Good morning,
It’s June. That’s nice, isn’t it? Got a pretty feelgood ring to it. And what better way to keep the mellow vibes than in the company of Meg Remy, the mega-talented singer-songwriter and producer (and author and composer) who has been releasing music U.S. Girls since 2008?
Raised in Illinois, Canada resident Remy has been at the centre of Toronto’s vibrant music scene since starting out as an underground artist making artful lo-fi pop, her sound growing a little more overground with every release. The swaggering blend of P-Funk and synth-pop of 2023’s excellent Bless This Mess felt like a glorious culmination for that approach, though, and Remy heads in a different direction on her brilliant new album Scratch It, due out later this month.
Recorded in Nashville, it’s a proper ‘get the band together and press record’ album with a team of crack session players backing her over nine songs of tender country-soul, garage rock grooves and warm, melancholic folk ballads.
Completed over two five-day sessions at the end of summer last year, its creation came out of Meg meeting a crew of musicians in Nashville and hearing how they made records. “They’ve made records on tape and in that setting and I realised I’d never done that,” she told me, Niall, from her home in Toronto over Zoom a few weeks ago. “I’ve recorded on four-track and stuff like that but never 16-track. It just seemed so appealing. They were experienced and it was like, ‘I wanna do this whilst I’ve got the chance to do it’.”
Making an album in such a quick burst like was a “total revelation”, she said. “It was challenging but I’m a performance-based musician, I’m really into spontaneity and improvising and capturing something that’s just happened once and it really leant itself to that. I felt like I was part of a lineage I want to be a part of. So many records I love were made in this way, in a very short time from beginning to end. I was pleased I was finally able to do that and know I could do it, I’m a calibre of musician now and I work with a certain calibre of musician I can pull that off. I feel like I’m entering the grown-up phase of my career.”
Meg is excellent company, with a wise head and an infectious laugh, the perfect sort of person to take on our Life & Times questionnaire. She’s covered a lot of ground across her career so here’s a playlist I’ve made of my favourite U.S. Girls songs so far:
And here it is for Apple Music users.
Enjoy the edition, and remember that this one is a freebie but if you’d like to support us in the form of a £5 monthly subscription, you can do that here and we’ll love you forever:
Cheers,
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of… Meg Remy
What was the first record you loved?
Honestly, the New Kids On The Block record Hangin’ Tough. I got a Walkman and that cassette for Christmas. It was the first record I loved or even thought of as a record.
And the last?
It’s called Sister Smile by Lightman & Lightman. It’s these twin sisters that are from Canada, they live in LA right now. I’ve been listening to that record non-stop.
What is your earliest memory?
You don’t want to know! Hiding under a sheet because my parents are fighting. That’s my straight-up earliest memory.
What’s your daily domestic routine?
It depends on the day. My husband and I trade off who gets to sleep in every other day, so if it’s my day to get up with the kids, I get up, I’m instantly putting the kettle on to make coffee, getting them sorted with whatever snack they want and need and pretty much the day is taken up by them, it’s so much cleaning and preparing food, breaking up fights, trying to find activities to entertain them, getting them outside whilst also simultaneously running errands than need to be done, preparing for dinner, getting them bathed and in bed and then working at night. That’s when I’ll do emails and talk on the phone with friends, work on music, work on whatever I have going on. Sometimes I’ll watch a movie, usually I’ll read before bed, get up and do the whole thing all over again.
What’s your worst habit?
Negative self-talk, a poor inner monologue that berates me all day long.
When were you most creatively satisfied?
Right now. I’ve been lucky, I’m sure that could change at any time but I try to always be at the apex. I want to always be satisfied and engaged, so I think the current moment and then it will be the next current moment. It’s never deserted me but it gets pushed aside sometimes when I think too much about money and commerce concerns come into it, that’s the opposite of lubrication, it’s friction and the gears are grinding at that point and you need to re-centre and re-focus on what’s important.
Who or what is the greatest influence on your work?
What comes to my mind first is the infinite nature of American radio that I grew up listening to. It exposed me to so much on all levels, not even music, sports, listening to weird talk radio, scanning the dial and getting strange snippets, hearing breaking news, all the different music, a giant collage of sound.
Has anyone you’ve ever met made you feel starstruck?
No. Even when I met Iggy Pop, I didn’t feel starstruck, I felt more like it was surreal because when you observe someone so much as a still image and then they’re moving in front of you, it’s almost like when they convert a movie for HD and it has that weird depth. But I haven’t had a starstruck experience yet, but I hope to!
What’s your pet peeve?
Politics! Everyone, including myself, we all know so much now, we’re all some sort of expert in something so I’d say my pet peeve is when you’re at a dinner party and everyone is trying to put on display what they know. Haha! That’s just, ooh… That’s when I get very silent and observe.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I don’t know… Let’s see…That my older is brother is a division one college football coach?
That’ll do! What are you scared of?
My children dying.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
I’d probably go to New York post-World War 2, I’d love to be in my thirties in the late 40s/50s, New York post-war, I would love to experience that. I find that time way more fascinating than the 60s.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
That I was going to live this long, that it’s all going to work out OK.
What’s the secret to a long life?
Mental hygiene, really trying to be hygienic and hold yourself accountable and do the cleaning and not letting things pile up too much.
What one book would you recommend our readers read?
Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
How do you spark creativity?
Listen to music, dig into the record collection or pull out a box of tapes and start listening to stuff. Another big one for me is reading plays. Something about reading plays in the written form gets my juices flowing. Also, taking public transit is a big one, observing others and listening to their conversations and moving through the city in a tube, entering one end and popping out another, I find that very stimulating.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Someone making me privy to the idea that everyone’s doubting themselves and feeling bad about themselves, so when you think you’re the centre of the universe and everyone is looking at you and judging you, that that is going on for every single person as well. Starting to think in that way was very helpful for me.
What’s the secret to a happy relationship?
Romantic relationship or friendship?
That’s up to you.
I think this can spread across any relationship, it would be communication. That’s the key, whether it’s a parent/child relationship, relationship with your parent, your lover, communication is everything.
Can you cook? If so, what’s your signature dish?
I can cook. Signature dish, I’m pretty good with a hardy salad with lots of seeds and an egg on top and a nice vinegar and garlic dressing. It’s not as much cooking as assembling but it’s still good.
Which living person do you most despise?
Myself! Definitely!
Oh Meg!
I mean, really, that’s what it all comes down to. When you despise someone else, it’s you that you’re despising because to despise another person means you’re dehumanising them and putting yourself over them. I try not to despise anybody and if I do, it always comes back to me and I feel bad after I have and it makes the despising fall on myself, so I try not to deal in that.
Do you have a temper? How does it manifest?
Yeah, I have a temper, it manifests by yelling at my children when they don’t do what I want and I can’t control them. It also comes out when I’m sensitive, if my feelings have been hurt, my temper comes out to guard myself and protect myself.
What talent would you most like to have?
Probably like Sun Ra, I wish I could understand music through tones the way he did so fully, something like that.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Breastfeeding twins for over two years. It was a major commitment in my life, it was a commitment in my life, a commitment of my body and my brain, turning myself over to two other people so fully.