INTERVIEW: mehro

Sep 11

Only a year after the release of their third studio album, Trauma Lullabies, singer-songwriter mehro released their new album, weirdthrob in conjunction with the start of their 2025 US tour. Weirdthrob is an eclectic mix of raw feelings and unique sounds that help cement mehro as an artist to look out for. After a successful run opening for half•alive, they went back on tour as a headliner a few short days before the release of Weirdthrob. Noisescape Magazine had the opportunity to sit down with mehro before the start of their tour to discuss the creative process, past touring experiences, and more.

You’re about to release your fourth album, weirdthrob. Talk to me about the creative process while making it.

I wish that there was more of a process. There wasn’t one, really. Except, you know, just letting songs come out of me and being surprised by them. Like “really? This is what I want to express? This is what wants to be said? Okay.” The subconscious mind knows so much more than we do, so the process was out of my hands.

Sonically, the songs on the album are very different from each other. Did you write them with the intention of putting them all on the same album or was the album put together after the songs were already written?

It’s sort of like a garden, and you have all these little fruits that come from the trees and come from the ground and then you pick the fruits and put them in a little basket and then you look at the basket and you go “well, I guess that’s kind of an interesting basket.” That’s how weirdthrob revealed itself. It’s like you keep putting the fertilizer here and watering this bush and watering that tree over there and what you get is this collection of your experiences over time expressed in a way that is somewhat cohesive.

You’ve released four singles from weirdthrob so far. How did you choose which songs to release as singles and which ones to save for the full album release?

Some of it was just due to timing. I put us all on a tight racetrack to finish the album because I wanted to tour in September and November, following opening for half•alive and the album wasn’t even done yet, so we just chose the songs that made sense to put out.

The new album is coming out over a week after the start of the tour. What made you decide to start the tour before the album was released?

The album was made because I knew it wanted to be expressed and I wanted to follow up with all the work that we’ve been doing with touring to see if I could build this business as an independent musician. And I love the date September 9th, 2025 because it’s 9, 9, and 2025 which, added up, 2 plus 2 plus 5 is 9. It’s this angel number situation, 999 and I would’ve loved for the tour to have been pushed back later, but these are the dates that I was given.

There’s a song on weirdthrob right before the final song that’s purely instrumental called “Dead Internet.” Can you explain how the track came to be and why you chose to put it at the very end of the album?

I was pretty tired of my own voice and I would much rather hear a 600 year old cello than me. It was played by the guy who did the opening theme of Game of Thrones (Cameron Stone).

Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Beethoven recently. I’ve been loving Steve Lacy recently. I’ve been listening to a lot of Berlioz. But, you know, in terms of influences, I love Radiohead. Honestly, Billie Eilish, I think is fucking insane. Clairo’s insane. Fleetwood Mac.

When describing the creation of your most recent single “Sepia Tones,” you said “I experienced something necromantic.” Can you explain more what you meant by that?

The reason why it was necromantic was because I was playing an Elliot Smith tribute show on his birthday in 2025. I was out there and I was playing the guitar of one of the sound engineers for New Monkey Studios, which was the studio Elliot built. And look, when I’m saying I’m experiencing something necromantic from Eilliot, I truly do believe that. I know that in an Elliot Smith song, he would have used seven times more chords, his chord structures- his chord progressions are remarkable and unpredictable and fun, but that was the experience. Being in that alley, surrounded by people who were celebrating the life of a tortured human being. That was what happened and I don’t think I would’ve been able to write that song if I wasn’t at that show, so I felt his presence after the fact. It wasn’t a conscious thing, but after this, I was like “oh, shit, what the fuck?” Could I be just some indulgent person taking themselves too seriously? Maybe, but that’s how I genuinely felt when the song was being written.

What was it like creating the setlist for the tour? Were there any songs you really wanted to include that had to be cut for time?

So many. I was agonizing because there’s so many songs that I want to play. I want to make everyone happy. I want to play all the songs. That’s just not possible. So I’m looking to give people an awesome show. We’ll learn over the course of the tour how it goes.

You only recently finished opening for half•alive on their world tour. How did that experience compare to your past solo tours?

half•alive fans are lovers of music. A lot of shows that you can go to now, fans are going to be seen. I don’t need to say what artist that is, but it’s nothing against the artists; it’s because the artists are popular. It’s because the artists are mainstream. It has nothing to do with the artists, it’s the fact that that’s the type of fan that would go to a show to be seen. half•alive had zero of that. They’re just people that love the band and love the music. That’s an incredible thing to witness. I guess ideally, in a show it’s both a room full of people that love the music and want to be seen. The only show I can think of in recent memory [with that kind of crowd] was Cigarettes After Sex; it’s kind of like the epitome of that. They’re so cool. I love Half Alive. I love being on tour with them. I love playing for their fans. That experience was an 11 out of 10 and I’m so grateful to them and their team for inviting me. I cherish that forever.

Do you have any special memories from your past tours whether it be your first tour or this most recent tour with half•alive?

So many. I have so many priceless experiences, whether that’s almost passing out on stage in Europe multiple times because they don’t have A.C. in a lot of the venues, being on the trains traveling from city to city, meeting these fascinating individuals, learning more about the people in this country. I mean, there’s just too many. I will say, in Amsterdam we were playing a show and I felt like Jack Black in School of Rock and that was a pretty badass, amazing, priceless feeling to have. It was amazing.

Your song, “Reason To Live” from your last album, was featured in an episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty. The music from that show often garners as much attention if not more than the actual plot, do you feel that your song being on it has helped bolster your career in any way?

I hope so. It was on for such a short amount of time, it was almost hilarious. I didn’t mind. To be on a playlist at all with all those names that are on there, you could put me in for half a second and I’m just happy to be there. It’s sort of like getting invited to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcie’s wedding, but you’re in the back table. Put me next to the aunt in law and the annoying cousin. Fine, whatever, I don’t care. I don’t even need food. But has it bolstered my career? I haven’t noticed. I don’t pay attention to that. I pay attention to the words that people write in the comments. I’m paying less attention to statistical analysis because I find it sort of meaningless to a degree or purposeless.

If you had to play one of your songs to introduce someone to your music, which one would you pick?

Oh, that’s tough. I guess I would say… As an introduction… I’ll say “Pirate Song” because it’s a little bit of everything. It’s soft, it’s dark, it’s loud, it’s bright. I’ll say “Pirate Song.”