The experience of growing up in different countries, absorbing a variety of influences, and the transience of her childhood itself helped craft the worldly progressive pop leanings of Alice Merton. Her style is also marked by slick, assertive hooks and a likewise strong vocal presence. She made her recording debut in 2017 with the No Roots EP.nn Born in Frankfurt, Germany and raised in Canada, the U.S., Germany, and England, Merton first learned classical piano and singing as a child in Ontario, Canada. When she was a teenager, her family moved back to Germany, where she would pick up the guitar and write her first song. Later, the family relocated again, this time to England. In 2013, Merton enrolled at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim, eventually earning a degree in composition and songwriting.nnThese frequent international shifts played a key role in the songwriting process for her first release, 2017's No Roots EP (Mom + Pop Music). The four-track effort included the song "Hit the Ground Running," which won Merton the Jugend Kulterell Prize for Acoustic Pop. With Merton by then based in Berlin, the singles "No Roots" and "Lash Out" resurfaced on her full-length debut, Mint, which arrived via Mom + Pop in January 2019. The album was produced by Nicolas Rebscher (AURORA, Balbina), who also co-wrote many of the songs with Merton. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Marcy Donelson