Q&A: megg Speaks on “Idiot,” Vans Warped Tour, and Gives You Permission to be Loud
WRITTEN BY AMANDA COLLINS
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Photo by @sarahthetog
Megg, a California-born, now Nashville-based pop-punk artist, recently dropped her new single “Idiot.” With a discography of pop-punk hits, all exciting, loud and energetic like megg herself, she is creatively and professionally on a roll. Megg will be playing multiple shows coming up in summer and fall, including hosting a free Nashville house party release show on June 27 for Low Life Club Deluxe.
Megg has lived experience of how cathartic it is to be unapologetically and loudly yourself, boldly stating, “take me as I am or keep moving.” She also wants her listeners to “be proud of who they are,” regardless of what others think. She states this alongside noting the low number of female-led groups in the pop-punk scene, specifically in festival lineups. Being one herself, megg defies the status quo routinely and does it fabulously.
Other than being a song you’ll find yourself screaming in your car, “Idiot” serves as a way to take up space without needing to make perfect sense, something we all can learn from. A little earned self-forgiveness can go a long way, and megg’s music helps you feel like it is alright to be exactly as you are, idiot or not.
Read our full discussion on megg’s new single “Idiot” along with other fun topics, such as her Vans Warped Tour 2025 experience, being unafraid of imperfection, music as a universal language and just overall having a good time even when life feels like it's going to shit.
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LIFE ON JUPITER: Let’s start with a brief introduction, how would you describe yourself as a musician, and is there anything you really want those who haven’t heard of you before to know?
MEGG: Oh my god, that’s a great question. How I would describe myself as a musician is authentic, hard-working, and relatable. I feel like I write from personal experience, and I write about shit that everybody goes through, but maybe is too embarrassed to talk about or own. I hope to give permission to everybody listening to live authentically as who the fuck they are, and to be proud of all the things that they’ve been told they shouldn’t be proud of their entire lives.
Your new single “Idiot” just released a few days ago, what’s the main feeling when releasing a new song? Are you sort of basking in the achievement or already itching to get the next thing going?
MEGG: I think it’s all of the above. I’m so fucking excited to give this song to the world. It’s very damned if you do, damned if you don’t. We’re all just fucking stumbling along through life, doing our best and because of that, we’re all just fucking idiots, and I love that I’m able to share that with everyone. Now I’m already pumping out the next thing. The next release is a deluxe version of the Low Life Club EP, featuring three new songs. So I’m already thinking ahead, planning the tours. It’s like okay, now that “Idiot” is out, I can keep moving.
What was the writing process like for “Idiot,” and was there a specific moment that sparked the inspiration for the song?
MEGG: I actually wrote this song in a different way than I normally do. I usually collaborate with songwriters and producers in the room, and we write the song on the spot, but for this song my producer Rob Nagelhout sent me an instrumental track and was like, “hey, I feel like this could fit the vibe,” and immediately came up with the chorus idea in my kitchen and took it back to the studio with Rob. What's also different about the way I wrote "Idiot" is how I struggled a lot with what I wanted to say in the verses, which usually is not a problem of mine. However, the chorus came so quickly and so easily that it just flew out of me. But for the verses I just could not pick a lane. There's so much I could say politically, but I'm not really a political artist, so I didn't really want to dip my toe where I felt like it didn't belong. On the other hand, I wanted to talk about the struggles in my relationship, but I love my boyfriend so much— why would I air out our fights when we have such a good, healthy relationship? So then I met up with my collaborators, Franky C, Colleen Francis, and she helped me with the verses and kind of just pulled out what I really wanted to say, which was more so a general theme of ‘what the fuck is going on in the world,’ and like ‘I have no idea, so I’m just gonna do my best, and for that I suppose I’m just an idiot.’ After that, another collaborator, Cooper Carr, popped in with some cool lyrics on the back end of the song that you can hear tucked in at the end.
In "Idiot," there are lines like "feels like I'm screaming in silence, I panic when it's going my way." What inspired those lyrics, and what headspace were you in when you wrote them? How do you relate to those lyrics?
