New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Los Angeles musician Kath Myers will release her debut album Sensitive Groups on June 25th. Her new single "The Big One" was inspired by every SoCal resident's natural disaster nightmare, as well as the relatable doubts about one's own self-reliance and who we can truly count on in times of need. "I wrote this song in July of 2019 and there had been several earthquakes that summer," shares Myers. "I was subletting my friend's apartment and watching her cat while she was traveling. I was very depressed and drinking a lot at the time and full of anxiety and paranoia. I realized that if the big one did hit, I was very ill-equipped and would be screwed. It's also about my fear of completely losing my mind and never coming back."
Myers only began playing music at 31, but she approaches her craft with a unique balance of world weary wisdom and the exhilaration of a newfound obsession. "The Big One" follows debut single "According To The Law" which Buzzband.LA lauded as "confessional indie rock" with musical touchstones including
Aimee Mann and Jenny Lewis, and "
Dirty Laundry" which lead Glide Magazine to proclaim that "There's precious little doubt that Los Angeles-based musician Kath Myers can craft a tasty indie rock song."
The songs on Sensitive Groups were written over the past five years, but Myers started recording them at the beginning of the weird strange glow of 2020 with
Aaron Stern in his Glassell Park garage studio. Most of the album was recorded there, in an untreated garage, with just a few simple mics and some good players - primarily Michael Villiers on drums, Dillon Casey on guitar/pedal steel/keys, Juan Salzano, Matt LaRocca and Jason Roberts on more guitars, SieSie Benhoff on BVs, and
Aaron Stern on bass, keys, co-production, and even more guitar. The production feels like a heavy nod to Richard Swift, but there's a vibrance, a simplicity and precision that reminds of a Faye Webster or Aldous Harding record.
Myers' journey to becoming a songwriter and performing musician came about on an unconventional timeline. Born and raised in Ohio, after college she'd make a brief stop in Chicago, and then an extended stay in New York City where she held a well paying but unfulfilling job in corporate America. Eventually, wanderlust and a desire for something more took hold, and after close to a decade in NYC and Brooklyn she took her life's savings and traveled for 6 months before finally landing in LA. It was then, already into her 30s, that she first picked up a guitar and began to play and sing.
Myers had finally found her calling, but she had another battle to fight before Sensitive Groups could become a reality. "I really don't think that this record would have been made if I didn't get sober," Myers relates. "I was so crippled with fear and self doubt that I just didn't think it would have happened." Conversely, it was making the album that has kept her going. "Keeping busy for me is crucial as I can't be trusted with my own thoughts," she reveals, a sentiment most people living in the current times can probably relate to. Sobriety has been a crucial step for her to take in relation to her rebirth as an artist. "I feel like a newborn baby," says Myers. "I'm well into my 30s and I feel like I'm just getting started with things that I have always wanted to do, and with decades of pent up experiences to draw from when writing."
There's a deadpan vulnerability to the nine songs on Sensitive Groups; there's also a pop hook in almost every one of them. Myers' verses skirt around the edge of confessional 90s rock & roll, think
Aimee Mann and Liz Phair, but the choruses hit early and hit hard, weaving back and forth across that gauzy median of contemporary indie-rock and pop. There is a deep, dark vein of humor throughout this record, but also such a nonchalant, zero fs to give delivery that feels sexy, messy, brave, and brilliantly alive.
