- 3 months ago
MEEK joins us inside the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about the success of “Fabulous,” dealing with newfound fame, and connecting with Kesha for an upcoming tour.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:02what's up it's mike adam we are here at the hard rock hotel new york with me about to chop
00:08it up
00:08you got so much going on i love the song fabulous is fabulous how did you know did you know
00:14that
00:14was going to be the song like the minute you finished in the studio yeah i think we had a
00:19pretty good idea really it's always like when you make when you make something that excites you you
00:23know it's going to excite other people when they hear it so we were like jumping around on the
00:27couch in the studio yeah oh i love it do you feel like you already have another one waiting in
00:31the
00:31wing that could be equally as big if not the album's done it's so finished so are you did you
00:37feel that
00:38confident with the other songs were you like when you finished them you were like these are going to
00:43be huge as well every single song on that album every single one but you know i wrote like 300
00:48for
00:49it yeah and it's been whittled down to like 15 or something now yeah and like every single one is
00:57a huge single like fabulous because so many people say you know they're like oh you never know the
01:01you don't know the formula you don't know how people are going to take to this so i love that
01:05confidence that you were like you know what this is a smash this is a smash that you felt that
01:09great
01:09about those songs yeah i mean i make music for me yeah primarily right like if i think if you've
01:16got
01:16the ability to make a tune you're going to make something you want to listen to right so if i
01:21keep
01:21listening to something i've done over and over again and i'm singing along to it and i love it yeah
01:25i think
01:25other people will and i think that's like the thing you have to follow always as an artist is
01:30like trust what you love and then your people will love it too absolutely so all the other songs that
01:35you did for this album that didn't make the cut right uh can they be used moving forward or are
01:42you
01:42done with those those are you're scrapping those and no uh i would never been my babies no they
01:48definitely like they'll live in a folder and actually a couple of them have already
01:52gone to some other artists yeah um and then and some get revisited some get reworked others might
02:00just you know in like five years when music has shifted again a little bit maybe there'll be
02:04a diamond in there that's like oh my god this is you know exactly what's going on at the moment
02:08because i think you have to also think look about look at what people are listening to and digesting and
02:13look at what's going on in the world as well and and figure out you know what's right for this
02:18moment
02:19and and what's going on socially and politically as well and you know that's kind of the thing
02:24that's how you choose when something's right yeah yeah how does that work with um you know you said
02:30artists have taken a few of the songs already do you just like randomly blast them out to people or
02:35you're like oh this would be perfect for rihanna and you just send it off or how does that work
02:40i love i love that sentence this would be perfect for rihanna um said no whatever
02:49um yeah it gets pitched by my publishers okay so like they'll be like they'll come to me with a
02:56tune normally they have a little brain wave on someone or they'll get an email that's like oh x y
03:00or z is looking for songs for an album and they'll go oh meek's got that one i don't know
03:05if she's using
03:05it and then normally i'll get the the old whatsapp message and it'll go are you using this and i'll
03:10be like depends who's asking who's asking right because if it's something i love like also it's
03:16important to me if it's something i've written for myself that it lands with an artist that i think
03:21is going to authentically deliver the lyrics like a lot of my stuff is well every song i ever write
03:26is based off of like personal experience and things that like matter quite deeply to me
03:29so i wouldn't want somebody who i didn't think was like kind of aligned with
03:34my values absolutely to be singing my words it wouldn't feel right yeah right you have written
03:39for martin garrix uh rita or a bunch of people um is there anyone you can share that you wrote
03:46a song
03:46for that they took it on but it it never came out for whatever the reason oh my yeah things
03:52that like
03:52were meant to be oh my god so many is there anyone you could share without getting in trouble or
03:56not
03:56really yeah i mean i've done stuff for like i mean i've done stuff like chris brown um sigala
04:04david getter and they're just like in pending hell it's never gonna sit on hold i just did a bunch
04:10of
04:10stuff for christina aguilera oh wow that stuff's on hold there's some do a leap of things that are in
04:16the works and do you ever find out why they're just it just depends man it's like it's like my
04:22album
04:23right 300 songs down to 15 like i think the the process always with especially a major artist is
04:29like you do gather up this huge body of like consideration of work and then it you whittle
04:35it down you figure out all these different factors of like you know what's going on and
04:39and that's it and it doesn't ever mean i've had cuts come through that have been sat on hold for
04:45like
04:45five years yeah and i'll think that they've been released and like really sorry like let go off of
04:50what's being considered not released into the world and then suddenly i'll get an email five
04:54years later like oh this is gonna come out now i'm like what crazy so yeah it just um it
