Hanging out with musician and lyricist Merykid as he releases his newest work

With the release of his new album Exit Music, musician and songwriter Merykid has made waves in the industry with his heartfelt lyrics and storytelling through song. Growing up in a Lebanese community and singing Arabic hymns in church, the artist bought his first acoustic guitar at the age of fifteen and that was all it took; he was hooked. Now, today, he’s writing songs through the pandemic and releasing new music regularly to inspire fans around the world. His most recent collection revolves around his experiences with chronic illness, namely autoimmune disease, and shows those of us listening how he sees and experiences the world.

The first song that Merykid wrote was called “Wake up Call” in 2004. He was the bassist in a successful instrumental jam band touring regionally at the time, and suggested to his bandmates that they “add in some vocals.” “When the idea wasn’t well received well, I ultimately decided to go solo,” the artist says, “and Wake up Call was the song that kicked off my career as a songwriter – people still ask me about that song to this day.” And there it was; Merykid was born. He broke off from his instrumental group and began to write and compose music that he believed in and performed it for anyone who would listen. With role models like Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, and Bob Dylan, Merykid was well on his way to becoming a household name in the industry, and has always had a reverence for “any artist that could bring power out of an acoustic instrument.”

This love of everything raw and acoustic can be heard in his songs and lyrics, and Merykid says that his song writing is “one hundred percent reflective of [his] personal experiences.” He claims that he’s not here to make music that intends to sell people products, but that writing songs is his means of escapism, his “favorite coping mechanism,” and his favorite way to process whatever he’s dealing with at the time. In the same way, he hopes that his songs can offer his listeners solace from their stressors, too. “I hope they find an escape for half an hour,” he tells Rival editors,” and I hope they tune in to some random guy’s thoughts and visualize the moments I write about – lying in bed, pacing around my room in the dark, seeing the sunrise when I haven’t slept. And I hope it takes them out of their pain for a moment. Let me bear the weight of their pain for a few minutes.”

Similarly, Merykid’s ability to tour the world with his music helps him to live the lifestyle that keeps him healthy and takes away his pain for a moment, too. “The best part about touring is definitely the romanticism of never having to be in one place for very long,” he says, “and there’s a real energy to the nomadic lifestyle.”

When asked what he felt like when his album was released on Apple Music, Merykid wisely says:

“I’m old enough to remember making my own cassettes. Then it was CDs. Then sharing MySpace songs. Facebook Music existed for a while. Garageband. Purevolume. Bandcamp. iTunes. So many different ways to share music come and go. Apple Music will be around for a while, and then the next thing will come around. I’m not attached to any of it.”

His theme of not being attached to Earthly pleasures and items follows him through his art and music. Merykid is an old soul, with the wonderings of a mind that has been forced into solitude and confinement as a means to survive; a means to an end. Just recently the artist was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease, and the pain of that experience bleeds over into his lyrics. “Music was the only way I knew how to express my deeper emotions,” he says, “like sadness, pain, isolation, and vulnerability. It just became a natural form of expression for the effects of being sick.” So many of his earlier songs, he claims, were written as he dealt with being alone. His newest album, Exit Music, deals with many of these topics of isolation and chronic, physical illness, and the artist says that the process of writing the music in the album and releasing it is a part of the creative process that helps him heal:

“When times are really tough, the saying goes, ‘at least you have your health.’ So what happens when you don’t have that? Life gets really tricky. Constantly being sick is a drain – slowly pulling away your full capacity to exist. Waking up is harder to do. Motivation is constantly being challenged by the gravity of your body. It can seem hopeless to try and fight it. But neurologically, the part of our brain that creates things is what removes us from that anxiety-riddled existence. We can’t be worried about our future if we are in the moment creating, writing, dancing, painting. Creativity is the only escape a lot of people have – those of us chained to our earthly bodies have to find our peace in the worlds we create. Music is the thing I needed to keep moving.”

So many people get to know Merykid through his lyrics, and his deep and uncensored emotion is what draws so many to his unique sound. One of the more popular songs on the album, 2019AD, continually features a woman repeating the phrase, “do you see it? It’s so close.” Merykid says that this repeated phrase sets the tone for the false expectations that he, and most people, have in life. “A big house, kids in the yard, a partner saying ‘we did this’,” Merykid says, “the journey for me while writing the album was coming to terms with the fact that those things may never come to fruition. But I still had to face the world.”

Of course, this theme of “facing the world” is one that we’re all living today in 2020 as the global COVID-19 pandemic ravages the planet. Another lyric in his music that we thought stood out was this:

“It would seem that staying alive in 2019 is the American Dream.”

Merykid is very vocal about the dark and sinister tones behind the idea of the “American Dream,” and especially in today’s climate of police brutality and global disease we have all seen just how dangerous ignorance and passiveness can be. When asked what made him write that lyric, what inspired it a year before global catastrophe, Merkid says that it reminds him of another line he wrote: “the world is scary, but so am I.” “This is the mantra I use to keep myself moving during uncertain times,” he says, “and no one is going to deny the world is tough, that bad things happen, and that life is unfair. But we are strong, incredibly strong, immeasurably strong, and we ae stronger than these fears and challenges.

“Once you figure that out, nothing can beat you – and that’s when life gets really fun.”

Interestingly enough, we have all been thrown into the reality that Merykid himself was thrown into a year ago. When he was first diagnosed, he spent a lot of time “experimenting with different medications and dealing with the effects through isolation.” He’s adapted to this way of life, and he’s practiced how to be alone and how to create in the darkness. If there’s anything we can take from Merykid’s journey, it’s that no matter how physically alone we feel, we are never truly alone in our spirits.

“I look forward to seeing how the world grows from this experience,” he says, “and what we still cherish when we feel normal again.”

Favorites

1. What is your favorite new album (other than your own) at the moment?

The most current album that really has my attention is Circles by Mac Miller. I’m still trying to unpack the story that it tells when listened to alongside Swimming. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking collection of music.

2. Who is your favorite musician?

Chris Thile, without question. If anyone is wondering why, just listen to anything he’s ever done – from the first notes of Nickel Creek’s self-titled album to his current stint as the host of “Live from Here.” He’s on a different planet than anyone else, musically.

3. What is your favorite way to end a long day of recording?

My favorite way to end is always through reflection, prayer, and appreciation – I’ve lived a life without music, and I don’t want to take the gift for granted.

4. Favorite in-studio snack?

French fries.

5. Who is your favorite song-writer today?

Chris Thile, again. But also, I’ve been listening to this woman named Phoebe Bridgers, who I simply love.

INTERVIEW BY: ASHLEY DAWSON https://www.instagram.com/lapin_studios/

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MERYKID and HIS MUSIC CHECK OUT THE LINKS BELOW

https://open.spotify.com/artist/35ZbuhezQwkMXfL5htA7ql

https://www.instagram.com/merykid/

Staying Alive in 2020 is the New American Dream: Hanging out with musician and lyricist Merykid

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