“Concentrate every minute … on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice,” wrote Marcus Aurelius in his 12 books of Meditations in the second century. “And on freeing yourself from all other distractions,” he continued. “Yes, you can. If you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.”
The creed of the stoic philosopher was swirling in Los Angeles singer and songwriter mehro’s head for some time—or since they recently caught clips of comedian Jerry Seinfeld discussing the ancient Roman emperor in more detail.
“What he [Aurelius] summarizes is that everything that we’re worried about in life right now is going to go away,” mehro tells American Songwriter. “Your worries are gonna go away. You’re gonna go away. All the hand wringing and being worried about things is a complete waste of energy and time because it’s all going to go away at some point.”
Mehro, pronounced “marrow,” continues, “And he [Aurelius] says that the best thing that we can do is focus on what we do, and get better at it every day. To that point, with songwriting, it’s about the song. Because we’re gonna go away, the individual that the song is about, but the song, if it’s great enough, can live on. If it’s great enough, it can supersede our lifetimes.”
The lines of Aurelius’ Meditations also center on the core of trauma, a human state mehro knows all too well and explores on their new album trauma lullabies.
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Trauma isn’t simple to decipher but mehro faces it with a lulling tapestry that’s easy on the ears, and provoking in its words. The emotional response to a distressing incident or series of events can take its toll, impacting one’s psychological and physical health without the right coping mechanism. Connecting to the familial and maternal and finding ways to dream your way out are ways mehro navigates on the album from the opening “Reason to Live,” an endearing ode to their mother and their reason for living on—She’s my number one reason not to die / My number one reason to live / Until I find a reason to live / I’ll find a reason not to die.
From there, mehro moves through a therapeutic patchwork of songs on the Cure-like “Cynical” and the anesthetic “Ketamine” and natural “Dopamine,” while questioning their own state on “Shouldn’t I Give Up.”
The songs, mehro says, aren’t as much about “how much of me” is in the piece. “Technically, it’s all of my heart and soul and yet none of it at all,” they say. “When we’re serving the song and not serving the ego, things have an opportunity to flow and to just go and get out of the way. The craft of the songs, specifically what the song is asking, supersedes me.”
Midway in, mehro dips into Greek mythology with the gentler instrumental “Oneroi,” named after the sons of Hypnos, and the god of sleep, before the acoustic charm of “Laughing,” the song mehro says “opened the floodgates” of the album. “’Trauma Lullabies’ wasn’t something that was consciously created,” shares mehro. “These songs just arose. Once enough of them revealed themselves, we saw what was asking to be birthed. Towards the end, there was more of a conscious effort of getting certain songs to sound a certain way.”
On “Need to Be” mehro reveals more vulnerabilities—I need to be needed / I need to be loved—before closing on the somber “Dying in a Dream.”
“They all deal with very dark, or even disturbing subject matter, but it sounds lovely for the most part,” says mehro of their trauma lullabies. “And each has a lullaby quality to them as well. Each of them could be turned into a lullaby, and that was not something that was conscious.”
Since mehro’s 2021 debut Sky on Fire 2021, and Dark Corners and Alchemy from 2023, songwriting has taken different shapes. “I prefer the work that I’m associated with when it isn’t cerebral,” says mehro. “I’m not sure whether it’s either a lack of my intelligence or a dislike of my intelligence, but when my brain gets in the way or thinks that something has merit, then all merit is lost.”
In some ways, releasing songs is like planting a tree, says mehro. “It’s not a part of you anymore,” they say. “You can guide it, attempt to give people context for the work, but the work will thrive and survive on its own. My mind is already on the future because the source of creation is intoxicating, but at the same time, I want this album to be heard by as many people as possible, and it has just started its journey.”
[RELATED: Mehro Uncovers Darker Side on “Hideous”]
Mehro doesn’t take any of their songs for granted, and their impact on fans, and recalls a recent story around their 2021 single ‘hideous” from Sky on Fire. After a sold-out show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, New York, a fan shared how the song transformed his life. “There was a man in line, who waited a long time to talk with me after the show,” remembers mehro. “He said ‘My life is so different because of that song.’ He married this woman who knew he was bisexual, and the families that they came from, that was not okay. So basically, they had to pretend as if that part of him didn’t exist, and they were married for years, while he felt himself withering away.”
After hearing “hideous,” he divorced his wife and became alive,” says mehro. “Life came back to him, because he’s longer cutting off a part of him that he knows isn’t him.”
Hearing other people’s stories, and performing allows the songs to evolve, says mehro. “It’s about the original inspiration for what had happened versus how it’s reacted in the world,” they say. “Everything affects everything.”
For now, trauma lullabies are steadily absorbing. “Especially in today’s music time,” says mehro, “where it might take a week a month, a year, or a decade, for something to resonate.”
They continue, “I believe in this whole entire album, regardless of how many streams it gets, and how many people listen to it. I just wholeheartedly believe in it. From start to finish, it just feels right. I’m so glad that it’s out in the world.”
Photos: Russell Tandy / Courtesy of 2b Entertainment
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