Meet MEYY: Your new crush

If you don’t know MEYY, it’s time to get acquainted. Now based in London, the Belgian-Korean artist is taking over the scene with her futuristic sound and sugar-coated vocals. MEYY’s every track is a daydream, an escape into a carefully crafted exploration of what being young and in love feels like. Constantly developing and building upon her artistry, MEYY has a lot coming her way. In light of her new single release, we caught up with the rising star to deep dive into her world. Blush is described as “a crush in a musical form”, and MEYY is definitely ours.

Could you run me through your creative process?

All my songs are serenades for specific people, so the lyrics come easily as they are very bound to a situation or a person. I’m just describing something or someone in a melodic way. Lately, I like to write a song partially or completely, start out the production and then take it to a producer to enhance the song further.

What do you want the listener to feel like when they hear your music?

That is not something for me to want or decide. Other than resonance on a level that is any deeper than the most superficial one, I don’t wish to navigate my music in any specific direction when it comes to other people.

How do you find your inspiration?

I get inspired by my own imagination. From romances and the romanticism or delusion that comes with it. My music is a sonic extension and an amplification of my delusion when it comes to love. I also get inspired by light, classical ballet pieces, beds of water, pretty melodies, and soundscapes. My experience or translation of beautiful things in general. Warping reality a bit. I wish to capture, enlarge and serenade beauty on a lyrical and melodic level. Whether it is evident or contextually embedded somewhere. Beauty in the broader sense. Anything that provokes or excites the senses is beauty, to me.

How would describe your sound in one sentence?

Digitally glossed serenades.

Perfectly put. What draws you to these soundscapes?

The process of making music is very imaginative to me so everything surrounding the songs, from soundscapes to visuals,  is a well-considered and yet intuitive elongation of that. I’m also very lucky to have an amazing team of people around me who not only understand/mirror that vision but also materialise and elevate into something beyond my initial intention. The creation of the sound around the project “MEYY” has definitely been a collaborative process.

‘Blush’ is described as ‘intergalactic’. Could you please tell me a bit more about the track and what we can expect from it?

Blush is a cheeky animation, a sonic translation about crushing on someone. The butterflies and lightness that encapsulate those first moments. The rush and playfulness. It also reflects how the song was created, quite easy and most of all fun. I made the track together with Jakwob and Pippin and the melody and energy of the song blossomed very organically. We were all immediately very excited about the song, I think Blush holds such an enticing energy.

How would you say “Blush” fits in your musical career? Sonically and artistically, there seems to be so much progression from “Angelic Lies’ to “Neon Angel”.

This is the first song we’re releasing that I made in London, since I moved there. Moving to London has brought me so much growth on a personal and musical level. I gained so much awareness and confidence in my vision and how I brought it, allowing me to play into different sounds. When I started making songs, I used to shy away from “poppy” or uptempo cause I felt like i couldn’t bring it in a credible way. But now that I’ve consolidated my curation and  gained more maturity in my project and also because I’m genuinely such a fan of the producers I work with and trust their guidance blindly, I really enjoy expanding into other genres.

If you could change something in the music industry, what would it be?

I’m going to need a Ted Talk for this (lol) but let me try and abbreviate it. I wish we could focus a bit more on the music, on the intention. Social media is a practical tool for artists to display their artistic vision, which is super cool and in itself authentic. But there is this whole other side to public display that just has me flustered. You need to distill your whole personality, preferably authentically, into a super-formatted, minimal attention span digital sphere.

Is that even possible? — Authentically?

I genuinely don’t understand how we’re supposed to do that. There is not a lot of room for upcoming artists who don’t have a big hit, are going viral and/or have a huge following on social media. The industry is so fast-paced and you can feel it in many layers. There is little place for in-depth, extended projects and artist trajectories. A lot of it is data (thus, money) driven. Like a lot of artists, I just want to expand the sound we’ve been making and grow steadily in that. But that costs money too, so in a way, you need to play by the rules of the industry in order to obtain their support.

Ah, the mystery rule book.

Pop music is a reflection of pop-culture. We’re just living in fast-paced times. We want hits and snippets and very rapid content. Nowadays, it’s way easier to make music with the DOW’s (ableton/logic pro/fruity loops/…), the internet made recording or producing very accessible, so the supply is arguably bigger than the demand. Even though there can never be enough music or expression in my opinion, I can understand that for media, labels, live agents etc. it might be hard to give a platform to all these people. If there’s no exclusivity, then there is also no money being made, sadly.

Can this be changed?

I feel that we’re deep into this cycle and it will be difficult to break out of it. I don’t have all the answers but I think we could try a bit harder… We just have to.