Meiko: checking out of the Hotel

(Credit: Leigha Hodnet)

The list of singer/songwriters who owe much of their success to Los Angeles’ Hotel Café—and its popular annual tour—gets bigger all the time: Ingrid Michaelson, Rachael Yamagata, Brett Dennen, Cary Brothers, Sara Bareilles. But perhaps no one has a closer relationship to the cozy Hollywood venue than Meiko, a Georgia native and L.A. transplant who worked there as a waitress while recording her self-titled debut album two years ago.

“I would leave so many times just wowed,” she says of the experience, which also gave her the chance to occasionally jump up on stage with artists like Butch Walker and perform an opening set for Patty Griffin, one of her idols. “I really feel like I grew up so much as an artist there.”

Originally self-released, Meiko’s debut attracted the attention of everyone from the music supervisors at “Grey’s Anatomy” to gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who booked Meiko at his influential South by Southwest party in 2008 (alongside a then-unknown Katy Perry). It was eventually reissued by MySpace Records, who this year are sending the young up-and-comer out on her first headlining tour.

We caught up with Meiko before she hit the road to discuss everything from Ms. Perry’s tips for saving your voice to her old high-school raver days. Clearly, this isn’t your typical guitar-strumming folkie.

The first time I saw you perform was at the Perez Hilton party at South by Southwest in 2008. I thought you did a pretty great job playing for a tough crowd.
Oh my god, it was a tough crowd. I lost my voice at South by Southwest. That’s why I played four songs. It was nuts—Katy Perry’s in the green room giving me advice on how to get my voice back. It was totally shot—the whole night was.

Did she give you any good advice?
Yeah, she did. She said gargle with apple cider vinegar and water.

Yuck.
I know—but it actually works. When you have a lot of crap in your throat, it knocks it out.

When you first moved to L.A., you got a job waiting tables at the Hotel Café, right?
I didn’t actually start working at the Hotel Café right after I moved. I made protein shakes at the Gold’s Gym in Hollywood for like two years. I was in L.A. for about three years before I even had the courage to go and play my first open mic night. And when I did start playing open mic nights, I started booking shows around town, and eventually I booked a Hotel Café show. And I ended up meeting the owners and begged them for a job, and finally they gave me one because they were expanding. And it was the greatest thing ever, to be an aspiring singer/songwriter and be around so many different types of artists. I just felt so lucky to be there; I got to see so many good shows. And because I worked there, if someone didn’t show up, Marco, the owner, would be like, “Hey, can you fill this spot?” So I played a lot more when I was there.

That’s awesome. Sort of gives a whole new meaning to the term “singing waitress.”
Yeah, there were many times when one of my friends would be onstage and they’d be like, “Hey, Meiko, do you wanna come sing on this one?” And I would be like, “Sure!” And I would set my tray down and get up and sing.

Your music has been featured on shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “One Tree Hill” quite a bit. Do you actually get to see most of the episodes that use your songs?
Yeah, I do. I usually make it a point to get my friends or family together and turn it on, but if I’m out of town, I’ll buy it on iTunes and sit there and watch it by myself in my lonely hotel room.

What’s the strangest use you’ve seen of one of your songs in a TV show?
I don’t know if I would call it the strangest, but I can say the saddest one was this “Grey’s Anatomy” episode where this young girl was dying—I think of cancer—and her uncle, I think, was one of the doctors, and she was asking her uncle to let her go and quit trying to save her. And “Hawaii” was playing in the background, and I bawled my eyes out. It was so depressing. [Laughs] Those guys are good. They know what they’re doing.

I was intrigued to see that you sing one of the tracks ["Falling Hard"] on the new Crystal Method album. How did that collaboration come about?
Super randomly. I was playing a show and they just happened to be in the audience, and afterwards both of them came up to me and they’re like, “We really like your voice, we want you to do a song with us.” And sure enough, they contacted me a couple days later, and I went to the studio and they played me a couple of different songs that they were looking for writers for. And I gravitated towards, of course, the slowest one. They burned it on a CD, and I kept it in my car and I listened to it for about a month non-stop. And my manager called me one morning; he was like, “Did you write that song? Because we have to turn it in today.” And I was like, “Hold on, give me 30 minutes.” And I got off the phone with him and put my contacts in and just wrote the song off the top of my head and recorded it on my GarageBand and turned it in. I think I wrote it on the back of a cereal box. [Laughs]

Are you a fan of electronic dance music? Can fans look forward to a Meiko remix album someday?
Aw, that would be so cool. I’m a huge fan—I was a really, really big fan in high school. I listened to a lot of Aphex Twin and Autechre and Squarepusher.

Wow—the glitchy stuff.
Yeah, the crazy, crazy stuff. I went to a few raves as a senior. I wore some Jncos. There were some Jncos involved—the fat jeans.

That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.
Yeah, it’s terrible that I’m bringing it up. [Laughs] But yeah, so of course I knew of the Crystal Method and I think that they’re awesome. I was really excited to be a part of it—and surprised that they wanted to work with me.