For Amelia Meath, life’s darkest moments and its simplest joys are never far apart. As one half of indie electronic duo Sylvan Esso, Meath explores that tension on the band’s latest album, Ow ∞, a return to the experimentation and playfulness that first defined the project. In conversation, Meath reflects on turning grief and uncertainty into music, the creative partnership she shares with bandmate Nick Sanborn, and the ever-evolving experience of bringing old favorites and new songs to the stage. Check out our music coordinator Lindsay’s conversation with her below!
Lindsay
Thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy tour schedule to chat with me.
Amelia
Of course, thanks for having me.
Lindsay
Let’s just dive right into it. So, Sylvan Esso has been around for over a decade now. When you look back at the beginning of the project, what feels most different about Sylvan Esso now?
Amelia
You know, it’s really interesting. I feel like this record, Ow ∞, is kind of a return to what we originally were, which is essentially a weird art project that got more about experimentation and exploration than it is about sales or trying to appeal to an idea of what pop music is. It feels more about adventure and talking about what it is like to be alive in this moment.
Lindsay
That’s great. I know you’ve spoken about how Ow ∞ came out of some pretty difficult experiences, a lot of loss. You’ve mentioned Hurricane Helene, and spoke about North Carolina specifically, and just this larger feeling of anxiety about the state of the world. At what point did you realize those experiences weren’t just influencing one song individually, but becoming the theme of the album?
Amelia
We went about making this record in a very different way than we usually do. Namely, we wanted to create a whole pile of songs and then call from that pile what we were going to choose. Every song just kept on having the same themes. These ideas of a continuation of life and birth out of destruction. I was often really surprised by how biblical it was feeling. There are a lot of times where I talk about being the angel of death, or the idea of growing out of destruction, which I have yet to really get down to the bottom of what it is, but that kept on coming up. So, within [writing] three songs, it was pretty obvious like “oh, this is what’s on my mind right now.”
Lindsay
You mentioned this album felt like a return to those experimental, kind of fun and playful sounds, but as we just spoke about, some heavier themes. How important is it to make sure the album wasn’t just something about grief and fear, but also balancing the light side, the playfulness, with those darker themes?
Amelia
I feel like the only way to actually talk about grief is to also talk about how pedestrian and silly life is, they’re in tandem. That’s one of the hardest parts about grief is that you are in a completely different place, and life is just continuing around you.
Lindsay
Absolutely.
Amelia
That’s the thing that makes you feel so out of place when all of a sudden, the stakes and the feeling of your life are much more severe than the fact that the new episode of “Ted Lasso” is out or something. There is no darkness without the light, and if you exclude the light from darkness, nothing can shine and nothing can be dark enough unless you include the entirety of experience. So, it was pretty easy to keep the silliness in because that’s the thing that makes the darkness feel so strange and real. Unsettling and also comforting at the same time.
Lindsay
Yeah, very well put.
Amelia
Thank you.
Lindsay
One thing I want to talk about, because right now your responses are great and so descriptive, I feel like a lot of the fans can relate to your music because of that. When you’re working on a project or a new song, and I know you’ve been with Nick for so long, is it easier to be more vulnerable with each other or is it still scary to share those feelings? What’s it like during the songwriting process?
Amelia
Oh, at this point, Nick and I kind of function as a two-headed beast, so vulnerability really isn’t that scary anymore. In fact, it’s more of how do we get to the vulnerable place with some restraint involved? How do we make it feel human instead of completely naked and just unbounded? Which is really easy to do with Nick because we’re so used to creating together.
Lindsay
That’s beautiful. I’d love to ask about my favorite song “On & On.” I think that song talks about the indefinite nature of pain, joy, and life, kind of how you mentioned the entire theme of the album. But, I’d love just to know a little bit more about that song and what it was like writing it, and what its place is on the record?
Amelia
Yeah, we wrote that song in one day, actually. With Jenn Wasner, who’s currently playing guitar in Sylvan Essoso, and our dear friend Jake Luppen, who is in the band Hippo Campus. We started with a track that we had recorded several months before with our friends Daniel Aged and TJ Maiani. So, we pulled it up and we’re listening to it, and Jake and Jen started improvising over it, and then the lyrics kind of started sailing out of me, the lyrics and the melody at the same time. Essentially, I’ve always been writing a song about how we continue living, about how life always feels kind of like a circle. The thing that I’m the most excited about, the thing I was reaching towards earlier, is that when you experience a high in your life, there’s a really easy way to attach it to nostalgia. To be like, “I will never get to this place again.”
Lindsay
Totally.
