Megan Black – Freedom Belongs To Him
ARTIST NAME: Megan Black
SONG TITLE: Freedom Belongs To Him
RELEASE DATE: 23/07/2021
GENRE: Blues/Rock
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Self-proclaimed ‘hippy-dippy drag queen’ Megan Black is a queer Scottish musician, vocalist, and songwriter. Megan is a queer artist who uses her platform to write about her experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in order to celebrate expression and empowerment. Her songs cover themes of feminism, mental health, addiction, and many other relevant topics in today’s society.
After self-releasing her debut single ‘Fur Coat Queen’ in April 2019 Megan has caught the attention of many in the music scene within Scotland. This song brought her into the top 10 for the 2019 BBC Singer-Songwriter Award and has recently been used as the theme song on Kitty – an audio play by Samantha Grierson Schwarz and read by Miriam Margolyes.
LYRICS:
We’re dressed in gold dust
With black inside of white
Our vision perfectly blurred
Oh, what a pretty sight
Draw me
Dress me
No need to impress me
I’ll be your idol on strings
Mould me
Scold me
He holds a hand like mine
And tells me all sorts of things
But freedom belongs to him
Freedom belongs to him
Freedom belongs to him
Let that be me
Freedom belongs to him
Freedom belongs to him
Soon to be me
Am I too pretty for you baby?
Well ain’t that a shame
Why don’t you treat me like a lady?
Or am I the one to blame
But freedom belongs to him
Freedom belongs to him
Freedom belongs to him
Let that be me
Freedom belongs to him
Freedom belongs to him
Soon to be me
And let me forget myself
Let me forget myself
Let me forget myself
We’ll run ’till we’re free
Let me forget myself
Let me forget myself
Born to be free
Discuss your recording experience with your producer.
We worked on this track with Edinburgh-based producer Mark Morrow. The entire experience working with Mark is just amazing from start to finish. The studio is great and Mark does everything to bring the track to life and appreciate an artist’s intentions. We always enjoy working with him and hearing the final mixes of the songs.
Discuss what comes first and last while creating a song.
This one really does just depend. My usual writing process comes from an idea I’ve had. For example, with this song, I knew I wanted to write about my experience as a woman. I wanted to touch upon real stuff that needs to be spoken about in society and use my voice and platform to hopefully meet some like-minded people (which I did). Then I will normally get a melody that comes to me and gets stuck in my head, find out what key it is in, and start writing. However, this isn’t always the case. There have been songs made simply from a baseline or a jazzy chord so the process is always changing.
Tell us the piece of advice you will give to a new artist.
My advice would always be to remain authentic as much as possible. It can be a very difficult thing to do sometimes but you will always attract your true fan base/friends/people you enjoy working with when you make a conscious effort not to let people’s judgments take anything away from you. Being an artist is one of the few things you can do as a career where you get to choose how many sh*ts you actually want to give. Write about your experiences, wear that thing you want to wear, and realize the right people will appreciate you. I’m still working on this every day – it’s certainly not easy. Oh, and another thing, celebrate your successes; you actually deserve to do that. You’re good at what you do.
Discuss your worst experience in the music business.
My worst experience was my first ever solo headline gig. I traveled a long way to play it but was having really bad voice problems (these lasted a long time after that). I must have only been about 17. I couldn’t sing hardly at all and tried telling the promoter this but it was just dismissed. I won’t name and shame him (even though I really should). I had to get on stage, tried singing, and had to apologize to the audience and walk off. Luckily the girls playing the show were all so nice and stepped in to help. After I did this, the not so lovely guy shouted at me, cut my travel expenses and I cried the whole way home.
A word of advice: if a promoter ever somehow thinks it’s cool to treat you like that, get them to fuck. But yeah, I learned a lot of lessons from that experience and met some lovely people so it wasn’t all that bad!
Tell us how you make instrumentation for your song.
I normally choose a key depending on the style and what I’m feeling. I’ll write chords and riffs. Then I take it to my band guys and we play through it over and over again until it’s what we want.
Tell us how you feel when you sing and your fans sing along.
