Dear Reader, for the uninitiated, is now the solo project of Cherilyn MacNeil, formerly one half of the enormously popular Harris Tweed.

Album: Idealistic Animals
Singles: Mole, Monkey
Genre: Indie, Baroque pop
Sounds a bit like: Feist, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor
Website: dearreadermusic.com

Disarmingly pretty, MacNeil sips a hot toddy before her Johannesburg show, nursing a poor throat. She speaks thoughtfully about her experience as a female vocalist, and the expectations that accompany the role.


“Musically, I feel like people tend to slot women into different sorts of boxes,” she explains. “You’d have The Sexy Girl Box, and you’d have The Sweet Girl Box, and then you’d have the That Girl Scares The Hell Out Of Me Box. I think that’s because men are really threatened by girls that don’t fit into the Sexy/Sweet Boxes, and can find that scary.”

“I hope that doesn’t mean they have different expectations of the quality of the music or the performance, but I guess they do, though,” she continues. “Like with playing the guitar, for example. An audience would be far more forgiving of a girl fudging around her acoustic bits than a guy. Or they’d think, “Oh, but she’s a girl drummer, how cute.””


However, from her perspective, the game has already changed for the better. “I feel like there are a lot of women in music at the moment, which is lovely, because when I was younger that was not the case,” she smiles.

“And I think there are some incredible women in music at the moment. I love these women who try to be completely themselves, and don’t try to be beautiful or play to all that.”

“I’m aware that people expect me to be attractive as well as talented, and I feel that that’s not as much the case with men. You can see that with Thom Yorke, or the guy from Bon Iver.”


Having been based in Berlin for some time now, writing her most recent album, Idealistic Animals, MacNeil is in some position to compare local audiences to European ones.

“It’s vastly different. I feel like there’s more of a culture of appreciation for art in Europe than here, which is the result of so many things,” she says cautiously.

“But when you sit down to play in Europe, even if you’re the opening act, people are not going to chat through your set. Audiences tend to be listening more carefully, and are more receptive.” She notes quickly, “There are those people here though.”

A few days ago, this video of Dear Reader’s Dancing in the Dark cover (originally by Bruce Springsteen) was released. It’s an ethereal take on a classic anthem for the dispossessed, and is something quite special.



Grab your copy of Idealistic Animals from Kalahari or OMusic.com. 

Images by Marcus Maschwitz