Meg Myers

Early life

Born in Nashville, Myers spent the first five years of her life in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains where she was raised by her father, a truck driver, and her mother, a Jehovah's Witness. After her parents divorced, her mother married a waiter, who moved the family to Ohio. Her mother and stepfather worked for a cleaning business. When she was 12, Myers and her siblings were taken out of school when the family moved, this time to Florida, where they bounced from town to town throughout her teen years. During this period, Myers began singing, writing songs on keyboard, and teaching herself to play guitar. She played bass in a band she started with her brother.

A few days shy of her 20th birthday, Myers made the decision to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. She lived in a studio apartment with her then-boyfriend and got a job waitressing at a coffee shop in Hollywood and performed whenever she could secure a gig. Although the relationship with her boyfriend ended, Myers then met Rosen who signed her to his production company. The two began writing songs, including all of Daughter in the Choir and Make a Shadow. The full-length album Sorry followed in 2015. According to Myers, her goal for her music is simple, stating that "I want it to make people not afraid to feel."

2012–2013: Daughter in the Choir

Myers released her debut Daughter in the Choir EP in March 2012. Prior to release of the EP, she released the single "Monster," which was her first big success, thanks to its music video, which was directed by A.P. Fisher and produced by Filippo Nesci, as noted by LA Weekly. Her follow-up single, "Tennessee," caught the attention of British radio DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, who named it her "Game Changer" track of the week. In August 2012, Myers completed a month-long residency at Bootleg Bar in Los Angeles and began to generate interest from record labels.

2013–2014: Make a Shadow

In April 2013, Myers released her first single via Atlantic Records, "Heart Heart Head." The music video premiered on Jay Z's Life + Times. Pigeons and Planes called the track "uncomfortable, but there is something thrillingly human about it." In September 2013, Myers opened for The Pixies at three shows in both Los Angeles, CA and Brooklyn, NY and released a new single "Desire," which premiered on Stereogum. Myers kicked off 2014 with the release of the "Desire" music video, premiering it on Vice’s Noisey blog." Both "Desire" and "Heart Heart Head" are featured on her latest EP, Make a Shadow, which was released on February 7, 2014 and also features "The Morning After," which premiered via SPIN. Myers celebrated the release of her new EP with a show at LA’s Bootleg Bar.

2014–present: Sorry

Following the release of Make a Shadow, Myers began to draw attention at alternative radio, first by Kansas City’s KRBZ – 96.5 The Buzz, a station known for breaking acts early on, such as the English indie outfit alt-J. "Desire" became one of the top ten most Shazam'd tracks in the Kansas City metropolitan area, and, according to the station’s PD Lazlo, "It's introspective, real and raw … it's No. 1 in our research and generating texts." The song was the fourth-most-played (38 times) on KRBZ Kansas City in the week ending June 15, according to Nielsen BDS. It went on to peak at number 17 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Myers performed at the station’s annual Afentra’s Prom in April, and she joined the New Zealand pop duo Broods on select dates of their Spring North American tour, which included stops in Chicago, Brooklyn, Washington DC and Boston. Myers also jumped on the summer festival circuit, having performed at this year’s Governors Ball Music Festival, Bunbury Music Festival, Buzz Beach Ball and Lollapalooza. New York Times commented on Myers’ Governors Ball performance noting "...early arrivals heard Meg Myers hurling imprecations at the destructive power of love and desire: With seething hard-rock riffs like early P.J. Harvey, and a voice that built from laments to screams, she was cathartic even under noonday sunshine." On February 26, 2015, Myers released on her Instagram a 10-second snippet of her new single "Sorry". A full version was released March 3 on Myers' YouTube channel. A music video for "Sorry" was released on April 7. Myers embarked on her first headlining tour in May 2015.

On July 23, 2015, Myers released a new single entitled "Lemon Eyes". That same day her album was made available for pre-order on iTunes.

On September 15, 2015, Myers released the studio version of her new single "Motel". Three days later, she released her debut album Sorry, which debuted at number 79 on the Billboard 200.

Musical Style and Influences

Myers's musical style is the result of her upbringing and childhood musical influences, as well as collaboration with her co-writer and producer Doctor Rosen Rosen. "I came from this grunge, punk-rock background, but I always wanted to write catchy pop songs," Myers says. "I just didn't have the technical knowledge to make them work. But I grew up listening to well-crafted songs. I loved Sting, Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits, James Taylor and Fleetwood Mac. That’s what I was drawn to. I love the simplicity of a great song, I just didn’t realize how hard that was to capture in a recording. That’s why working with Rosen is so great. It was like, ‘Okay, I found this guy I can write songs with and who is really good at turning everything into pop, while still letting me be myself.’"

According to INTERVIEW, "the lovelorn facets of Myers's dark, intimate music might evoke Sinéad O'Connor or Fiona Apple, but there are also moments of tumult and menace that trace back to her teenage fascination with grunge bands such as Nirvana and Alice In Chains."

Daughter in the Choir (2012)

Myers' debut EP, Daughter in the Choir, contains elements of modern pop music combined with lyrical angst and rawness.

Popular culture

Meg Myers' song "Monster" played during the end credits of Banshee season 1, episode 10.

"Curbstomp" appeared in The Originals: Season 1, Episode 10.

"Go" appeared in The Originals: Season 2, Episode 2.

"Make a Shadow" played in Season 4, Episode 2 of Teen Wolf.