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Photo Credit: Faye Fearon<\/strong><\/p>\n Meg, thanks for agreeing to talk to us! How are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hey, thanks so much for having me! I\u2019m really good, keeping busy and well in to the festive spirit now.<\/em><\/p>\n You live in Liverpool, do you think it\u2019s something in the Mersey water that makes Liverpudlians come out with annoyingly amazing songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ha! It must be, mustn\u2019t it? I definitely think Liverpool is a bit of a music powerhouse and being at home is often where I feel most inspired to write. Perhaps it\u2019s the same for fellow Scouse songwriters. There\u2019s a lot of music history here and of course, the Fab Four are huge inspirations to so many…<\/em><\/p>\n What\u2019s your favourite Beatles song?<\/strong><\/p>\n I should have guessed this question would come up! It\u2019s a tough one to answer because they churned out so many great tunes in so many different styles! I\u2019ve been listening to the early stuff recently from Please Please Me and Beatles for Sale which I love because they remind me of my childhood but if I have to pick a favourite, I\u2019d go for “Lady Madonna”. Or “Don\u2019t Let Me Down”… It\u2019ll be something different <\/em> Tell us about \u201cAna\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes! So \u2018Ana\u2019 is the new single from my upcoming album which is due out early next year. It\u2019s the first song I wrote for the album and I knew it was a single from the start. It was one of those songs which wrote itself, I didn\u2019t have to think too much about the music and the narrative is based on true experiences. The album is a break up album (a well-used concept, I know) and this song is about the feeling of not wanting to let go of a relationship even though you know it\u2019s toxic. Ana is actually<\/em> What is your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n I get asked this a lot and it\u2019s not something you think about as you\u2019re songwriting but I\u2019ve finally figured what I actually do!\u00a0 I tend to write lyrics down whenever I feel inspired, be it on the street, in work or in the bath. I keep various random lyrics on my phone and in notebooks; when I actually sit down to write I tend to start<\/em> Who have been your biggest influences for writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are so many! Alan Doyle (Great Big Sea) has been a huge influence for years. He has a great Celtic rock sound in his songs and these radiate so much energy on stage; that\u2019s inspired me to write songs with a similar feel that people would enjoy singing and clapping along to during gigs. Kate Bush is also a huge influence- the songwriting queen. Her lyrics are so emotive and she writes such unusual narratives which you don\u2019t tend to hear much of in the charts or on the radio these days. I try to paint a picture in listeners\u2019 minds with metaphors in lyrics the way Kate does, rather than use blunt, predictable language. <\/em><\/p>\n Another huge influence, particularly for songs in my upcoming album, has been LP. If you\u2019ve not heard of her, I definitely recommend getting your ears around her songs. Her trademark whistle inspired me to include some of my own whistling in my songs! I listened to her album \u2018Lost On You\u2019 a lot when writing for my new album. The mood of her song \u2018Other People\u2019 was a great inspiration for lyrics <\/em> You just graduated from BIMM, along with Nick Lofthouse, what was the one thing you\u2019ve learned about yourself while studying?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, those three years flew by! I learned so much through different experiences during my time as a student. Being away from home, being in a relationship and living in the capital all provided valuable lessons for me. I think the most important thing I learned was that it\u2019s ok to take time for myself when I need to and that I can\u2019t always be there for everyone else. Giving myself this time meant that I could achieve more than I realised. I\u2019ve stopped doubting myself now!<\/p>\n You studied in London how did that affect your song writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Indeed, the hustle and bustle of London definitely showed in the songs I wrote whilst I lived there. During my first year, I missed everyone back home and that\u2019s very evident in the lyrics of songs like \u2018I\u2019ve Done Nothing Today\u2019 and \u2018Coffee\u2019 (Northern Girl). Because London is so huge, you spend a lot time travelling from A to B and you learn to appreciate people watching. I used that to my <\/em>advantage – it\u2019s surprising how many lyrics and <\/em>song ideas I\u2019ve come up with thanks to Londoners on the 72 bus to Roehampton!<\/em><\/p>\n Your \u201cNorthern Girl\u201d EP is a year old. The title could be considered autobiographical. What song of the tracks included is your favourite?<\/strong><\/p>\n Wow yes, so much has happened since the release of that EP, it feels like ages ago! I actually asked around for opinions on that title before release; my mum thought it was too bold a statement for my debut release but it was sort of a nickname I took on when I moved<\/em>\u00a0to London. The north\/south divide was <\/em>something we joked about at uni and I was happy to be referred to as Meg the Scouser! The name \u2018Northern Girl\u2019 also reflected how I felt at the time of release; I didn\u2019t feel like I belonged in London even though I love the city. <\/em><\/p>\n My favourite thing about the songs in that EP is the percussion; I got to work with some great people putting \u2018Northern Girl\u2019 together including Mr Preston Heyman on drums and percussion. I think my favourite from the EP is \u2018Sundown\u2019. It\u2019s the most streamed song from that release and it\u2019s the one people always mention when they tell me they\u2019ve listened <\/em>to the EP. I like to include it at the end of a set when I play live because it\u2019s light and easy for an audience to clap along to.<\/em><\/p>\n What\u2019s your plan for 2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n First things first, I\u2019m releasing my new album \u2018Wrong Medicine\u2019 early in the year, which is exciting. I\u2019ve been working on it for a long time and I can\u2019t wait for people to hear my new material! I\u2019ll be performing a lot more in Liverpool too and hopefully I\u2019ll do a couple of gigs in London and possibly Brighton. I have a friend who\u2019s lucky enough to be studying in Abbey Road Institute so I\u2019ve told him I\u2019ll be back there in the new year to work on new songs! I\u2019m also just finishing music for a small film project which should be available for people to watch in the new year too. I\u2019ve known the writer\/director for a long time and it\u2019s been a pleasure to be involved musically in his latest production. All in all, a busy year planned! <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo Credit: Faye Fearon Meg, thanks for agreeing to talk to us! How are you? Hey, thanks so much for having me! I\u2019m really good, keeping busy and well in to the festive spirit now. You live in Liverpool, do you think it\u2019s something in the Mersey water that makes Liverpudlians come out with annoyingly … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-singer-songwriter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ntomorrow!<\/em><\/p>\n
\na dear friend, featured on the album artwork. Isn\u2019t she beautiful?! Haha, she\u2019s very wise, which you can hear about in verse one.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nwith a musical idea and then go back to my <\/em>
\nlyric list and see if any fit in with the chords. It usually works out nicely!<\/em><\/p>\n
\nthroughout the writing process.<\/em><\/p>\n