FAULT: Hi Meg – your career is going from strength to strength, and gaining momentum at a rapid pace. How are you?

Meg: Hi! I am really good, things are getting more exciting everyday.

 

When you were growing up, who were your biggest influences?

I remember when I first heard Ray Charles’ voice, that had a big influence on me and I still love listening to him.

 

How do you process those influences when you’re still growing?

I think when you like something, you don’t know why you like, you just do. I don’t ever remember thinking about why I liked anything when I was young.

 

Can you talk a bit about your songwriting process?

I don’t like to talk about my problems, but I sing about them. I sing some things I would never share with anyone, my songs come from the things inside my head that I can’t stop thinking about or can’t work out yet – I usually sit at a piano put my phone on record and just sing. Chords, melodies, lyrics everything happens at the same time and I just have to work it all out later.

 

You have been described as “Adele meets Arcade Fire” , do you see yourself as an artist who defies genres, and is this something important to you as a singer and songwriter?

To be honest, I don’t think about or know what genre my songs are until they’re released and people start telling you what it is. I would find it really hard to write songs if I was trying to fit into a genre – I just sing what is in my head.

Growing up, were you always a performer?

I was so shy when I was a kid but for some reason I always wanted to perform.

 

How has growing up in Australia – and Australian culture – influenced your work?

Most of the music that has inspired me has come from overseas and from a time I’ll never know about. That is what is so nice about music, it doesn’t matter where you are or where you come from. Everything influences my work, up until this year I hadn’t really experienced much outside of Australia and I feel like that has had a big effect on me and my music.

 

You’ve got a distinctive personal style, from your clothes to your already famous hair. What about the relationship between music and fashion?

You always want to know who you are listening to I guess. I think that there is a relationship between music and fashion because it can add more to just the voice you can’t stop listening to. It is a real person you are listening to and this is what they like to wear and this is their thing. Creating a world for your music is fun.

 

Which do you prefer- the studio or the stage?

Stage!

 

You have spoken in previous interviews about the power of costume to transform your live persona – how do you see ‘Meg Mac’ when you’re on stage, and how does this differ from being Megan McInerney day-to-day?

I think if someone is coming to see you perform, you need to give them something. I like to wear the costumes I feel the most comfortable in to sing my songs so that people enjoy it as a performance. And also I love dressing up, I feel stronger when I am dressed for a show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVZfhc1JXA4

 

The whole phenomenon of the rabid fanbase has really taken hold of the music industry at the moment, how do you picture the Meg Mac fanbase?

It is hard not to see your fans as some sort of friends, because they do kind of know you – I put things in my songs that I wouldn’t even tell my friends so there is this weird connection there. And also they are all really nice!

 

How important is the social media aspect for an artist these days? What pressures come along with maintaining an online presence as a pop artist?

I get so excited about some of the things I get to do and I love to share it online so others can be excited with me. I am conscious of boring people, I just want everyone to be a part of what I do and not so much looking in from the outside.

 

What are going to be the core themes on your album when it comes?

I think with my album, I am trying to stay more true to how the songs are when I first wrote them. Somehow get the raw bits from my iphone recordings and transform them into proper songs without losing anything special.

 

As an artist on the rise, is it challenging to suddenly see your songs being dissected by a much bigger audience?

It is unbelievable to do a show or play a festival and have the audience singing along with you, there is no way to describe that feeling.

 

Is songwriting and performing a vulnerable experience for you, or is it more cathartic to exorcise your demons in the public realm?

I find songwriting cathartic for me and then every time I perform that song something different will happen – no show is the same. Sometimes I discover a new meaning, sometimes I feel the pain or the happiness. So much can happen, I love it.

 

On that note, what is your FAULT?

Chocolate.

 

Words: Will Ballantyne-Reid