Nashville-based meg elsier creates sonically volatile and brooding indie rock bristling with vociferous energy. She might only have three singles out right now but she’s got big plans for 2024. But between them, even the trio of releases she’s shared so far embody a depthless dive into the intimately hidden reaches of her mind.
Originally from New England, since she started releasing music, elsier has earned some notoriety amongst fans for staging emotionally intense live shows. An unsurprising outcome given the daunting heft of the music she puts out. But her very first performance went a little differently.
At just 5 years old she was traveling with her father by train when she made the inexplicable decision to start belting out the songs from “Annie.” After receiving a kind compliment from an elderly gentleman on her voice, she felt for the first time the pangs of stage fright.
Since that day all those years ago elsier has clearly overcome whatever anxieties and fears formed in the aftermath of her impromptu musical number. Her debut single “Ifshitfuq” arrived as a guitar grumbling anthem of purging existential and identity crises, wrangling with irreverent vehemence with god in the process.
Two more singles followed not long after — the first came in the form of the hauntingly heavy “Iznotreal” — where a collapse of cacophonous riffs crumble all around elsier’s luminously pained vocals. The music video for the track, directed by Jacqueline Justice, is a visually arresting collage of scenes that depict elsier watching herself perform from within a glass cage wielding a medieval flail.
Then there’s “Baby,” where those familiar shuddering guitars roar in waves alongside elsier’s bittersweet musings on love, ownership, and the cyclical compulsion to destroy what is fragile. “I have the shoulders / Of an older man,” she grumbles. “Who carried his burdens / And he never said anything.”
Words: Steven Ward
Visit meg elsier on their website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Listen to “iznotreal” and “baby” two new singles from meg elsier below!