MEGG: Yes, I would say those are some of my favorite lyrics that I’ve written because of how vulnerable and specific they feel for me, but also how relatable I know those lyrics are for everybody else. Both of those lines relate to my relationship, I think they can also relate to how it feels navigating through a very interesting world dynamic at the moment. With that context, when I feel like my partner doesn't understand me, my world is crumbling down. In the same breath, I panic when it's going my way. He's so good to me and things are so good that I keep hitting the panic button because I'm like, it shouldn't be this good, it shouldn't be going so good for me. I'm used to men leaving or not being who they say they are, or breaking my heart, so now that I'm with someone sturdy and fucking amazing there’s essentially a ‘waiting for the shoe to drop’ moment. A lot of my feelings amount to screaming in silence to be perfect at everything. Even though my brand is all about imperfection, I still struggle with perfectionism. I do panic when things—musically or career-wise— are going my way, because, again, it's kind of like waiting for the shoe to drop. It’s so devastating, because I work so fucking hard. But, I think you can also find a way to enjoy that things are going well because you work so fucking hard for it.
You played an awesome set at Warped Tour last summer. Was performing at Warped Tour something you had been dreaming of forever? And do you want to talk about that experience?
MEGG: Yeah, playing at Warped Tour was the time of my fucking life. I grew up going to Warped Tour, actually, with the guys that play in my band. We all went to Warped Tour together for years and years and years. Playing there has always been on my bucket list. When they stopped doing it, I was like “oh man, I guess I'll never see that through.” But when I heard it was coming back, I made a promise to myself that I was gonna scratch and claw my way onto that fucking lineup. Playing the show was even more surreal. Looking out into the audience and seeing all my family and all my friends beaming with pride, along with hundreds and thousands of other people I didn't know, jamming out to songs they probably hadn't heard before, was a feeling I'll never be able to describe.
Do you remember the moment you stepped on stage? What’s the overwhelming emotion you felt?
MEGG: Oh my god, I do remember walking on the stage. So my band does this intro every time I play a show. They perform an intro and then I come running on and I introduce myself. I remember as soon as they started the intro and I was backstage waiting to run on, I was just like, “oh fuck, like this is really happening.” Right away, we had a sound issue, so there was grappling with that panic too. Thankfully after the first 30 seconds, everything went back to normal. But as a performer, you have to just make that decision right then and there, like, fuck it, I'm just gonna enjoy it. If everything falls to shit, I'm going to enjoy my first time playing Warped Tour. It all worked itself out, thankfully. But girl, that first 30 seconds I was shitting my pants.
I like that outlook, “If it’s all going to shit, at least I’m going to enjoy it.” I love that.
MEGG: 100%. I think that's the beauty of a live show. We don't play to tracks, it's just us and our fucking instruments on stage. The beauty is that at any point anything could go wrong, and to me that risk is the magic of performing live.
Speaking of huge stuff like playing Warped Tour, what’s coming up on the horizon for you? Can you tell us about any upcoming touring or projects, anything like that?
MEGG: Yeah of course. So I put out “Idiot” last week. I’m dropping Low Life Club Deluxe on June 26th so that will feature three new songs in addition to the previous six that are already out. I’m throwing a Nashville house party release show on June 27th so that’ll be the day after the release. For those of you in Nashville, this is a free show. Hit me up for the address, and then I’m going to be doing an EP release show at Deep End Live in Redondo Beach on July 2nd. So, I’ll have my Nashville release party, and then my LA release party, and then we’re doing a couple dates in California on July 10th, July 11th, July 12th. After that, we’ll be hitting the road on the East Coast in September.
Are there any dream venues or tours you'd love to be part of?
MEGG: Obviously, I’d love to play Madison Square Garden and the Super Bowl at some point in my career. I would love to headline the Troubadour. I got to headline my favorite South Bay venue called Saint Rock last year, and then there's a new South Bay venue that I'm headlining in July, so I'll be able to cross those off my list. Then touring, I would fucking love to open for Paramore, No Doubt, The Distillers, Good Charlotte, Limp Bizkit, or Sum 41. I think those would be some of my ultimate dreams. Also, opening for Pink, I feel like, would be so sick.
Growing up, did you always know music was your dream? And can you tell us a little bit about why you love music?
