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. january 2019 Natalie Mering escaped a battle afloat. stay to Eve Barlow hubris of mankind” mean it’s a daily mankind”hubris of mean it’s vintage-pop classicist reinvent herself as Titanic-obsessedreinvent submerges herself world. in Mering’s

claustrophobic religious upbringing to But battles with old label her and “the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sink or swim time: Blood, aka Weyes Natalie poses Mering, for the cover of this . year’s january 2019 january

76 79 weyes blood weyes december 2019 2019 december 15, she channelled her rage She doesn’t begrudge her family religion, “I wasn’t trying sound to Joni like She denounced God. So“I was very angry. At the age of going to be raptured. We’ll go heaven.” to going be to raptured. We’ll rebelled. always but In Mering Pennsylvania, she became “weirder”; a fish out of water. “Philly was very Donaldsegregated: Trump! racists! I grew North-Eastern up in a very zone. There were two black Wasp-y students in my and school. my Me family were probably depressed.” Her out way of that was turning guitar to and her enchanting woodland surroundings. Her father and brothers Christian played rock. Her dad’s Thatnew band wave was called Sumner. path. wasn’t She Mering’s dissonance.liked Mitchell,” she smirks. “I hardcore,liked noise, deconstructionist Let’srock’n’roll. fucking it tear apart.” The Pennsylvanian attitude was squash to ambition in the arts. There were bands but nobody in.let Mering “I couldn’t find people that shared my flame.” Her best friend used strum to Beatles but was as taking Mering songs thewith her, City punk to shows, her York train New to friend chickened out. At home, her parents thought her parentmusic was evil. “Any would when that shit comes out a stereo.” angry!” At her most extremedecided Mering during puberty that she would never awatch movie again. It three lasted years. “I thought we’d all been brainwashed: this is garbage, fuck the world! I was bummed.”passionately DriveMulholland was cool enough to eventually break the mom “My strike. once literally tied me a to chair Thewatch to She starts likeningscreaming, Notebook.” her reaction “‘Get The to thisExorcist. fucking piece of shit outta my face, I it!’hate I still it. hate Garbage. emotionalFucking manipulation of the Go wing-wang. and disappoint a whole generation of women, why don’t ya?” a into project she named (and spelled) Wise Blood, after the Flannery O’Connor novel (“a book about a church of Christ without Christ!”). Sonically Jesus she was inspired by the ’60s and its revolutionary spirit. “I didn’t wanna rehash what had already been done,” she recalls. “The ’90s hippies were listening

“There are dark alt-right Twitter commentingweirdos shit. are Why my on you following me? spookyReally there.” out people xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx In the pink: things were looking uncertain until Mering’s fourthbreakthrough , Titanic Rising (below).

1988,

orn in isMering of the last generation recall to what it was like growing up without the

1912 there’s talk Climate change Climate is a focal point for Mering The internet compounds that. Mering 50s as evidence that gigantic fable for the hubris of man. It’s It’s about the third class of the world getting she fucked,” growingsays, outraged. of“That’s Instead what’s going on now. crashing an into iceberg and sinking a ship we are melting the icebergs and sinking third world civilisations. Nobody took thattook world civilisations. Nobody message home. They home took Leo and Cameron. TheyJames didn’t thetake moral moral of the story.” who sings about “a million people burning”. Her concerns are herto connected fears As about we loss becomeof community. she more argues, self-consumed, it’s harder the save to planet. “There was a time when individualism wasn’t so rampant,” she says, about pointing PSAs to global warming from the ’ we’ve been here before. “In about ice caps melting. It wasn’t scoffed upon as liberal bullshit. It was as respected science. had faith People in institutions.” It’s trickier for people bandto It’s not that together now. we’re more selfish. Rather we’re more alone. “The paradigm has time “People’s Mering. says shifted,” is an chaos.” isolated likens social media a to job that capitalism has pushed us. onto “If you wanna date somebody you an have to have arsenal of sendto have pictures,” she “You says. fucking does nudes.” not Mering send nudes. “It comes naturally some, to but if you’re from a generation that remembers a time before, it’s It’s isolating. draining.”

web. web. She spent her earliest years in the Bay Area Bay before relocating Doylestown,to – the Pennsylvania polar opposite environment – after her parents became “very” Christian. “It was traumatic,” she “I says. had a childhood. I was a beach child. parentsMy are Californian. My grandparents, The too. demeanour was so different Mering’s from Pennsylvania.” family were “Reagan-y”. Hence being raised with the of rhetoric ‘the good old days’ and a scepticism that humans could have any impact on the planet. parents“My believed that this is already a fallen space,” “If this explains goes Mering. shit to we’re B

t the 1970s. 1997 blockbuster december 2019 december Mering is also Mering a little unsure of where be company in is Mering’s ponderto To Titanic Rising assesses all of this, and It’s named after the

