Named after Southern Gothic novelist Flannery OâConnorâs book Wise Blood, Weyes Blood (aka Los Angeles musician Natalie Mering) plays anti-Americana that feels all too appropriate in this age of uncertainty.
âLand of Broken Dreams,â the opening track of Meringâs 2014 record The Innocents, is a perfect introduction to her brand of doomsday folk. âMy family, my country, and my school have all left me dry,â she sings, âTo wonder why we are just born to buy then die/And change nothing.â As Weyes Blood, Mering writes songs about resisting the urge to self-sedate when youâre constantly âput through the failure of some manâs world.â
This theme is fleshed out on last yearâs bewitching Front Row Seat to Earth. The entire album reflects the theatrical nature of observing our world collapseâitâs like bringing camping chairs to watch monolithic glaciers crumble and crash into the sea.
âItâs kind of referencing our perception,â Mering says, âhow we perceive the world around us, and how that might be the biggest flaw in human sufferingâour perception being somewhat limited in understanding the magnanimity and the full scope of existence. Being a first world country, technically, weâre kind of the first row to witnessing whatâs happening on a global scale. But at the same time, we end up witnessing whatâs happening around us like theater because itâs so colossal, itâs so big and beyond our control.â
Mering thinks this is exacerbated since weâre so often âwitnessing the world through a screen,â completely detached from physical reality. With smart phones, tablets, and talking watches, weâre able to learn more about the world beyond our own lives, but weâre also given the ability to distract ourselves from societyâs ills whenever we get scared, angry, or complacent.
âItâs been easier for people to detach, the way consumerism has played out and the way the pursuit of happiness is viewed as the be-all, end-all on an individualistic level,â she says. âI donât think itâs any fault of our ownâI think things got so bad and weird that people just wanted to go inward and do things for themselves and escape the chaos of being involved in society.â
This cycle of self-sedation is explored on âGeneration Why,â the centerpiece of Front Row Seat to Earth. Itâs an electro-folk hymn about checking your phone before âthe end of days,â because âYOLO,â right? In the chorus, Mering sings each letter of that acronym with softly thundering vibrato against the inviting twinkle of phone notifications, a gently winding acoustic guitar melody, and a choir of her own processed vocals.
âGeneration Whyâ sounds like it could be an Enya song, if Enya read a lot of dystopian science fiction or watched Contact too many times. Meringâs voice bears an undeniable resemblance to that of the Irish musician, but she doesnât mind the comparison. Considering Enyaâs reign in the â90s, Mering says, âHere was this new-age lady playing synthesizer music in churches and recording these huge, lush, pastoral records, and the whole world was just stunned. I know a lot of people think sheâs cheesy or associate her with [their] parents... But I think sheâs a really deep, feminine presenceâkind of like Madonna, but just like the other side of the coin.â
With Front Row Seat to Earth, Mering is an alchemist delicately balancing classical elements and spacy electronic production. It sounds both ancient and alien, a time capsule of medieval folk from light years away.
âFor this record I tried to stay true to the song itself but add more ethereal and also electronic elements, like using my voice through an electronic device to layer it in a synthesizer way,â she says. âKind of accessing the most modern sensibilities with the oldest sensibilitiesâfolk-style piano, organ base, then a little extra something on top. It wouldâve been cool to have live strings, but we were also limited in this beautiful way in this really tiny garage studio with what sounds we could create.â
Not all of the tracks on Front Row Seat are preoccupied with global collapse and decay. Mering says that âSeven Wordsâ (the albumâs standout) is about âbeing a specific creature that might need to break free and no longer be held back in a domestic-type situation.â Put simply, itâs a breakup song, one that sounds like it time-traveled half a century to reach our ears. Golden organ tones evoke â70s California folk, while gorgeous guitar riffs melt into the sunset of the songâs bittersweet farewell. Again Mering channels Enya, this time as she bravely repeats the mantra, âNow I face tomorrow.â
Weyes Bloodâs music videos typically play out like fucked-up fairytalesâvisual narratives that bring even more theatricality to the songs of Front Row Seat. In the video for the Judy Collins-esque number âUsed to Be,â Mering traipses around the desolate Salton Sea in an aqua pantsuit. In âSeven Words,â sheâs a mermaid secretly living on land whoâs kidnapped, force-fed raw squid by her captor, thrown back into the sea, beached again, and used for selfies before she kisses her love goodbye and dives back into the Southern Californian surf. For the shoot, Mering sported a custom mermaid tail, which she says made swimming quite the challenge.
âIt was so dangerous!â she laughs. âOh, the tail would get caught in the rip currents and it would get ripped off my feet, so I could no longer control it. Iâd just be in the water restricted, getting dragged around by this fin like a boat.â
After seven years of moving around, Mering recently settled down with her new piano in LAâs Echo Park neighborhood. When she isnât making music as Weyes Blood, she collaborates with her musical friends, like weirdo pop veteran Ariel Pink. Together they just released a bizarre but great new EP, Myths 002. Its opening track, âTears on Fire,â is something I can only describe as renaissance metal.
Meanwhile, Front Row Seat to Earth closes with an orchestra of chaos: the disquieting trill of strings, opera singing, fluttering pianos, a womanâs bloodcurdling scream, and finally, rapturous horns, before the theaterâs red velvet curtain rushes to obscure our uncertain fate. As Weyes Blood, Mering doesnât offer any clear answers about what we should do right now, other than continue to wake up and face tomorrow.