04:59really
04:59depends like so a song is never dead it's just waiting yeah yeah is there a line from fabulous
05:06that that you really liked but you just had too many other great lines so it didn't make the cut
05:12one you were really trying to work in there so many somewhere there is a there's a google docs
05:18i actually found it because my the label asked for the lyrics so like when it was going being
05:22injected on spotify and stuff and they were like have you got lyric doc and i didn't think to
05:26actually check it i just saw like fabulous lyrics and just sent it yeah yeah and they were like
05:30what's all this at the bottom and there's like they're like is a remix coming out it's like it's
05:36like honestly like a word a brain vomit list of lyrics right always and it we always me and my
05:42co-writer carobay we put like a underscore and then everything we don't use gets dumped at the
05:46bottom of the document so i sent this thing without thinking and there's all sorts of random
05:50stuff in there because there's so many good examples like this happened but i'm so fabulous
05:54there's so many good examples in there so i was wondering were you just rattling off like a ton
05:58of different things and some didn't make the cut a hundred percent one of the ones that definitely
06:02like was one of the earliest lyrics in the session and i was like this is a hundred percent in
06:07was the tax man took my money because it just like first of all i love any lyric that feels
06:12like
06:13it came from the 60s i'm obsessed okay i love lyrics that feel quite old school second of all
06:19i think we have enough songs about problems around heartbreak sure like it's such a relevant
06:24thing to be like i'm paying too much tax who isn't right you could be heartbroken over taxes
06:30yeah exactly so um yeah no there were so many things maybe i should just post it up on my
06:35insta
06:35at some point i know seriously absolutely i i love how things have popped off for you um you're
06:41you're feeling this newfound fame you've taken it to a new level have you uh have you switched up
06:46the phone number have you moved to a new flat like i feel like you're at that point are people
06:51still
06:51stalking you from your past or did you switch up the number and all that all right i'm gonna answer
06:55this in a couple of things first of all people absolutely stalk me from my past we've got a group
07:00chat called the sin bin oh which is when anybody reaches out okay suddenly decides i exist again
07:08what a coincidence right right they get they get a screenshot and they go straight in the sin bin
07:12and then me and my mom two of my best girl mates and a couple of gays we just sit
07:18in there and cackle
07:18over it basically so beware i love that um absolutely not have i moved on babes there is no money
07:26in what
07:27i'm doing yeah i am still living in my one bed brixton flat i am taking the tube i when
07:33i got to heathrow
07:35yeah yeah i flew in cattle class here by the way like economy yep yep yesterday and when i got
07:40to
07:40heathrow airport yesterday morning i had fans recognizing me in the airport i'm just milling
07:44around with my extensions hanging out i was like oh my god is that me i was like yes babes
07:49come on
07:49let's go to pret i literally was like this is the in between period come say hi to me we
07:55don't have
07:55security exactly oh man i love that i love the realness and would you call it cattle class
08:01cattle class yeah i'm done it is cattle isn't it it really is no one should force human beings to
08:07be wedged that close together that is so did you give yourself a um like a expiration date like if
08:15i get to this age and i'm not i'm not allowed to swear but yeah yeah fuck no so you
08:20were like i'm
08:21committed to this music industry what is it what is an expiration date on a human being exactly all
08:27right here's what here's what i'm thinking right yeah we all have goals right yeah so if if you start
08:34to think your your passion your dream or whatever you're pursuing is starting to impede on some other
08:41goals and we all look i mean time is the enemy right we're not outrunning that i think you get
08:47to
08:47a point where you're like all right i need to pivot because there's other things that i also you know
08:53i maybe want to start a family or whatever it may be you know what i mean so were you
08:59like i'm gonna
09:00pursue this till the day i die and i'm cool with that whatever else i might sacrifice along the way
09:05or were you thinking if i get to this point this age i may need to reconsider i swear to
09:13god
09:14if this wasn't happening now i'd be 85 on the street corner in brixton with an acoustic guitar
09:20and this is my personal thing right because i have never like particularly been somebody that
09:26like was desperate to have kids or yeah and also by the way like i'm not i'm pretty i'm younger
09:31than
09:31charlie xcx so even talking about having kids for me feels really bizarre but like and maybe i'll
09:36change my mind i don't know but this was all i was like literally one of those people that was
09:41born
09:41with a center goal sort of thing like even when i was at like little school i was like singing
09:47in the
09:47toilets and being bullied for it so like this was always the thing for me and i am very much
09:52of the
09:52opinion in everything you do in life that if you have a backup plan you're setting yourself up to fail
09:57you're already accepting what might happen if it maybe doesn't work but i genuinely think if you
10:05refuse to allow the thought that it might not work to even come into your head right it absolutely
10:10will happen yeah absolutely will happen like if you're the in charge of your destiny of your life
