Anthology

MEIKO (pronounced MEE-ko), is an American singer/songwriter, born and raised in Roberta, Georgia and currently residing in Los Angeles, California. Her songs have been featured on shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Hills” and “90210.”

• Meiko learned to play guitar from her Dad and got her break singing at Little League baseball parks.
• She learned to sing by sticking her head into the family’s clothes dryer. “Great acoustics,” she said.
• She is one quarter Japanese on her maternal grandmother’s side.

Sound Observations From Meiko

by David Moye

The July 16 show at Anthology is a big deal for up-and-coming singer/ songwriter Meiko.

She’s already had a taste of fame thanks to her songs being on “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Hills” and “90210” as well as guest appearances on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” and her acclaimed solo debut, appropriately titled “Meiko.”

But now she’s getting ready to work on her second record and while all the songs are written, she will test some of her new compositions to see if they pass muster.

“Performing a song live for the first time can be a lot like going on a first date,” she admits. “It’s weird. You realize whether you like the song or not. Sometimes, after I perform a song, I might not ever play it again. And it doesn’t matter how the crowd responds, it’s how I feel.”

But what about if the crowd absolutely loves a song that you don’t feel so hot about, Meiko? Huh? What do you do then? Huh?

“OK, if I don’t really like a song, but it’s a real crowd pleaser, I might put it on the CD as a ‘secret song,’” she laughs.

For Meiko, songwriting is a matter of striking the right to inspiration.

“I do my best work in the middle of the night. I will usually come up with a cool chord progression and fill in the words. Or I will sing a song all day and then, when I get home, try to find the right music for it.

“The title comes last for me, but one thing I don’t do is name the song after the first two words in the song. Someone once told me that annoys them, so I try not to do it.”

Music has been somewhat of a family affair for Meiko ever since she was a young girl in Roberta, Georgia.

“I grew up watching my Dad play and I was impressed with how he did it,” she says. “So I went to him and said, ‘Teach me a chord,’ and I’d practice it all night long and come back and show him.

“That’s when it clicked and he started showing me songs. He was into a lot of classic rock like the Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker Band, but he also liked the Beatles.

“It’s funny. I share a birthday with George Harrison and my older sister shares a birthday with Paul McCartney so I think my Dad was trying to create his own Beatles.”

Although Meiko has respect for southern rock, it has its limits, such as when the subject of “Freebird” comes up.

“At every show, someone yells ‘Freebird!’ and it’s the most annoying thing ever,” she laughs. “I know they’re trying to be funny, but they don’t realize I hear it every show. My band and I used to do ‘Super Freak’ in concert. That’s fun because everyone gets to do a solo.”