The Nashville artist is preparing to release the deluxe of her breakout album.

Meg Elsier. What else do I have to say?

The Nashville indie artist recently visited Durham’s The Pinhook for a stop on the June Gloom Tour alongside the enigmatic Liz Cooper. This landmark show came just a week before the one-year anniversary of Meg’s debut album, spittake.

Now, she is preparing to release the deluxe of the record that changed her life. “It feels weird to add more,” she says. “I’m super proud of the album as it is, but I want people to see my mistakes and still be OK with it. I’m excited to show the dirt.”

Meg recently released the lead single from this new batch of tracks entitled “sportscar [scrapped].” This has always been her favorite song to perform live but it was discarded because of conflicts with the rest of the album. “We revisited it and brought different influences,” she says. The Durham audience was teased with a performance of “cheater,” an unreleased track that is poised to appear on a later release. However, she assures that the deluxe will contain plenty of special surprises including a brand-new song, several unheard demos, and a secret cover.

Photos by Ziggy Pineda (@ziggypineda)

The visuals for “sportscar [scrapped]” took a different direction from the signature futurism that Meg Elsier has become known for. The set design evokes a sense of Southern nostalgia from the old-fashioned wallpaper to a band member performing in a rocking chair. Meg assures that the influence was unintentional and likely stems from the Nashville scenesters who worked on the video. “It’s the displaced nostalgia from completely different lives that bleeds through,” she says.

One distinct influence of Meg’s is fashion as she is best known for her offbeat outfits. “They’re super inspired by theatre and cartoons,” she says. “Those characters will be in one outfit for the entire series. It’s such a statement and I love playing with that.” She explains that her love for wacky clothes comes from her roles in theatre when she was younger. “I love fashion so much, but I love costumes even more.”

Meg was notably flustered but unapologetic after passing a downtown wedding enroute to the interview while sporting shorts that read “PERVERT” on the back.

Photos by Ziggy Pineda (@ziggypineda)

The influence of theatre on Meg Elsier does not stop at fashion. There is a recurring theme of performance in her visuals which can be attributed to her love of the big stage. The video for “sportscar [scrapped]” is an actual live performance whereas “LA” features her on a theatric stage in an angel costume and “forlyleinsanfrancisco” feels like a karaoke night with friends. “My grandma used to buy us Broadway tickets for Christmas every year. I saw The Lion King and there was a kid my age singing on stage. I love that,” she says.

When asked about her favorite plays she mentioned having seen Vanya last year. She also considers herself a massive fan of musicals Evita and Spring Awakening.

Perhaps one of the most entertaining qualities of Meg Elsier is her tendency to become a contortionist at any given moment (notice her pretzel-like position in her Spotify profile picture). “I am not flexible at all,” she admits. “My best friend is Jacq Justice who directed all of my music videos. We love to be freaks in public and do really weird things, so I’m constantly crawling around and being weird.”

When asked if she had any favorite crazy celebrity poses, she looked to Willem Defoe as one of the greatest to ever do it. “The one where he has his legs fully spread with his arms back has to be the best,” she says. She also cites early 2000s models as a huge inspiration for their “sucked in, hunched over, cawing poses.”

I would like to personally add the poses of Lin Manuel Miranda to the mix.

Photos by Ziggy Pineda (@ziggypineda)

If there is anything to remember about Meg Elsier, it’s that she is radically unashamed. She sits somewhere between an unapologetic maximalist and a care-free minimalist. “It’s just authentic. It’s whatever genuinely fits you. Sometimes I dress lowkey for performances and wear the most over the top shit to the bar,” she says.

This idea extends to her artistry as well. Her song titles are jumbled together with no spaces in between and strange spellings all around. One look at her social media profiles will tell a story of absurd fonts and entertaining typing quirks. “My friends don’t like it, but it demands attention and is really annoying.” I love that.

Spittake is an album that perfectly encapsulates this mentality. “It’s less about what the songs have to say and more about the process of releasing it. There’s no rush even though life wants to push you into rushing a lot. If the music is genuinely you, then people will always connect with it,” she says.

Meg and her collaborators took inspiration from unlikely places in recording spittake. Producer Ryan McFadden was heavily influenced by weird industrial noises such as gears. “A lot of the demos on the deluxe have an emphasis on the recording environment,” Meg adds. “They’re very isolated to the point that you can hear the bedroom mirror reflecting the sound.”

Meg takes a heavy influence from the Bladerunner films in the making of the album. She was torn between the original and sequel when asked which was her favorite. “The original created a whole new genre. It was world building and gorgeous but 2049 was just as fantastic,” she says. “I think Sci-Fi is awesome. I don’t like living in this reality, I like popping out of it.”

Photos by Ziggy Pineda (@ziggypineda)

The mood board for spittake is rather unique and “fucking psycho” in Meg’s words. “There’s a lot of imagery of reflective eyes like a deer in headlights or a very high exposure flash. It has this weird kind of reflective vibe to it,” she says. Genuine old spit-takes were also a huge inspiration, often in a “and she was his mother!” way. Meanwhile, the title track of the album ends with an old-fashioned laughing track. “There are some sounds that are just stock but there are others that were sampled from comedy records I found while digging through the crates at McKay’s,” she says.

When asked which artists she dreams of opening for, she came prepared with a diverse list. Names such as Björk and Caroline Polacheck sat alongside Death Grips and Vengaboys. “I either want to open for someone who’s sound I align with or be thrown in front of a crowd that might hate me,” she says.

Meg Elsier is looking toward the future as she prepares to release spittake (deluxe). The sequel to the beloved album is set to release next week on July 25th. Nashville’s favorite indie artist is on the rise, and she’s taking everyone with her. “I don’t know what’s next, she says. “Something weird and cool. Whatever me and the band want it to be. I’m just happy to be here and this show was awesome.”

“Oh, and call your mom! She misses you.”