Those experiences lend both a gravitas and rebelliousness to Meade’s songs and self. He was a drummer for years, even teaching to pay the bills. Meade eventually found his true voice when he began playing guitar as a teen in his pastor father’s church.

Yet, thanks to plainspoken but deep heartland songwriters like Tom Petty, and cutting his teeth touring in the Texas and Oklahoma Red Dirt scene, Meade’s music overflows with wide-open soulfulness. In junior high, he related to the intense emo-rock of Paramore and Fall Out Boy, as well as the power of songwriters like John Mayer. On his Snakefarm Records debut, Black Sheep, his influences - musical and otherwise - are as varied and rich as the small-town Texas soil that nurtured his talent and yielded these 12 stellar songs ranging from multi-layered musicality and storytelling to dark alt-pop to new age and Sabbath-inspired. Thanks to his metal-and classic-rock loving dad, Meade got to see bands like Judas Priest and worshipped Whitesnake at a young age. If you are “Happier Alone” this Valentine’s Day, why not send an anti-V Day e-card? Go here to share.Īustin Meade’s songs and stories are contradictory yet cohesive. The album is available for pre-order here. The original version appears on Meade’s upcoming Snakefarm Records‘ debut Black Sheep, which arrives on March 19, 2021. My wife Victoria Harwood was art director on Far North, and she had. The Koe Wetzel-assisted version of “Happier Alone” is a standalone single. Within three months I had gone from being this black sheep of the town to suddenly. I’ve always been a fan of his style of writing, and putting together music, I hope we can nail down some more tunes in the future.” Wetzel weighed in regarding his participation, saying, “Whenever I first heard the song, I was like, ‘Damn, this shit is awesome.’ It turned out to be our lake song for the summer of 2020. So when Meade asked me to cut a verse on it, I was honored. Meade also reveals that this song is arriving on not one but two very special occasions, sharing, “This version is coming out on the one-year anniversary of the original ‘Happier Alone’ - just in time to give Valentine’s Day the middle finger once more.” It’s too much damn fun to joke around for a living.”

It was important to me that this feature was with someone I respected and could relate to. We cut his new part while out on a run of shows and came up with a new storyline/perspective to the video that is hilarious.

The dude has a killer voice and I really like the way he finds melodies and interesting phrases with lyrics. “Koe has been a big supporter, and our bands have been friends for a while,” Meade explains about how the collaboration came to be. “He was really into ‘Happier Alone’ before we even put it out, so the rest just happened naturally.

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