Fast emerging as a country-pop artist to watch, Sam McMeekin’s music transcends the parameters of a quintessential country sound.
This is starkly apparent in her most recent EP release Amelioration, which arrived Friday January 9th, a 10-track story that pieces together the mending of her last 18 months, as well as the depth and diversity in her musicality.
Hailing from southern lutruwita/Tasmania, McMeekin’s parents heavily influenced her interest in country music, a genre not particularly in vogue at the time.
However, her devotion to the style and the subsequent catharsis and expression she has found in making music that draws on her early exposure to the genre, not only speaks to the current growing interest in country, but honours her lifelong engagement with it.
And yet despite her young age, it’s evident through her first seven-track EP Tempest, and the upcoming Amelioration that McMeekin was destined to add to the already talented stocks of country and indie-pop artists alike.
I spoke with McMeekin as she sits on the threshold of her first Australian headline tour, taking to Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane after an EP launch in Hobart in celebration of the release of Amelioration.
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“With all of my shows thus far, I’ve always been the support act,” says McMeekin. “Which is one of my favourite parts of the job. That's one of the most incredible ways to learn my craft off the most incredible people that I've had the opportunity of supporting.
“You go into a show knowing that most likely no one's going to listen to you, and you're fine with that. So, you get to test what works and what doesn't without an intense amount of attention on you. But you still get some beautiful people listening to your music, which is an incredible feeling when that happens.”
And despite all the newness that awaits McMeekin stepping into the new year, she’s just as excited to provide a platform for the acts supporting her to showcase their music as she is to play her own.
“I spent a lot of time looking around at some artists that I've respected for a while,” she states. “Having a look to see if there were any hidden gems that I'd love to work with and I'm so excited to play with these people.”
This excitement stretches from the opportunities McMeekin has been graced with in supporting musical royalty in Paul Dempsey, Bernard Fanning, and Morgan Evans.
“I think it's such an incredible thing to be able to say I've opened for Paul Dempsey, Bernard Fanning and Morgan Evans at the biggest theatre in my hometown,” she gushes. “That's just something that I'm so grateful for, and I think that's one of the most incredible things an act can do.
“It's such an honour to be a support act and that's why I don't think I'll ever get sick of being that person on the stage first.
“And yet on the flip side of it, it's so lovely when someone is excited to get that e-mail that I'd like to have them with me,” she adds. “And that makes me so happy just to know that they're excited to share the stage with me. Ultimately it works both ways.”
But performing is more than just sharing music on stage, for McMeekin it’s an opportunity to surrender to vulnerability, all the while honouring the raw process of songwriting.
“Performing and sharing music is a really vulnerable thing,” acknowledges McMeekin. “I think this EP [Amelioration] has definitely been the most truthful I've ever been in my writing in a lot of ways, and a lot of these songs were really difficult to write and some of them just fell out because they needed to be said.
“It's a really scary thing to strip a song back down to just words, melody and an instrument once you've glittered it up and put all this incredible production onto it. But, simultaneously playing it to these crowds will be such a beautiful thing, and I think it will be received so well.
“For such an intimidating thing, it's going to be really beautiful, and I'm quite excited to do that, as terrifying as it might be.”
McMeekin holds the duality of authenticity and conviction in sharing as well as the understanding of the consequences that come with vulnerability so gracefully in her music and being. It’s one of the reasons why Amelioration acts as such a breakthrough release for the artist.
“Amelioration followed the fallout of the actions that made Tempest and what that EP was about,” she says. “So being able to put all of my favourite parts of the music I ingest into a broader piece of work felt great. Amelioration feels like a full circle, culminative piece that I'm really proud of.
“The first two songs I wrote for the EP came through massive changes in my life and I think there were a lot of things that I was too scared to say to myself, but writing songs like Gone and LA were the first moments I'd ever admitted certain things to myself.
“That created a tsunami of changes in my life and for the better, amelioration, but it really was a process I had never had with writing before. I had to navigate the conflicting outcomes of people are going to hear this and think ‘what’s this about,’ but this is also work I'm really proud of. I'm really proud that I took the step to put them into the world.”
It is in this emergence that McMeekin is set to connect with audiences around the country on her impending tour, a run of shows well worth attending to catch a glimpse of this talented Tasmanian songwriter putting her own spin on a style of music with such deep roots.
Sam McMeekin’s Amelioration is out now. Tickets to her upcoming tour dates are on sale now.
Sam McMeekin – The Amelioration Tour
Wednesday, February 11th – Brunsick Artists Bar, Melbourne, VIC
Thursday, February 12th – Lazy Thinking, Sydney, NSW
Friday, February 13th – Season Three, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday, March 7th – Good Gumnuts Festival, Burnie, TAS
Saturday, March 14th – ECHO Festival, Swansea, TAS
Sunday, March 15th – Bass In The Domain, Hobart, TAS
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