I’ve only ever had this once or twice but oh my goodness, it is one of the best feelings ever. Just knowing that these people found some sort of connection with something I have made to actually learn the words is just amazing. If I’ve ever spotted you singing along to my song, you’re on my favorite list, just saying!
Tell us the goals you aim to achieve when creating a song.
I think my main goal always just has to be that it is something I wanted to create and that I am content with the finished product. I always want to grow my following and reach more people who can connect with what I’m doing, but focusing on external factors like that will never allow me to fully enjoy it and feel present. Luckily, I notice my fan base growing a lot and I’m so fortunate to have these people support what I do and me.
Tell us your approach to writing.
I tend to choose things, which are relevant today, but in a style of music that someone’s granddad would listen to. Think old man music but with some queer undertones – that’s really my approach to writing. In all seriousness, I mainly take inspiration from people and their individual experiences. I love expanding my knowledge, trying to understand more about different people within the society and how reality differs for all of us. Yes I may be female and queer, but I am still white, CIS, and non-disabled so I always have more to learn about how society differs for other people and how we can use our voices to stand for more equality and choose to educate ourselves – I like writing songs about that and I feel combining art with powerful messages can be beautiful and help everyone to feel more connected and valued.
Tell us how you plan to develop a unique music style.
I think music is all so intertwined that everything takes inspiration from something else. Everything you’ve heard, you’ve heard it before but in a slightly different way. Again, going back to my point of being truly authentic, that is where I feel my style is unique. I speak from my experiences and emotions and therefore they’ll always be unique to me. Also, when I dance on stage, no one wants to copy that, so it’s also pretty unique! I just find sounds that work for me and write from a place of self-expression. Everything else is inspired and I plan to always keep it that way.
Tell us how you record your song.
It depends on the song. For ‘Freedom Belongs to Him’ we recorded a guide track of vocals, guitar, and bass so that the drummer could record, and then we built on it from there. However, there are other songs we are releasing that are recorded live. Just depends on the feel and how you want it to come across.
Tell us if you are collaborating with other songwriters or you write alone.
I usually write alone as it gives me the space to say whatever I want. I am very lucky that I get to work with such talented musicians in my band who help bring ideas to life and put their own creative spin on what I’ve written. I’m always open to working with other artists and am currently doing a couple of projects where I get to sing on some of my band member’s own songs too which is great!
Discuss your experience with fans.
Always supporting, loving and appreciative. I have some really, really amazing fans – particularly in the queer community to who I owe so much too. Any fans of mine really are so kind and gracious towards my music and I always love working on new things for them to hear (and hopefully enjoy).
Elaborate on your artist’s name and the title of the album.
I was just given a very boring name at birth – I didn’t even get a middle name! ‘Freedom Belongs to Him’ as the name for the single came from the call and response theme and felt right to call out the inequality and address issues straight away.
Share your press release and review with us.
Megan’s new track ‘Freedom Belongs to Him’ is reminiscent of a Mick Jagger rock and roll song that makes you want to step to the dance floor. The track opens with a prominent bassline and gritty guitar sound that builds into an energetic rock song. Megan’s vocals take hold in the chorus with a call and response between her and the backing vocals. The song is written about Megan’s relationship with men who have mistreated her. Megan commented: “When I first thought of the concept, it was about abuse and how we excuse men. We give them freedom with their sexuality, their words, and actions that women never get. The more I thought of this treatment, the more I related it to my experience as a woman in music. This was a continuous cycle in my life and I had just somehow accepted it to be normal. The more people I spoke to, the more apparent it became that this is a huge issue that impacts so many of us.
This inequality also affects the treatment of POC, disabled, non-binary, trans, and many other minorities; however, I can only speak from my own experience as a woman. This song is my own way of sparking change and accepting that I’m not okay with how things are. This also invites all men who want equality too and respect other artists to use their voices. I am grateful to everyone who supports me and is ready to make a change to benefit everyone.
The track was recorded with Mark Morrow Audio in Edinburgh with Paul Lamberton (Lead Guitar), Chatonda Ridley (Bass Guitar), Stephen Buggy (Drums), and Lewis Ross (Rhythm Guitar)”.
With the hook from the song, Megan invited other musicians to join in to show their alliance with women in music. Megan created this campaign video featuring some fellow musicians and would like to invite others to participate.