U.S. Girls

Turning 40 and marking a decade since her breakout with 4AD, the creative force behind U.S. Girls is reflecting on the road so far (and the uncertain ones opening in front of her).

With a fresh album (Scratch It), recent work as a composer and author, and a fierce commitment to saying yes to the unknown, Remy continues to evolve while keeping her vision sacred.

Remy sat down to talk to us about how she’s navigated a shifting industry, the importance of putting imposter syndrome to bed, and the sacred nature of protecting one’s creative vision.

Analogue: Ten years have passed since that first release on 4AD. Are you commemorating anything there? Any personal reflection on your part?

Meg Remy: Definitely. I turned 40 in July as well, so lots of thoughts, but I’m reflecting back on all I've done in 10 years and how grateful I am to be working with 4AD. I feel like I work at one of the last labels with vision, one of the last labels that hire artists and let them grow, let them evolve, and see what happens. They really did that with me.

I think they took a chance on me and thought, ‘This person's interesting. Let’s see what they do.’ [Laughs] It’s finally landing on me that I have a career, and it's been a pretty amazing one. I’ve worked hard but I've also had some luck, and I'm grateful for my position, especially since it's just such a precarious time in the music industry.

Analogue: Even as you said that, you kind of laughed. What were you picturing in the beginning?

Meg: I mean, I started this project when I was 20 years old in 2007. You know, I wasn't picturing anything. Even working with 4AD, once I signed with them, I think the record I put out with them was my fifth album. So I had been making music for quite some time, had toured the world already, but I had no idea what working with them would bring. I had no expectations.

I didn't really know many people who were making a living from music. I never thought that would happen for me. It just didn't cross my mind. So I think more than anything, at the beginning of starting to work with them, I wanted to do right for them, you know? I wanted to work hard and try to present them with the best material that I could.

Analogue: There's this new author side that's emerged in the last five years, and you’ve had some composition work. Then obviously there's U.S. Girls. With all these different creative outlets that you could be pursuing, can you talk to me about the way the new album, Scratch It, emerges within that? How do you know it's time for that?

Meg: With writing a book, a publisher just reached out to me and said, ‘Oh, you came up in an editorial meeting. Would you ever want to write something?’ And it was like, ‘Yeah, I would.’ I’d been reading and taking my own notes on things for forever without knowing why. Then it’s happening, and I was having a bit of imposter syndrome. ‘Well, I'm not a writer per se,’ you know? But I never want to turn down an opportunity, right? Because just fake it till you make it. And that was how it was with the book.

I think that happened with this album, with me going to Nashville to make a record. I never would have come up with that on my own, you know? It presented itself. It was like, ‘I should just do this, because this may not come around again. This opportunity, I should just grab it and see what comes of it.’ Just kind of no fear.

The same thing happened with the film, just someone approaching me and asking, ‘Would you ever want to score a film?’ And it's like, ‘Yeah, but I'm not a composer.’ I think being able to do these things comes with just age, but it’s also how I've operated my whole life. It’s kind of trying, and even if there is fear, ignoring it and just jumping in.

Analogue: Wow. So have you always been able to say yes to that? Because I feel like most people, they feel the fear, then say no.

Meg: Yeah, I don't turn things down. And that’s been interesting working with my manager, who’s from L.A. She's very steeped in the industry. Sometimes she comes at me with things that I'm like, ‘Oh my God, really? You want me to do this?’ She's always encouraged me. She's like, ‘Let's find a way to make it so you like it. Let's not say no to an opportunity. How do we adapt it to you?’

That doesn't mean just doing anything. You know what I mean? It's not like I'm for sale. It's not like that. It’s just in this industry that is so precarious, I can't be turning work down, even if my imposter alarm is going off like crazy. I have to shut that off and just be like, ‘I've got a family to feed, so I need to do this.’

Analogue: Scratch It is the new album. Bless This Mess, though, was just a couple of years ago. Heavy Light, a couple of years before that. You've been steadily moving forward with U.S. Girls, even as you've had these other creative projects. So does this one lead the way? Like, are you always going to make the time for the songs first? Is that the priority?

Meg: I think it’s because that's the main medium I work in. I think it kind of comes first, but I'm equally as devoted to my reading and writing and to my family. But the music thing, this is my job. I also like to put out records. I like to switch it up. I like having new songs to play. [Laughs] So I'm not having to play the same songs for three years straight. You know what I mean?

There's always new tunes coming. So I'm lucky that I have a record deal and I have advances.I can make records, and I take my job seriously. So it's like I'm putting a record out every two years because that's what I do.

Analogue; Well, you say that like it's so matter of fact, but the truth is other people would talk about the muse and say the songs aren’t there and it takes more time.

Meg: I'm the muse. [Laughs] I don't know. I mean, life is the muse. I find if I'm present to my life, warts and all, the muse is there. Although I need to make money and I want to make money, as much as possible, it’s important not to think about money.

Buckminster Fuller very famously had this theory that if you don't think about money and you don't put any emphasis on it, it just will show up. Maybe you don't have a lot, but you have what you need. And then it allows you to be free to pursue what you really want to pursue.

That has been my mode. I live, my family and I, we live very frugally, and so therefore, I can explore. I don't have debt. I don't own property. I don't have a mortgage. The muse can get stifled by commercial concerns. So as much as possible, I try to just put that in the back and be present to life and experience.

I also consume a lot of books and movies, and my husband's a really avid record collector. So I'm always hearing new music. And I'm deeply engaged in therapy in my own life. And being a parent is so rich that I just, there's always something coming up for me. And I've always kept journals. I'm a big journal keeper. I've done that my whole life since I've been able to print, basically. And I think that also just keeps the muse quite at hand.

Analogue: I just have to ask about “Like James Said”, because not only is it a great track, but it feels like the perfect way to lead things out. Because even there, you're even saying, ‘Hey, give me my space to do this!’

Meg: Yeah, that song was not arranged until we were in the studio that day. That was one of those songs that just was not presenting itself. We all sat around before and discussed it, and then kind of went in and started messing around with things. And Dylan brought out those chords, those first chords the song starts with. He’s like, ‘I've had these chords for a while for something.’ From there, everything clicked into place. We knew what the song was going to be, and instantly everyone was like, ‘This has to be the first song!’

So every sequence everyone made, because we were all messing around with sequences when it was time to put the record in order, always had that song first. We knew that was a kind of anchor to start.

Analogue: I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it feels like the treatise for the whole thing. You're saying: ‘This choreography is only for me.’ That feels like a banner you could put over the whole project. Does that feel true to you?

Meg: I never thought about that, but yeah, I really like that interpretation. I think it's pretty right on. You know, this is my project. I work with a lot of people. People come and go. But at the end of the day, it's on me. It’s my choices and what I want to do. That’s really sacred to me.

Analogue: I love that use of the word sacred. Has that always been applicable for you? Or is that something you felt more recently?

Meg: It's always been applicable, but I know it now, and I really fight for it, you know?

Analogue: Maybe you weren't willing to fight early on?

Meg: No. I think I did things to just—I made silly decisions sometimes because I wanted to avoid conflict. But really, music in general is sacred to me. This project, it's my body of work. It's the thing I've spent the most time on in my life thus far. I've been doing it for 17 years, and I’ve put quite a lot of effort into it, so it needs to be a certain way. It's a very collaborative situation as well, obviously, but at the end, it's my ass on the line.

VISIT: U.S. Girls

Photo: Colin Medley