BY DAN GARCIA

Singer-songwriter Meg Myers is soon approaching the release of her debut studio album, Sorry, which is set to release later this year (September) on Atlantic Records, and which just saw its title track cross over into the Top 15 U.S. alternative radio chart. While her notable singles like ‘Desire’ and ‘Sorry’, as well as her dark alternative sound, have drawn a lot of comparisons (Fiona Apple, Sinéad O’Connor), Meg is ready to show the world that she is her own artist with the release of her first full-length LP. We spoke to Meg, moments before her Summerfest performance in Milwaukee, to talk about the pressures of making her first full-length album, living all around the country (Tennessee, Florida, Ohio, Los Angeles), and how she enjoyed her recent headlining tour.

On her title-track ‘Sorry’ and how compares to the rest of her forthcoming album.

“It’s funny actually, I was just messing around with the track order of the songs for the album with my team and producer Andy Rosen. We were just messing with (the tracklist) over and over, and finally it came to the one song that we loved and they were just saying “this makes you look completely psychotic but amazing.” Because it is the one song that is very upbeat and (it goes) into the darkest possible place you could go to, and then back up, and then back down again. I think that pretty much sums up how the album is going to be, and that sums up me too. I think it represents my crazy emotions that I’ve been going through the last year.” (Laughs).

On naming her debut album Sorry.

“That seemed like the song to name the album after. I felt like that made the most sense. It’s so hard to explain honestly in words. I think it just explains how I feel the most, in general, orr how I have felt the most in the past year.”

How writing a full-length project for the first time compares to writing her previous EPs.

“The first EP I wrote, there was no pressure to get it done, I wasn’t on a label. It was just something that me and Andy (Rosen) were really just messing around. We both wanted to pursue music, but there was no pressure. The second EP, there was a little bit of pressure to finish it. Which isn’t a bad thing, it can be a great thing actually. With this full length there are so many things that make it different. First off, those EPs come out awhile back and I wrote those songs a long time ago, about three or four years ago. (There are) different feelings. On this full length, there are a few more positive songs, but not cheesy pop songs, but there is a little more hope in a few of my newer songs, which I’ve kind of just had to find going through a lot of shit in the past year.

There is a little more positivity in some of the songs, but also just making a full length, even if you are not on a label, it is a lot more pressure. You are putting out something that is a much larger body of work for the first time. It is important to make sure it represents you the right away, in so many ways, musically, production, in the lyrics.”

Does the added positivity in the album reflect where you are in your life right now?

“That’s a good question, but I don’t really know how to answer. Yes, it is, but even the positivity in the songs (isn’t so simple), and I guess you’ll understand when it’s out. There are two songs in the album, which will be the first and last song of the album, (that) kind of starts off in a bad place. They aren’t love songs at all, they are kind of about how hard everything is and how hard it’s been. It’s basically the chorus picking yourself up, finding hope and looking for some sort of joy to get through it. I guess that’s what I mean by positive.” (Laughs)

On which place growing up has the most influence on her music.

“I’m from Tennessee and a lot of my family has lived there my whole life, so that has been a very positive place for me growing up. I lived in Toledo, Ohio for eight years and Florida for eight years. So those are the places where I actually grew up. I guess I would say South Florida. I kind of associate Florida with a lot pain, where a lot of my songs came from. I don’t really care for South Florida. (Laughs). My mom lives there now and I love her and my family, I love them to death, but I don’t really care for it down there.”

How headlining her own tour compares to being a supporting act on the road.

“I prefer headlining definitely. I think there are moments (from supporting tours that are better), especially when I’m on tour, like “Oh my God, I am so tired right now,” when all the focus isn’t on me, where the sets are shorter and I can go to sleep. But I prefer headlining because it is so different. It is all your people and there is a really amazing energy in your room and everyone is singing your lyrics. You can get through it so much more beautifully because people are really listening and feeling it. It is so much more fun.”

What’s a song that took you the longest to write and why?

“It’s up and down. Some songs with be finished in a day or two and a lot of times it will be two weeks to a month to finish a song. And that’s kind of how it was like for the album. I think there is probably a good two or three songs on the album, which are ones that haven’t been heard yet. One of them is ‘Lemon Eyes’, and ‘Lemon Eyes’ took a pretty long time to finish, but that’s because we wrote an idea for it and then kind of pushed it aside. And then we wrote the album and went back to it a year later, and then we finished it. We would go back to it every now and then maybe mess with it, but it was a process. I think because it is a little bit out there and a little different from what I do, but every time we would approach it was just like ‘what (will) we do with this?’, but we figured it out! I’m excited for that one. It’s always different. I will say, ‘Desire’ was like a day. It was the fastest song I ever wrote.”

Meg has two projects to tide you over until her debut album release (Daughter In The Choir, Make A Shadow) which you can both stream or purchase now. Be on the look out for Sorry in September!