An Interview with Meiko - Page 3

On “Piano Song,” where you sing, “I try so hard not to show this side of me,” are you saying you don’t want to reveal any vulnerability to someone who you may be attracted to?

It’s [about] not wanting to reveal to someone how much I miss [him]. I wrote that song when I was waiting for somebody to come back home and I didn’t know when… That’s where the “counting down the hours and counting up the days” [came from]. I didn’t have an exact date…and I didn’t want [him] to know how absolutely dorky I was about [him]. It was a new relationship where I was trying to be the cool one, but totally obsessing behind closed doors. And I wrote that song on piano. I was house sitting for friend[s] and they didn’t have any guitars. I was really inspired to write and I just sat at the piano. That was the first and last piano song that I ever wrote.

You haven’t written one since on a piano?

No, no. [laughing] I don’t play piano at all, obviously, with those simple clanking of the keys.

But that’s what makes it so endearing. You don’t come off as Rachmaninoff; that’s what makes it appealing to people. Are you working on anything for a subsequent album?

I’ve been writing a lot lately. And when I’m not touring, I go back home and kind of get in my studio and record with my friend. We have about six or seven songs recorded. I hope that, by the end of this year, to get in for a good month or so and maybe try to finish up something, either an EP or a record. I’ve been playing a few new songs in my live shows and I’m excited to get them recorded. I think a lot of the true-blue fans are kind of ready for me to hurry up and put something out.

How do you measure your progress as a songwriter?

I look at the different topics that I write about. It’s not like I try to write about different things, but when I do write a song that’s not just about being pissed off at some guy or some guy’s girlfriend, I know that I’m kind of moving on to a different level.

And I also look at the way I play guitar. Because there’s a hole you can get stuck in, playing the same kind of rhythm or playing the same kind of chords. Expanding my knowledge and trying to learn – and trying to learn other ways of playing guitar – is another part of it.

Article Author: Donald Gibson

A contributing music editor at Blogcritics, Donald Gibson devotes most of his writing to music criticism, paying particular attention to the craft and aesthetic of songwriting. He holds a B.A. in English from the University of South Florida.
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