Josh Meyer - Locked Away



Background

Josh Meyer, 26-years old from Portland, Oregon, is very much the black sheep of the metal world. The one member of the most recent iteration of Blood of Wecz that absolutely no one outside of the band is sure to remember, Meyer became something of a martyr when the two longstanding members, Mark Talley and Scott Rose-Hilton, decided to ditch him in order to promote their last album by touring themselves as a goodbye to their fans. He performed drums on two Blood of Wecz albums, despite it being his last choice of instrument before he was unceremoniously dumped, becoming forgotten for his musical prowess and being known as little more than the boyfriend of Pretty Little Freaks member Jade Clarke.

Meyer's story actually begins way before Blood of Wecz, and extends far beyond the end of his tenure with the band. He was a straight-A student during his high school days, and initially had his choice of schools to attend to become a lawyer. However, he chose to head overseas, and spent four years from the age of 18 at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, studying classical composition, a course on which he would become a classically trained pianist and an accomplished producer. Returning to the states with a first-class honors degree in his chosen subject, Meyer would go on to spend 6 months playing in various Broadway choruses, before he decided to make the move into creation of his own music.

Meyer would release his first single, I'm Not Coming Home, in 2012, a classical-ambient pop-crossover track that surprisingly raced to the top of the charts. A second single never came, however, despite his signing to Studio 60, as he decided to spend some time working on the production side of the industry. It was a path that eventually led to Blood of Wecz, but first saw Josh working with some of the industry's brightest young stars, including Katie Merjos (then Coyle) and Anna Villiot.

Post-Blood of Wecz, Meyer has also managed to forge something of a career for himself. He first toured with Katie Merjos on her 2013 tour across Australia, New Zealand and other areas of the eastern world, taking on the duties as guitarist, keyboardist and various other instruments throughout a massive sold out run. When the touring party returned to the west, however, it was without Josh, who stayed behind to work first in Australia and then Japan as a record producer doing work with a variety of younger and newer artists. 2014 has seen him return home, however, and now working out of London, England, the musician has decided to finally release his second single, even if it is a massive step away from the sound that first brought him some semblance of fame.

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The Track

Locked Away is the second single from singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Josh Meyer. In a move away from his debut single, Locked Away, which debuted in 2012, it is a electronic rock song, bringing an all-new sound to a singer who has quite literally been everywhere and done everything in his time in the industry. The track has a unique sound, with all instruments performed by Meyer himself, and multi-layered vocals that help to give it a rather large and atmospheric feeling.

The singer created the song by locking himself away in his London apartment for hours at a time, writing, playing, recording, tweaking and repeating over and over until he had a final product that he was happy to put out there for the masses. It was a labour of love as opposed to a track that he felt he needed to put out to validate his own career or to further his musical existence, created purely out of the passion for creativity that he has harboured for the entirety of his life.

Hard to pinpoint a verse and a chorus, Meyer plays around with the traditional structure of a song, simply having fun with his composition and really keeping the listener on their toes at all times throughout. It is a fun concept that works well within the sort of light and airy sound that he has created, allowing the fans the chance to access something different to anything out there at the moment, and giving them an insight into the mind of a man who has, in the past, been described as some sort of a musical genius.

The track is thematically an ode to being locked away in a relationship and kept prisoner by someone who fails to see the bigger picture, Meyer said it is written from the point of view of the girl rather than the man, which allowed him to separate himself from the lyrics and concentrate for the first time in his own solo career on the music rather than getting hung up on making sure the lyrics represented his own feelings accurately. However, while most might expect the lyrics to lend themselves to a more serious track, Meyer has layered them into an anthemic electronic song that carries a real kick and a very happy sound with it.

It begins with an atmospheric keyboard intro, building up to something, before a rather bouncy, upbeat and catchy rock song bursts out of seemingly nowhere. The chorus itself is one of the singalong moments of the year, and will have festival fans chanting along all summer long, for sure. While the verses take on different forms each time with a really varied range of vocal styles, the chorus is the song's real crowning glory, with the electronic "whoa whoa" contrasting amazingly with Meyer's normal vocal style and playing perfectly over the top of a catchy beat.

"I just had fun with this. I wanted to put a song out there, and I had no clue what I actually wanted to do, but this was a fun sort of thing that I knocked up in a few days, recording and post-production included. It's not supposed to be taken seriously, really. It's just a cool little story that I wanted to do to see if I could create something that I had never done before.

"It's been a cool reintroduction for me as well. It was more of a stop gap between jobs to just release something and see where I could go with it. I didn't go in with any real direction, actually, which was exciting to do. I enjoyed it, and who knows, maybe this time I'll hang around a bit more when I have the free time."

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Artist: Josh Meyer
Title: Locked Away
Genre: Electronic/rock
Recorded: London, UK
Written: Josh Meyer
Produced: Josh Meyer
All instruments: Josh Meyer
Label: N/A

Sounds Like

So honey would you want to be
The heat that's got me glistening?
Another day you left before the sand drained clear, I hate it
So what were we crying for?
I don't think you were listening
To my calls to end this ceasefire and open the channels we gated

Caught inside this dream we lived before
Stomach churning and sending me back to
Locked behind another iron door
If I can just find a key, yeah, we'll make it right

Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Our love is locked in a dungeon
My fate is up in the air
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Previewed our eulogy
It said that no one else cared
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Give me a key to this nightmare
Your love is keeping me locked
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Ready to blast our way out
My gun is loaded and cocked

So honey will you still be
The one that's got me listening?
To every last word that you told me was untrue
And what were we fighting for?
I feel anointed in your Christening
The last time you walked away long before the sky turned blue

I won't feel your blood boil anymore
My only sight is the candle you lit
Pack the furniture tight behind that door
I need to fly but my wings are the heart you hit

Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Our love is locked in a dungeon
My fate is up in the air
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Previewed our eulogy
It said that no one else cared
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Give me a key to this nightmare
Your love is keeping me locked
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Ready to blast our way out
My gun is loaded and cocked

I'll keep flying, flying
Flying for you
I've been lying, lying
Lying for you
I'd be dying, dying
Dying for you
And I'm trying, trying
Trying for you

I can't hear your heartbeat anymore
Live my life trapped behind this door
I can't feel your blood boil anymore
Kept locked up here like before

I can't hear your heartbeat anymore
Live my life trapped behind this door
I can't feel your blood boil anymore
Kept locked up here like before

Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Our love is locked in a dungeon
My fate is up in the air
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Previewed our eulogy
It said that no one else cared
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Give me a key to this nightmare
Your love is keeping me locked
Whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa
Ready to blast our way out
My gun is loaded and cocked