With the poise of all the great confessionalists before her, and the talent to share her truth melodically, Nora Meier tackles her own insecurities head on with the track “Someone Else.” It plays with the concept of self deprecation in the face of love and patience, grappling with the idea of another being able to accept the flaws you cannot. Acoustic guitars sparkle
and harmonies float. We sat down with Nora to discuss it all, and how she finds her own yellow light amidst the twists and turns of personal growth.
The Yellow Light: Your lyrics are at the forefront of your work, making you a true storyteller. What is your writing process like?
Nora Meier: Thank you for saying that! When it comes to music, I am 100% a lyrics person. Even since before I started writing my own material, I remember paying really close attention to the words in my favorite songs. Maybe it's because I'm from a words-loving family; both my parents were English majors in college. My writing process always starts with me figuring out what I want to say. I almost always have an idea for the message or core concept of a song before I sit down with an instrument, and I keep little notes in my Notes app and journal. The time that I spend at the piano or with my guitar is when I take all the thoughts that have been floating around way up in my brain and pull them down to earth.
YL: The bridge in "Someone Else" is reminiscent of 70s folk music, a dip into the past instrumentally. How did you go about composing this mostly acoustic track? Who are your biggest influences?
NM: Oh my gosh, yeah, you nailed it! 70s folk is one of my biggest influences. "Someone Else" was one of the first songs I wrote on guitar. I never had very formal guitar training, so I mostly just taught myself how to play by learning Joni Mitchell songs in open tunings. This one was from "Little Green" which gives it a lot of those bright-sounding major seventh chords. When building out the track I wanted it to sound a little more current, so I imagined it as more of a Phoebe Bridgers/Anais Mitchell-esque lush arrangement. But the writing is very rooted in those 70s influences. I was obsessed with Carole King's Tapestry as a teenager, as well as Aretha Franklin, Judee Sill and Paul Simon.
YL: Holidays are a big theme in this track, including references to the cold and transitional weather. Do you think your audience will gravitate towards this single as we begin to enter that season?
NM: I hope so! I'm such a fan of the Bummer Holiday genre. I listen to The Staves' "Home Alone Too" year-round. This album that I'm about to put out deals a lot with nostalgia and memory, which I think go hand and hand with the holiday season. What better time than the most wonderful time of year to dwell in your own melancholy? :) Holidays are so characterized by traditions and rituals and doing things the same every year. I think annual repetition inadvertently sends some of us into a tailspin about how we've changed over the years and can't return to former versions of our lives. That's why I chose it as the setting for "Someone Else." The character in the song is wanting to shed that past self and become someone new.
YL: "She loves me how I am,/ but I wish that she could love someone else," is a gut-wrenching line, but so resonant to anyone in their 20s. How do you deal with self-doubt and setbacks as a young musician?
NM: I'm a massive pessimist, which is funny because I'm pretty upbeat on the surface, but inside my head I'm always preparing myself for the worst case scenario. All these parts of my brain that are full of negativity are trying to protect me from external rejection (thank you, therapy for teaching me that one!), but a lot of the time they result in anxiety and self-sabotage. The best way I've found to deal with that is to surround myself with optimists. I've found that there's a lot of strength in being in community with people who can keep a clear mind, a good attitude and support their loved ones.
YL: How do you define your own yellow light, either in your personal life or career (or both!)?
NM: I think of my 20s as this series of yellow lights. It's such a good metaphor because you're constantly coming upon these decision points where you have to decide: do I slow down or gun it? And the gut impulse is always going to win out. I love the tension between choosing caution vs. risk. This is a season of my life that is so full of choices like that, but each one reaffirms my knowledge that only I have the ability to navigate this chapter. Yellow lights! What a gift!
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