Ghost Hunting With Meg Myers

Danielle Bacher

[Editor's note: Danielle Bacher usually has wild nights with rappers. Her subjects this time weren't rappers, but it was still a pretty interesting night.]

8:10 PM: I'm driving to meet singer Meg Myers and her producer Andy Rosen aka Doctor Rosen Rosen outside Meg's apartment in Echo Park.

See also: *Meg Myers Is a Fucking Monster. That's a Compliment
*Doing Drugs, Lots of Drugs, With Myka 9

Back story: The duo met via Andy's former manager two years ago and have been working on music ever since. They released the Daughter in the Choir EP in March and are composing new music for her first album with drummer Sam Gallagher and celloist Ken Oak. It will take at least another six months until it's finished. She says she wants to "make it fucking badass." (Here's more about her background.)

Danielle Bacher

8:12 PM: My first impression: Meg is breathtakingly beautiful. She's 26, short, about 5'3" with deep brown eyes and clearly shy. She giggles, nervously touching her Blondie shirt with her left hand. Andy, 33, is wearing a black jacket with a flannel underneath. He's about four inches taller than Meg. He's quick-witted and has a great sense of humor. The three of us are standing in the drizzling rain.

8:13 PM: A raindrop lands on Meg's cheek, and she wipes it with the back of her hand. "Are you ready to go ghost hunting tonight?" Andy asks us. Meg laughs again: "Yeah, it's going to be pretty crazy."

8:14 PM: We hop in Andy's car. I'm riding shotgun. KDAY is playing faintly in the background. He's remixed artists like Eminem, Kanye West, the Roots and Drake.

8:16 PM: We arrive at Masa of Echo Park. It has a country kitchen feel with wooden panels lining the bar, and it's getting hotter by the minute. Seriously, it's like a fucking sauna in here. The frantic hostess tells us that it will be about a 30 minute wait. We contemplate eating somewhere else, but the deep-dish Chicago dough aroma saturates the dining area, and it is too good to leave.

8:18 PM: Meg takes out a Mad Libs pad from her bag and starts asking us to fill in adjectives, adverbs and plural nouns. We're coming up with really stupid words. Meg realizes that we are playing Mad Libs in the front of the restaurant and decides it's "too hipster" to keep playing.

8:24 PM: Meg excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Andy tells me that she's doing an eightball of coke in there. That's what usually happens when I go out for this column, but he's kidding.

8:58 PM: Meg and I sit down on a bench to wait for our table. Andy is Tweeting. She admits she doesn't love living in Los Angeles. She has been here about five years and says that it's a lonely city. She has a bunch of half-brothers and half-sisters and one blood brother scattered across the country. Her parents are divorced. Her former step-dad was abusive.

8:59 PM: Meg misses the isolation and beauty of the mountains in Tennessee where she lived until age five. She even wrote a song on her new EP that's inspired by the location (below). I ask her about her childhood as a Jehovah's Witness. "It was hard," she says. "We didn't celebrate birthdays, holidays or anything. But it was normal for me. It was all that I knew."

9:10 PM: "What if I have a meltdown right here?" asks Andy. "Do you think they will seat us faster?"

9:17 PM: We finally sit in the front of the restaurant near a window. We order an artichoke dip to start. Meg orders lasagna and Andy orders meatloaf. They both order beers. Andy pokes fun at Meg for pulling out a Mad Libs at the restaurant.

9:21PM: I ask Andy if more ladies hit on him because he's married and wears a wedding ring. He tells me he has no game to know the answer. But he says the key for men to pick up women is to have a cute puppy in the park or tell a woman that he is recently divorced or widowed. "Really?" asks Meg, laughing. "Widowed?"

9:23 PM: "Have either of you had an affair with a married man?" asks Andy. Meg says she participated in romantic cuddling sessions with a married guy. I ask Andy if he's ever been with a man. Before he responds, Meg interjects and says she likes when men have been with other men.

9:24 PM: Meg is drawn to older guys. She lost her virginity at 17 to a 28-year-old Cuban man. She broke up with him afterward because she thought it was weird and just wanted to be a kid. He was also emotionally immature. To top it off, he also had a 9-year-old son. Andy bursts out laughing.

9:26 PM: She goes on to explain that at 14 years old, she was dating a dude who was 18. He ended up living with her family for a year, but he was a thief. He would take cell phones from cars and come home with lots of stolen goodies. Her family kicked him out. Her last relationship was for three years, but they drifted apart because he was "lazy."

9:27 PM: She tells me that she's crazy and never satisfied. She's in a relationship again, but she's worried she may lose interest. She sips her beer.

9:28 PM: Andy tells us that men are "fucking idiots until they are at least 27." His wife told him that after 30 he had to stop playing Edward Fortyhands.

9:31 PM: Meg goes on to say that she gets really antisocial sometimes. Andy informs me that dudes trip over themselves to talk to her. He thinks she should tell them that she doesn't have time for them. But she's always nice and talks. "I care about people. I always stop to talk, even if I feel anxious," says Meg. Andy replies: "You care about a dude who stops you when you're going to the bathroom?"