Meg Myers considers herself an introvert, but on a pair of EPs, including last year’s “Make a Shadow,” the Nashville-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter holds little back, turning out cathartic, industrial-tinged rockers that have blood coursing through their veins. “My heart is wasted and cut up like a drug,” she sings on the slinky, near-electronic “Sorry.” “And your tears they taste like vinegar in blood.”
“Writing is a really intimate process for me,” said Myers, 28, reached by phone on an early May tour stop in Kansas City, Mo. “It’s always something I’ve gone through or I’m feeling. I don’t usually write for anyone or about anyone else; it’s usually about how they make me feel.”
Growing up, you lived in Ohio and Florida. Since every insane news item seems to originate out of those two states, I wanted to start by reading you a few headlines and letting you guess whether it took place in Ohio or Florida.
OK. [Laughs.]
Number one: “Drunk driver led cops on a chase so he would have time to finish his Big Mac.”
[Laughs.] Ohio?You’re right.
That’s funny. Big Macs made me think of Ohio. If it was Taco Bell I might have said Florida … but when I think of burgers I relate it to Ohio.
OK, the next one is, “Man who has pooped on 19 cars over two years being hunted by police.”
My God. Florida?
Nope. Ohio again.
Damn it. Oh, man! The only reason I said that is because I feel like there are a lot of druggies in Florida, and it sounds like this guy was on something. Maybe he was [a] sober pooper?
And the last one: “Mermaid banned from wearing her tail in town’s swimming pools.”
Oh, Florida! Water!
Right! How could you move? There are such rich characters to inspire songs in these places.
[Laughs.] Yeah, I seriously should have stayed. There are quite a few characters in Los Angeles, though.You moved to Los Angeles when you were 20, right? Did you have that big, welcome to L.A. moment?
I’ve lived in so many different places [in the city], and now I’ve moved outside Hollywood and all that [because] I hated it. It was absolutely disgusting to me. I have to live in a family neighborhood with normal people and trees. I can’t live in a concrete city, so now I live outside of it, closer to the mountains.
From everything I’ve read, it sounds like solitude is fairly important to you. Is it difficult to carve out that space on the road?
Yeah. I’m in the process of figuring it out. The bathroom has become the best place for me on the road because it’s the only time I can really be alone. On show days and press days it’s definitely like, “Just go to the bathroom and breathe.” I’m such an introvert. Even when I’m performing I’m up there and I don’t necessarily have to talk to anybody. I can just perform and go into this place.
Your most recent single is titled “Sorry.” Does apologizing come easily to you or is it a struggle to admit fault?
I think extremely both. As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more aware of things and it’s become easier to apologize in some ways. But there’s also another side where … it’s almost impossible to apologize. You have to be a really tough person … to admit [fault].
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In the video for that song you take a baseball bat to a house. Did you think about anything in particular while swinging away?
I’m sure there are thoughts that were going through my head when I was doing it, but … videos are always more complicated than people think. They think, “Yeah, you just go and smash stuff inside the house!” But I had to watch out for the camera guys and the crew, and I was trying not to injure myself. I didn’t get to go buck wild with the bat, and I wish I could have. I played baseball when I was little — not softball; I had a team with the boys — and I was pretty good. But I didn’t really get to show off those skills as much in the video.
One of your songs is called “Heart Heart Head.” Is that indicative of how you approach things in your life? Do you tend to follow your heart twice as often as your head?
That’s beautiful. I love that you caught that. I do. I always have. I’m a really, really emotional person — definitely more than I am logical. I follow my head sometimes … and I try to be logical. But you should follow your heart.
On “Monster” you sing, “I gotta kill you, my love,” and on “Desire” there’s the line, “I want to kill you/I want to lay you in the ground.” You realize if anyone close to you turns up dead you’re the prime suspect, right?
[Laughs.] That’s true. I guess I’ll just have to accept that’s the way my life is going.Andy Downing is a RedEye special contributor. @andydowning33
Meg Myers, 9 p.m. Thursday, May 21 at Lincoln Hall. Sold out.