![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Meiko-Q-and-A-May-2012.jpg\" "\\"Meiko-Q-and-A-May-2012\\"")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nHOMETOWN:<\/strong> Roberta, Ga. Growing up in a small rural hometown with a population of 800, Meiko Sheppard learned to entertain herself. She picked up her father\u2019s guitar and was writing songs by age 5; three years later she made her public debut singing \u201cWhite Christmas\u201d at church. \u201cBeing an awkward, bored middle-schooler was really helpful for my creative skills, because I spent a lot of time alone in my room playing my guitar,\u201d she says. \u201cI could also run around a lot outside, not having any supervision. When you\u2019re raised in the middle of the woods your imagination soars.\u201d<\/p>\n After one semester of college, she headed for L.A. in 2002 to pursue a musical career\u2014although five more years passed before she worked up the nerve to play her first show. \u201cI played for two people,\u201d recalls Meiko, now 27. \u201cThe whole time I was up there, I was thinking, \u2018This is terrible, there\u2019s only a pair of people in the audience.\u2019 Afterward I went over to thank them for coming, and one of them turned out to be deaf.\u201d She persisted, performing all over town, self-releasing an album and landing her songs on local radio\u2014not to mention on national TV shows like Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/em> and Pretty Little Liars<\/em>. She caught the attention of MySpace, which reissued her eponymous album through its record-label arm.<\/p>\n Meiko\u2019s just-released sophomore effort, The Bright Side<\/em>, was produced by Jimmy Messer, Greg Collins and Styrofoam. \u201cI wanted to make this record a little more lively,\u201d she says. \u201cWe played around with beats and came up with something that people could move to. There\u2019s more color, layers and texture this time around\u2014acoustic guitars, piano, strings, horns and background harmonies. It\u2019s got the electronic-beat side, the retro side and even an R&B side. I was able to do everything I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n MEIKO HOMETOWN: Roberta, Ga. INFLUENCES: Fiona Apple, Patty Griffin, Sade ALBUM: The Bright Side, out now WEBSITE: meikomusic.com Growing up in a small rural hometown with a population of 800, Meiko Sheppard learned to entertain herself. She picked up her father\u2019s guitar and was writing songs by age 5; three years later she made her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83],"tags":[3957,3754,3956,3959,157,3958,10160],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6681,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6679\/revisions\/6681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nINFLUENCES:<\/strong> Fiona Apple, Patty Griffin, Sade
\nALBUM:<\/strong> The Bright Side, <\/em>out now
\nWEBSITE:<\/strong> meikomusic.com<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"