Amelia
But if you’re thinking about quantum reality, it’s the fact that every moment is actually continuing at all times. So, if you experience a high, actually, that becomes part of the sediment of your being, and continues.
(Pauses, then laughs.)
So, yeah, I wanted to talk about that.
Lindsay
That’s incredible. I’d like to know a little bit more about your upcoming tour. I know you’ve been on tour before, but what’s that like? How do you keep the energy up at your shows? After touring for so long, are you excited to play new music? What’s it like playing some of the fan favorites?
Amelia
We are so incredibly lucky that we have a fan base that just consistently keeps on coming back to our shows. I have been on tour for the entirety of my adult life and it is where I feel most comfortable in the world. So, keeping energy up is pretty easy. At the level that we tour at now, my whole day is essentially dedicated to making sure that I have enough energy for the two hours that the show will be. This tour we arranged to basically be a boredom buster. We decided to take as much risk as we possibly could, which is why we put together a live band. Each song, be it a new song or an old song, is a completely new arrangement with these incredible musicians that we put together. The set is freaking energizing as hell. Playing “Dress” from our first record is like a brand new roller coaster of emotion because the arrangement is different. We’re playing it with new people and the song sits in a different place within my being now, particularly because of these new arrangements. So to answer your question, it’s really easy to be on tour. It’s so much fun, and it’s such a joy to get to play with such incredible musicians who, somehow, we have convinced to dedicate weeks of their lives to our music. I’m so grateful.
Lindsay
You guys do so much press when you release new music, so what’s one thing about this album that you wish people would ask you more about, or anything you want to share that you haven’t really been asked about?
Amelia
I don’t know. It’s hard when you’re doing press for a record. Usually, it’s kind of a shadow puppet show. You have someone write a press release, and everyone who’s doing press gets that. You’re sort of saying, “here are all of the things that we were thinking about,” and then everybody reads that and just asks you about what you said. What I always long for is someone to listen to the record and have their own conclusion, and then want to talk about those specific things. The thing that I’m always interested in is hearing other people’s reflections of the music and what stood out to them, what they’re interested in. So I guess what I’m saying is I’m always excited for a question that I haven’t heard. That’s what it is. I want the element of surprise.
Lindsay
There you go. Earlier this year, Sylvan Esso paired up with Gregory Alan Isakov for a cover of “Fade into You,” which is beautiful. I host The Coffee House on ‘ERS and I get to play it all the time. I’d love to know more about that collaboration, how that came about, and what it was like working with him?
Amelia
Well, thank you. I love Gregory so much. My band, Mountain Man, got to open for him I think in like 2008 at Red Rocks and we’ve always been fans of each other. I mean, how can you say no to doing a cover of “Fade into You”? Amazingly, it was actually synced in the movie Practical Magic 2, and Practical Magic is like my favorite IP. I love it so much. I love the first movie and I love the book. I read the book every autumn.
Lindsay
Wait, that’s amazing that you get to be part of that history now.
Amelia
It was incredibly beautiful. The fact that I get to be included in that IP in some way is just so cool and I’m so honored by that.
Lindsay
That’s all my main questions. If you’re down, I have a couple of rapid fire, fun questions to end.
Amelia
Great, let’s do it.
Lindsay
What’s a must-have item on tour that you need with you?
Amelia
Right now, I’m really into the Beauty of Joseon eye masks that look like little clouds. I don’t think they really do anything, but I love getting to wear them and feeling fancy and nice. It makes me feel like I’m taking good care of myself, and that, as you know, is hard to find right now.
Lindsay
That’s how I feel. If I can do my skincare routine, it was a good day.
Amelia
Exactly. Exactly.
Lindsay
Okay, I’d like to know three artists that you’re listening to, that you’re obsessed with, right now.
Amelia
Feeble Little Horse. That new record they put out just f****. It’s so good. The new Tinashe record is really rocking my world. Also, the single “The Nightmare” by Two Shell is giving me a lot of joy.
Lindsay
Go-to snack?
Amelia
If I could find a case of smartfood [popcorn] before they changed the recipe. We’re talking pre-2016 smartfood. It’s the taste of childhood.
Lindsay
What’s your favorite city to perform in?
Amelia
I don’t really have one, but I’ve really been missing New Orleans. I love to play in New Orleans. It’s so good.
Lindsay
Well, that’s all from me. Thank you so much for your time today.
Amelia
Thank you so much Lindsay. Thank you for your thoughtful questions.
Best of luck on tour, I know we have some ‘ERS staff members attending and they are very excited.
Amelia
That’s amazing, thank you!