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about God, the universe and life itself. She’s accessibly and intellectual sceptical of internet culture, particularly given the denierclimate supremacistswhite that pop up in her “The DMs. internet is spooky,” pines for a deeper human connection. was abandoned in a park,” his says master, aka experimental Natalie Mering, rock Blood. “He was in bad artist shape.Weyes He’s the Luigi my to Mario. I don’t know where he comes from, you know?” she comes from. Her accent sounds itlike belongs anotherto American era. She’s spent 31 years trying find to a place fit to and looks found have to it in LA, as she a takes seat in her local Griffith obscured Park by a pair of Gucci sunnies, and a hat from her own merch line (it reads: BAD HerMAGIC). experience recording her fourth album, Titanic a makes Rising, virtue of connections she’s forged since returning California.to It’s the sound of a lifer songwriter who finally the snatched resources matchto her ambition. Despite its career-best success, she’s never settled. This oasis of “If foliage itand wildlife is her hideaway. weren’t for music,” she “I’d says, live out in the middle of nowhere.” she “There says. are dark Twitter alt-right weirdos commenting on my shit. Why are you following me? I don’t do YouTube. Really spooky people out there.” It’s nostalgic for the things way were Without pre-internet. you context may assume it was made in the early Its references are closerDavis Skeeter to or Burt Bacharach than the bands Mering shares a label with Describedon Sub asPop. “Bob Seeger meets Enya”, at one point it attests: “true love is making a comeback.” Her cooed vocal is familiarly conservative and contrarian because of it. The artwork The submerged features Mering underwater. idea of raising the Titanic reflects a desire to the past; a take to excavate closer look at what’s long buried, from get to theaway barrage of stimuli clouding our judgement. mouths of ’ hiking trails everyone is uniformly dressed in sweats, baseball caps and sunglasses. It means you identifyto have people by their dogs. Luigi is rescue. a He Pomeranian has a permanently sunny disposition and loves nature. “He was nine (Mering when it was released). “That movie was engineered for little white It wasn’t despairingly. girls,” she now, says Leonardo DiCaprio who sweptoff Mering her feet “It was but athe tale’s morality.

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3 weyes blood weyes december 2019 2019 december -year-old Natalie 15-year-old I I wanted to do it with Chris Mexican SummerCohen. supported that notion. It gave me the support I needed to get out and there not just to show up and hope it works out. I had a job to do – record with Chris. It felt alike As soon as Ihomecoming. came back all the trauma from my experiences East Coast All the kinda away. melted friends I made who grew up I here felt immediately so These myare close to. people and they get it.”

“It “It became my form of rebellion to In Washington DC, a DC, fan actually left In Washington wonder what You she and Luigi find her Subaru soccer mom off the into future. drive and car 31 she’d released have her most beloved body of work, and that she would donehave so “Ecstatic!” on she Sub smiles, Pop. reeling off the records Sub she Pop owned in high school. “That was the goal from one.”day Still, it’s amusing that she’s achieved this while pursuing a path of traditional melody, not the din riotous she ran for to salvation. famous ’70s write songs,” she “A says. painter once said: is‘The new avant-garde painting trees and making peanut butter pendulum The sandwiches for your children.’ really does swing that.” like And with that says. “Especially says. being a woman. It wasn’t necessarily that you would get abused but there were many layers of the onion of inconvenience, pain and prejudice in the ever Nobody gives you amusic industry. were such badge aof honour and ‘You says, good sport dealing with that.’” her a trophy anonymously on the stage. pulls up Mering her Instagram showto title and lyrics engraved on it. would felt have knowing that by the age of the corresponding post. There she is backstage holding a cup with the song , producer Blake Mills, producer 2 , Chris Cohen, to to write and work with Brian and Michael on on drums, Michael’s Everyday. on bass. It was Brian’s a blast. They got immediately it.” 3. Fiona [, Apple, ] “I was so that grateful Blake Mills on played my record. a melodic genius!” He’s 4. Deerfhoof “When it came time to make Earth Seat To Row Front

Eyes Eyes on the prize: Mering a receives trophy from a fan, DC. Washington per cent 5 Mering doesn’t explicitly Mering hersay she“I was hurt. I the wanted trophy,” ’ The Lemon Twigs’ to deliver, Mering felt she like Mering was making her deliver, to debut. “It felt the like first time,” she nods. experience Summer with wasMexican sexist, but she does talk about the wrongs It’s in the she’s song suffered Mirrorfreely. one’s ever“No gonna give you a Forever. trophy for all the pain and the things you’ve been through,” she sings. Rado Rado is fun. pure He ittakes need seriously to but doesn’t be ‘OK, like, guys, let me do my work, I wrote of an Adele song.’” 2. Brian and Michael D’Addario “I was such a huge fan of what I met them doing. and they’re I felt I went, ‘I am not worthy.’ so lucky that they whatliked I was writing and wanted to be a part of it because they based live in LA. don’t They’re in Island. Long It was funreally