MEGG: Yes, my parents said that I came out of the womb screaming and I started singing before I could talk. They put me in musical theatre when I was five to see, like, why is she yelling all the time, and that I just never stopped. The second I was on stage, even as a kid, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I'm grateful to have parents that fostered that and, you know, anytime there was an opportunity for me to be on stage, they pushed me in that direction. I went to an arts high school, was in this pop girl group, and then went to USC and studied music. I started putting out music and touring and writing right away. I definitely thought I would do Broadway for a while, and then when I started writing my own music in college, I quickly realized that I wanted to do this instead. I think at some point I would still love to be on Broadway. Right now this is definitely speaking to me more: writing my own stuff, touring my own music, the punk rock pop-punk lane for sure.
In terms of why I love music, it just gives me permission to say exactly how I feel without self-editing. It allows me to rebel in a cathartic, authentic way. In everyday life I'm constantly editing what I say or how I come off to people or x, y, and z. But in my songwriting, there is no self-edit, just self-expression.There's no judgment in that. That’s such a beautiful thing about music to me. It also allows me to be fucking loud, which is something that I was really reprimanded for my entire life, whether that be from parents, friends, friends of parents, teachers, bosses, you name it. I was always put down for being loud, and in my music it's the thing I'm celebrated for. So that feels really good. Yeah, it's just, a fucking universal language that gives us all permission to be ourselves.
As a self-described “theatre kid turned punk brat,” what ways, if any, do you feel your background in theatre has influenced your music? Are there any lessons from theatre that you still carry with you?
MEGG: Oh, totally. Yes, “from theatre kid to punk brat” I have to give a shout out to Ryan at ROKKR PRESS. He came up with that, and I've been stealing it ever since. I think my background in theatre heavily influences my music. I think my lyrics have a tendency to be theatrical and I think my vocal delivery has a tendency to be theatrical. I also learned so much from doing theatre as a kid. How to move my body on stage, how to connect the physical with the audio of music, how to connect with the audience. I learned how to take on a persona. I don't really have stage fright at all, and I think that's because of my upbringing in the theater. The community theater was such a strong community for me as a kid. All those takeaways that I learned in the theatre community have carried over. Now, there's not that many differences in the punk rock community, Warped Tour community, as there are in the theatre community. It's just like a bunch of weirdos that get each other and speak the same language and celebrate each other. I think I learned all about that from theatre to be honest.
Speaking of the community, what about the pop punk scene attracts you and what are your thoughts on the current music scene now?
MEGG: What attracts me about it is the authenticity and the fearlessness of it. I feel like pop punk is such a rebellious genre—it’s very “take me as I am or keep moving.” That's why people love it so much, and it's also like, “hey, I'm weird, you're fucking weird, let's be friends” and I love that sentiment.
What I think about the pop punk community now, I think it's great. There's so many female fronted bands and female pop punk artists that have been coming out over the years which is such a beautiful thing to see. Don't get me wrong— I love all my dudes and the music they make, but it is crazy how little female acts there are on most festival bills. When you actually start paying attention to it, it's kind of fucking staggering.
I'm loving the influx of female fronted bad ass girls making pop-punk music. I love how communal the community still is. It gets more and more welcoming and less and less exclusive, which I think is great.
Are there any women in the industry who inspired you early on, or who you feel helped pave the way for artists like yourself?
MEGG: Totally. I think Britney Spears was one of my first loves along with the Spice Girls. Mel, specifically Scary Spice, her unapologeticness, I feel like really paved the way for me to lean into everything that was weird about me, weird and loud. Britney taught me star power— like there isn’t a single pop star today that has the star power that Britney had in her day in terms of stage presence, music, video, eye contact. She was just a fucking star. Brody Dalle as well inspired me with her vocals, her smoky, gnarly, gut-wrenching voice. Alanis Morissette, same thing, belty, angry, unapologetic, loud.
Gwen Stefani, stylistically set the tone for me growing up. Hayley Williams was someone I also looked up to, because I'm a classically trained theatre girl. I can really sing my ass off, and it was really cool to be so heavily inspired by another singer in the pop-punk scene. Pink, who was like ‘fuck off if you have anything to say about me.’ Kelly Clarkson, obviously vocals, Avril Lavigne. Yeah, all the rock girls, honestly,
Who do you listen to in your free time? And do you have a “guilty-pleasure” artist you listen to that people would be surprised to find on your playlist?