10:17of what you do and like if you make yourself a backup you're accepting the backup you know yeah
10:23that's my opinion about i love that and you know i feel like i hope pop gets to the point
10:28because i
10:29remember when with rap where it was you know it was only a young person's game and then you had
10:35people getting older like jay-z and look he's still rapping and it proves that if you're still making
10:41great music age doesn't matter and i feel like pop sometimes you know they they still aren't
10:50you know can i say something you know what i think is funny what is uh i have never ever
10:54had my age
10:55mentioned by anyone that didn't work in the music industry yes not a single fan not anyone at a show
11:02it's it's a it's a thing created by middle-aged white men in the industry to keep women where
11:08they're meant to be like and it's like madonna drop it's not a thing so in a way i kind
11:13of don't
11:14want to talk to you more about it because i feel like continuing to have this conversation
11:18is really allowing it to exist you know like i'm a person i make really good music i'm not 16
11:26who cares that's it the end i love it i love it so you're about to hit this tour right
11:33with kesha
11:34um tell me how that even came about and and if you've connected with her up to this point i
11:41we
11:41haven't talked it's kind of common actually like i'm and she might not even be running her insta
11:46she probably isn't i tend to find that like anyone with over like three million followers
11:50they're not really looking at those dms person yeah yeah um but they just reached out honestly
11:56like tick i used to hate tiktok and now i absolutely love it because it is like open so
12:01many doors for me yeah and and um yeah their team her team just reached out and were like we'd
12:07love
12:07to put me for this thing so um i've heard really great stuff about her and how she works and
12:12um i think
12:13the tour is going to be a lot of fun i'm very excited to meet her and i feel like
12:18she's in line with
12:19kind of what you stand for and how you're presenting yourself in the industry right
12:23yeah definitely i mean she look she's been through it you know and like she's had to fight
12:27battles i think we have that in common and um and not to mention the vast gay audience that she
12:35has
12:35yeah yeah there is gonna be a lot of gay people at those shows for sure which i absolutely love
12:41it's
12:41my favorite crowd um yeah i think we're gonna get on really well and and hopefully it'll be super fun
12:46do you have a favorite kesha song joy rides is has been like literally soundtrack to my last year
12:52i love it so much yeah i like that what's the one with um is it big frida the do
12:59you know the one i'm
12:59talking about sure what's the name of that one does anybody know the big frida well yes raising hell
13:05you have to listen to that one that one that one deserved to be a number one i will say
13:08that so
13:09that's the one i'm gonna put on your i'm gonna put it on in the car when i leave so
13:12um before we wrap
13:13up with with everything you're achieving right now and you're about to go on this tour like how
13:19are you protecting you and and your mental health and just you know staying positive and and healthy
13:26um i would say my band yeah i like my best friends so that's really fun and having them along
13:37for this
13:37journey with me has been super important the two girls that sing with me like one of them i've known
13:41for 13 years um i read a lot i read a lot of smut i love it any like dark
13:49romance novel i've always got
13:50tucked under my arm or in a bag so good um i have had to cut back on drinking which
13:55i am not super
13:56pleased about but i am appreciating the awareness i have without it um and honestly like it's not
14:04weirdly do you know what genuinely i feel like my mental health has improved for all of this i just
14:09feel like completely liberated and happy and proud of myself and like it's really nice people are like
14:16don't forget to stop and enjoy it i'm like what part of this would i not be enjoying i'm in
14:19new york
14:21right right right i just can't under like yeah i feel great and i'm trying that's the that's i would
14:27say the main thing is to not like i've got really bad adhd so when i get over excited i
14:31tend to like drink
14:32too much or like you know go crazy so i'm having to be careful about that but other than that
14:37it's
14:38not even a challenge it's so fun and like meeting all these different people all over the world is
14:43like who does this who ever gets to do this is it is it because is it a part of
14:48it because you feel
14:50like you know your music is finally getting the visibility you knew it it should be getting is that
14:56i think it's less about the music getting visibility i think it's more about it it reaching people that
15:02need to hear things like that you know like oh my like when i was a teenager if i'd had
15:06a song
15:07that was like yeah all of that stuff but i'm fabulous i'm gonna go out and wear whatever i
15:11want yeah you're like that sort of thing like and the dms i've been getting from people are insane
15:16like i frequent i'm a cancer and a cancer rising so like when somebody sends me a really emotional
15:22dm about their life i am literally like snot crying on my couch i cannot cope and that is rewarding
15:29enough like if nothing else ever happened that's incredible it's incredible i put out a record that
15:36has touched someone deeply yeah it's crazy actually i retract i want much more to happen but
15:42listen fate if you're listening scratch that one oh meek you are wonderful you're a great interviewee
15:50thank you so much congratulations on everything thank you for stopping by thanks so much
15:54thank you
15:57you
15:57you
15:57you
15:57you
16:02you
Comments