,

] Whitney, Whitney, [ Jonathan Rado, Rado, Jonathan Titanic Rising: who was aboard Rising: was who Titanic fourth album Blood’s Weyes 1 1. producer “When we first met up we made a demo of andtogether Andromeda He was I knew immediately. a like best friend. I felt like we just got each a teenager, we both have an other, ambient music background, appreciate we really That’s and good songwriting. difficult to find in a producer. a lot of pop people, a There’s lot of egos, but not a lot of fun. frontman Titanic Rising is co-produced with dad “My made a special request of me,” either. “They never me treated great,” she “Isays. was doing anything get to my foot in She doesn’t this say with anythe door.” bitterness. She was Theygrateful. never her expected succeed to and when Front became an acclaimed record theyRow… were surprised. “It was like, ‘Whoops!’” she laughs. It Rado. featuresJonathan Foxygen’s string There players. are sections played by Michael and Brian D’Addario from The Lemon ProducerTwigs. extraordinaire MillsBlake is Whencredited. first Mering she was jealous. “How dare heard Foxygen that band so have much fun and be so good?” she The jokes. joy jumps out of the album. which is so chintzyon Particularly Everyday, it almost sounds Slade like at Christmas. she “‘Could says. you please at write least one upbeat song?’ I was personally offended but when I doing started it, I was ‘Oh,like, a he’s right.’” With a new Pop, label in Sub real budget and an endless timeline in which “I don’t argue“I parents, with don’t with my I pray them. Amen. a certain Hallelujah. At point, everybody themneeds something keep to from the dark side.”

Redferns, getty, shutterstcok

ive years ago, while Mering waswhile Mering finishing her third Row album Front Earth, she Seat To an started idea for a non-rock song Ittitled Movies. “He “He was being realistic,” she now. says forms the centrepiece of Titanic Rising and was something of a rebirth. “I was going through this intense phase, I was losing my was mind.” a having Mering difficult time and escaped her Row… completing Front misery by obsessively films.watching around me “People didn’t believe in what ‘Looks this like isI was They’ddoing. say, need get to a your job.’”last record. You One of those people was her ex-boyfriend. an indie artist there’s “As not a lot of hope. can talenthave and it still You doesn’t work out.” Her former label didn’t reassure her

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Perhaps that’s why Perhaps this record is so One of them is faith. She’s always “It’s “It’s bad now in an cold,existential way: hard facts – we are a rock flying through space with a very thin layer of atmosphere. But it’s been very gnarly before.” more more doesn’t mean that I’m good,” she says. “There’s a fills void.” it Mering by reading She’s on esoteric texts and history mythology. a fan Campbell. of “That’s Joseph where my faith is at. I don’t argue with my parents. I pray with them. Amen. Hallelujah. Mad respect. At needs something everybody point certain a keep themto from the dark side.” in rooted optimism. It comfortdraws from the fact humankind has been here before – and survived. “Life’s not nearly as bad as the plague,” she reasonably. says, people and herself. And yet there are still a lot of unresolved questions. readjusting her relationship it. to “Not any believing in dogmatic Christianity

19 she 2019. July, July, december 2019 december . “All my noise buddies 20. were “All selling 5 Music became Music a singular mission, and moved Mering to After Portland,

80 Mering moved to Portland for moved college. Mering Portland to She dropped out when opportunity knocked, bass playing Motherfucker. for Jackie-O “Why would I study music in this school that Lewinsky wentMonica whento I can go on the road with this band?” she asks. At Baltimore for “survival”, a farm in Kentucky “out of curiosity”, and eventually New to get to out of the DIY world. York “I wanted an have to audience that didn’t dress like gutteroffence punks. the to No gutter for punks,” she She says. lived York in New three years before it swallowed her whole. will spit you out if you York don’t“New belong there.” Five years ago, Mexican her former label, helped Summer, her She believed it be to the experimental community of 90s/early-2000s the –late-’ bands Black like Dice and Animal Collective, not Phish. “I was riding a beautiful, fun, DIY of wave ambient sound that crashed.” was so obsessed with music she couldn’t imagine spending a off minute the road. She thought she’d it have all figured out by the age of were gonna be fine!” tapes sheon We eBay! “I had no idea now. jokes what I was in for.” move Los to Angeles. Arriving here was a She homecoming. felt she’d like found her to Phish to and taking designer drugs.” Mering who asked the new revolutionaries were. All white on the night: Blood plays Weyes Roskilde Festival, Denmark,