each producing our own things, pretty much.

“I think the most important thing, at least for me, is what am I hearing. If I have speakers that don’t really give me good feedback, then I’m not going to get good results from my recording. My Amphions are really nice, so I enjoy mixing on them. My favourite piece of gear as a mastering engineer at echochamber is the Terry CEQ. A true vibe machine!”

Comfort Breaks

Murphy has travelled to other recording facilities, such as Los Angeles’ Seahorse Sound Studios, where she produced, engineered, mixed and performed on 2024’s Rust & Glory by the pirate‑themed, San Diego‑based act the Dread Crew Of Oddwood....