Meg Elsier

Growing up half-Korean in a New England town, meg never quite felt like she belonged. 'I think the main challenge that weighed on me when I was younger was that I never felt like I fit in anywhere I went. I was made fun of for being too white in Korean school, and I was made fun of for being too Korean at my normal school,' she says. This experience shaped her identity and acceptance of not fitting into one box.

Music became an essential outlet for meg during her journey towards self-understanding. Whether mourning the loss of her hamster or feeling upset about a Legend of Zelda character dying, she found that songwriting eased her pain. Keen to have more colors to paint with, she soon picked up the guitar and started playing piano as well.

While meg had an undeniable desire to pursue music from a young age, she was plagued by stage fright. In an attempt to overcome it, she pushed herself to join her high school’s jazz band and musical theater productions. Eventually, she found the confidence to audition for and attend the acclaimed Berklee School of Music, but admits that her nerves didn’t truly subside until she moved to Nashville. There, surrounded by fellow musicians trying to pave their own ways, she came into herself as an artist, writing songs that felt authentic to her while connecting with other musicians with whom she felt confident performing.

In late 2023, meg made her introduction with the release of her debut single, “ifshitfuq.” The track was added to Spotify playlists like Fresh Finds, Fresh Finds: Indie, and Fresh Finds: Rock, and was later included on Spotify’s indie editors’ Best Songs of 2023 playlist. She continued to build excitement with singles like “iznotreal,” “baby,” “forlyleinsanfrancisco,” and “oldnews,” which captured the attention of tastemakers like DIY Magazine, DORK, and Grimy Goods.

After unveiling new layers of her artistry with each new single, meg revealed her debut album, spittake, on June 28th. All of the songs were written and demoed solely by meg over the course of a few years. She later collaborated with Nashville-based producer Ryan McFadden to record the final product while still maintaining the DIY spirit of the album as a whole. The album opens with the title track, “spittake,” which meg kept in its original demo format, speaking to the raw, untempered nature of the project as a whole.

Blending elements of grunge, contemporary pop, folk, and indie-rock, the LP showcases meg’s ability to create dynamic, versatile, and effortlessly catchy music. Across the album’s 11 tracks, she delivers musings on love, death, nostalgia, youth, anxiety, depression, and everything in between, with a uniquely self-deprecating touch.

meg’s artistic vision extends far beyond her music. Alongside collaborators Jacqueline Justice, Mary Violet Woosley, and Roberto Kohler, she has created a boldly intense and vibrant visual world to complement her music. Fashion is another vital element of self-expression for meg. She self-styles the majority of her videos, photos, and shows, using clothes as an additional tool for creativity.

Her frenetic and emotionally intense live shows foster an intimate connection with audiences, exploring new emotional territory together. Her climb up the live circuit has seen her perform at iconic Nashville venues like Basement East, DRKMTTR, and The Blue Room. This Fall, meg will be taking her live show on the road with a North American tour supporting Finom.

Her debut album, spittake, is just the beginning for meg elsier. “This album was my first experience recording myself – not just vocals and guitar – and attempting to arrange and hear other instruments and what I wanted them to convey,” she explains. “That gave me a huge amount of confidence in going into the recording process and knowing that I would be able to make it sound like it did in my head.”

meg continues to evolve as an artist, and her journey is one of self-discovery and artistic exploration. As she puts it, “to be honest, I don’t think I knew what the record meant to me until it was done. What I really was searching for was an introduction as… meg. Not someone I’m mirroring, or something I’ve been trying to become. Just who I am genuinely at this moment.”

https://www.instagram.com/megelsier

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4rkAMhebcdsLwZKBriNerT

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