MEGG: I'm gonna have to go to The Offspring, Good Charlotte, Ecca Vandal, Fidlar, a big one, The Distillers, Karen Dió. I would say those are my current “cannot get enough of”s. I love Remi Wolf. I would say my guilty pleasure is probably Olivia Rodrigo. It's not even guilty, but I'm not 18, so it feels hilarious listening to her songs. The entire Guts album, top to bottom, is a go-to. I want to sing along and scream in the car. A lot of Mod Sun. Oh my god, Dinosaur Pile-Up. Obviously the Hayley Williams record, also Static-X. And when I really need a good pump up, Limp Bizkit. All the good ones. The classics, girl. The classics.
Who is your biggest inspiration creatively? Musician or otherwise?
MEGG: I'm definitely inspired by the way Hayley Williams is able to consistently mature genre-wise while still staying true to herself. I love what Lauren Sanderson is doing right now. I'm really inspired by Ecca Vandal at the moment.
I don't have one person. I get so inspired by different genres and different mixed media that there's so many pieces to the puzzle of my sound. I'm never pulling from just one thing. I'm inspired by live shows that I see, new shows, new TV shows that I watch, movies, in-person experiences, new friendships.
On that note, if you could collaborate with any musicians, living or dead, who would they be?
MEGG: Brody Dalle from The Distillers, 100%. I would love to do something with Amyl from Amyl and the Sniffers. Hayley Williams, obviously, I would love to write a song with Linda Perry. I would love to work with Glenn Ballard. I would love, I mean, obviously, like blink-182, to do a song with them would be ridiculous. I would also love to do something with Axl Rose, which I know sounds ridiculous, but I grew up listening to Guns N’ Roses. Peter Gabriel, someone else I grew up listening to, that might be random as fuck, but “In Your Eyes” is one of my favorite songs of all time. If I could do a duet with him on that, I would in a heartbeat.
What do you feel is the best advice you’ve been given when it comes to the music industry, or just life in general?
MEGG: I would say—shout out my friend Maddie Ross, she's also a great artist—she told me when I was coming back into music after taking an unplanned hiatus around COVID time, what her best advice was, was like, “the only people that don't make it in the music industry are the ones that give up, the only people that do make it are the ones that keep going.” Putting it so plainly like that took so much pressure and anxiety off the table for me. This is the thing I love to do, this is the thing I want to do, so I'm going to continue to do it. At some point, as long as I'm continuing to do it authentically, something will take off. That was a really beautiful realization: the answer is just keep doing the thing. There's not some magic pill or secret recipe, just keep fucking doing the thing.
What’s the hardest part of being a musician, and what’s the most rewarding?
MEGG: The hardest part of being a musician is that your voice is your instrument. It’s a fucking nightmare, because my voice is so dependent on the weather, on my sleep, on the air, so many conditions out of my control. I understand why vocalists get labeled very quickly as divas, because we want to fucking smoke before a show, we want to drink before a show, we want to party, we want to go out, we want to be easy going and low maintenance. But I have to stop drinking and smoking before shows if I want my voice to work the way that I need it to. I have to sleep for 9-10 hours before the show. I've got to have my humidifier, I've got to ease up on the talking, I've got to not laugh the way I normally laugh. Being a singer is such a demanding sport, for lack of a better phrase. If you treat it a certain way or just get on an airplane, you're dried the fuck out. Your voice is gonna sound different than if you didn't just get off an airplane. No, yeah, she's a demanding little biotch, especially when you're screaming at the top of your lungs every show that you play. It's like she's, she's just a coddled little girl.
But the most rewarding thing, specifically about being a singer, is just the way I can express myself through voice. It is so cathartic, getting up there and just screaming and singing and saying whatever the fuck I want, sharing whatever the fuck I want with with the audience. Making it a 1:1 experience every show is really rewarding.
When people listen to your music, what do you hope they take away from it? What do you hope they feel?
MEGG: I hope my music makes people want to fucking party. I hope my music gives them permission to be loud, to be a bitch, to be a brat, to feel themselves to be angry, to tell someone to fuck you. I hope my music just makes people fucking feel good, man. I hope it makes them feel authentic in who they are, proud of who they are, and makes them want to have a good time.