Natalie Laura Mering, known professionally as Weyes Blood, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She was primarily raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She began her career in the underground noise music scene, first as bassist of the Portland, Oregon-based group Jackie-O Motherfucker, and then with the Baltimore-based group Nautical Almanac. Mering subsequently began recording her own material under variations of the name Weyes Blood, inspired by Flannery O’Connor's 1952 novel Wise Blood. After her self-released debut album, The Outside Room, she signed with the independent label Mexican Summer, releasing The Innocents and Front Row Seat to Earth. She released her fourth studio album, Titanic Rising on Sub Pop, to critical acclaim.
Life and career
1988–2002: Early life
Natalie Laura Mering was born June 11, 1988 in Santa Monica, California, into a deeply religious born againPentecostal Christian family. Commenting on her upbringing, Mering said: "I was raised in a real spiritual, Bible Belt household. So I developed my own cynicism because there are always things in the bible that really bum me out... I became really obsessed with The Kids in the Hall as a kid, and they had Scott Thompson, who's like the one gay member. I remember having this feeling that "Oh, Scott Thompson isn't going to heaven? How could that be?" That was my first big tipoff that something wasn't quite right with dogmatic Christianity. And then I was just trying to undo it since the age of 12." Mering's family moved several times throughout her childhood; she spent her early life in the San Francisco Bay Area before they settled in Doylestown, Pennsylvania in 1999, where she attended high school. Both her older brothers and parents are musicians and music played an important part in her upbringing. Her father, Sumner Mering, is a musician and guitarist who was in a Los Angelesnew wave band entitled Sumner in the late 1970s.
2003–present: Musical career
At the age of 15 Mering began using the moniker Wise Blood to write songs. She changed to Weyes Bluhd on several self released records before changing the spelling to Weyes Blood. After finishing high school, Mering relocated to Portland, Oregon to attend Lewis & Clark College, where she majored in music and had a radio show on the campus radio station. However, Mering dropped out after her first year of studies. She subsequently began touring the underground music scene, performing as a bassist in the Portland-based band Jackie-O Motherfucker, and later the Baltimore group Nautical Almanac. In 2011 she released the album The Outside Room as Weyes Blood And The Dark Juices on Not Not Fun Records. Uncut magazine described the album as devotional and ethereal, but with an edge", while Beatbots found it "an impressive and ambitious album". Mering released her second record in October 2014 called The Innocents, which was released through Mexican Summer. It was recorded in rural Pennsylvania, Mering's apartment and Gary's Electric Studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It included contributions by Jacob Brunner and James Strong. Mering described the theme of the album as being "about my first real relationship that went really awry." After the album's release, Mering relocated from New York to Los Angeles, California. She commented: "I was in New York alone: no friends, no money, no record deal at the time. Literally I had nothing." In 2016, she released her third album Front Row Seat to Earth, on Mexican Summer to critical acclaim, and toured throughout Europe and the States. NPR wrote that the album reexamines "intimacy and idealism in ways that showcase Mering's gift for measuring and mediating heady emotions." Mering stated the songs on the album were largely inspired by the isolation she felt while living in New York. On February 12, 2019, a new album titled Titanic Rising'' was announced and available to pre-order on her website, along with dates of her upcoming tour. The album was released by Sub Pop on April 5, 2019 to critical acclaim. Mering describes Titanic Rising as “The Kinks meet WWII or Bob Seger meets Enya.” Other influences include Kate Bush and Karen Carpenter. Titanic Rising is described as a record about romantic disappointment, damaged reality, and finding hope. The record received high placements on year-end and decade-end lists from publications such as Pitchfork, Uproxx, Paste, Uncut, Dazed, The Guardian, and NPR. On the 16th of July 2019, she did her TV debut at Late Night with Seth Meyers, where she performed her single ‘’Everyday’’ from Titanic Rising. Live performance highlights include sold-out tours in the US and Europe, as well as opening for Kacey Musgraves in the fall and singing with Lana Del Reyat the Hollywood Bowl.
Influences
Mering has stated that church music, which figured prominently in her upbringing, has been an influence on her songwriting. "Most of the great classical music and early music of our time is written for God in a sacred space," she said. "So sacred music and sacred space music — that was my favorite thing about music. Not so much content-wise. Not so much the theory and concept of God, but just the idea that we've built this gigantic, stone cathedral palace for people to sing in... When I record, I think about sacred space and I think about what would be the sound of your soul if there is music coming out of it. It would probably be an echoey, strange chamber." In an interview with Nardwuar in 2019 she revealed that she is also influenced by The Velvet Underground, Wolf Eyes, and experimental artist Inca Ore. Mering states in the same interview that early in her career while making experimental music, people likened her songs to horror film soundtracks. So she began to listen to and be influenced by film soundtracks such as Jaws and the Wizard of Oz. Mering is also highly influenced by the late singer songwriter, Harry Nilsson, in both singing style and songwriting.
