Welcome to In Conversation, a special interview column on the site where we sit down with artists and dive deep into everything music. This week, Max and Joe spoke with Megan Targett of VEXED to discuss Negative Energy, track “Nepotism” and seeing Graphic Nature and Lake Malice at Download Festival.
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Max: You were recently announced to be playing at the final Techfest this year
Meg: That’s great because I had a tooth extracted on Wednesday, then on Friday morning, just before we left for Download, I found out I had to, well, on Thursday, shoot a music video. Then Friday, I had to go back to the dentist because I got dry socket. I spent the whole time at Download on a massive amount of painkillers and antibiotics. I felt awful the entire time being there. Everyone around me was drinking and having a great time while I was just sitting there in pain. So, yeah, it was the worst and I didn’t want to be there. At Techfest, I won’t have a horribly infected tooth and I can actually have a laugh, that’ll be nice. And the lineup is probably one of the best ones they’ve ever had.
Joe: Are there going to be any more tracks actually being added to the live set from the album?
Meg: We’re doing “X My heart <3” and “Trauma Euphoria“, and then we’re going to work “Nepotism” in there.
Max: What about “Extremists”? Are you ever gonna break that one out?
Meg: I would love to. Yeah, the boys however… Yeah, no.
Max: I’ve heard I spoke to Meyrick about that. You wrote the pattern for that one, didn’t you? Where it’s just like, it doesn’t repeat.
Meg: I like to do that, and just completely ruin their day. I’ll I’ll write like a rap and then Meyrick will put a click on and then I’ll just go into the booth and do it. Then the boys hear it and have to write something to it. It’s just fun, because it’s just like, it’s just a different way of writing and you never really know how the song is actually going to turn out. The boys hate me for it. So that’s fun , I would love to I’d love to do that live because I love the drop at the end. But you’ve literally just got to memorise a rhythm from start to finish that isn’t the same. They’re all right though, to be fair, I think we’ve done it once and it’s okay, but it’s just it’s just a bit mental because if one bit goes wrong, then you fucked for the whole track.
Max: Negative Energy is out soon, how are you feeling?
Meg: I’m really really excited because with Culling Culture, we’d already outgrown it by the time it came out. I love it but I cringe at a lot of it, at a lot of the songs. Whereas with Negative Energy, we’re proud of every single song that’s on it. And that’s seen as a bit cringe because, it’s not “cool” to be stoked about your music, but we genuinely are, and love every song. It’s really nice because, yeah, but we’re releasing something we’re really proud of. I just can’t wait for it to be out there so that we can actually play them and people, when they come across with us will see a lot more music that we actually love instead of songs that we don’t really like anymore.
Max: There was a bit less of a I say a bit quite a bit less of a lead time between recording and release on this than it was with Culling Culture as well wasn’t there, like Culling Culture, there was a long time between writing, recording and actually coming out.
Meg: Some of the songs on Culling Culture were like already three years plus old, we’d like outgrown them a long, long, long time ago. Whereas with Negative Energy, like it took us a year to try and figure out what it was we wanted to do, because we had like proper bad writer’s block, couldn’t figure out how what we wanted to write or how we wanted things to sound but as soon as we kind of realised what it was we wanted to do, we wrote the whole album and recorded it in the space of three months. It was like just the fastest easiest thing to ever write as soon as we broke down that wall. All in all, the whole thing has been done in about a six month period which is mental but at the same time great because it feels like we’ve been sat around doing nothing for years.
Max: It must be a great feeling to actually be able to just do that and put something out so quickly because I feel like with so many bands you kind of have to sit on something for like a year. Just out of like “oh we’ve got to plan this first and do this and this”.
Meg: Yeah, cause management and label we’re like you should probably you know take some time and spend a year getting your campaign ready and we were like “No we don’t want to sit around for another year just like planning stuff we just just get it done“. We will be on the edge of our seats constantly because like we’ve got a music video coming out in a few days and it’s still not been sent back yet.
Max: I’m impressed that you got a vinyl press for release on this by the way because I feel like that’s a big problem. I feel like a lot of times, they just can’t get that done for like a year after things come out.
Meg: It was tricky, to be honest but it’s a good thing and a bad thing. The people that do our vinyl and Napalm wouldn’t let us choose what we wanted. So, we don’t get a say in what colours they are but it’s good in the sense that they were like, “This is what we think looks good. And we’re printing it now. So it will be ready in time.” If we want to do like a variation in a few months after the album’s out, we probably will. It just means that something will be out in time which is kind of good and bad at the same time, it does look quite nice. They went for baby blue, so it does look quite cool.
Max: A lot of the lyrical content on this record is very emotionally charged. On Negative Energy, it feels like particularly like you’re quite angry. What’s the intention? Did you go into it being like, “I’m fucking pissed. And I want to just talk about what I’m pissed off about“?
Meg: I felt like with this album, I had absolutely nothing to lose. Behind the scenes, obviously, you guys will know, nothing with being in a band is simple. We’ve been shat on so much by people in our own team or just by people in the industry. I just got to the point where I was like, “I’ve got nothing more that we can lose, and I just don’t really care anymore. So I’m just gonna say it how it is“. And then, obviously, there was a lot of shit that was going on at home as well, in my personal life, which was just horrific. So to try and write lyrics that were sugar-coated or happy was just downright lying, to be honest, because everything was just awful. And that’s why it took us so long to write the album because we spent a year trying to write positive messages and trying to find a silver lining or something to write about all this bad stuff, but there just wasn’t one. So the second we just realised that everything was shit, and let’s just write about how bad things are. It took three months, and it was quite healthy. It was almost like a bit of a therapy session for the four of us. It was that really, just letting all the honesty out.
Max: Did you all have a hand in writing lyrics for this one then? Was it?
Meg: No, I just write lyrics. The boys were really struggling to write music as well, cmplete writer’s block from all four of us. And then Al took a step back for the writing after that first year because he was just having such a hard time. And so me, Willem and Jay, were just trying to figure it out. Eventually, when we kind of opened up to each other, and we were just like, “Yeah, the music industry is corrupt. Fuck, everyone just shits on you constantly. And everything at home is terrible“. We realised we’ve got stuff to write about.
Max: Inspiration. That’s the silver lining you’re looking for.
Meg: Exactly, yes. Yea That’s kind of why it’s so angry and bitter because instead of trying to be like, “We’re in a band, and we’re happy, and things happen for a reason“, we were like, “No, everybody just helps their friends out all the time, and nobody gives a fuck. If you’ve worked so hard for a decade, they’re just gonna give it to their mates, all these opportunities“. It was just an album of us telling people how it is, I think, as well as explaining the grieving process and things that were happening at home.
Joe: What do you think the response to “Nepotism” will be?
Meg: I think people will probably be a bit butthurt. It’s going to be a triggering word for a lot of people. We’ve done lyrical explanation videos, which we will release, and we’ve done one for “Nepotism“. That was originally going to be the first single, but then we were like, actually, we can’t deal with the drama that’s going to come with this song, so we’ll hold off. I think it could go one of two ways, people will either really agree with it and understand it, or people will think we’re just bitching and moaning. The reality behind it isn’t about the band and the people who get the opportunities because let’s face it, if I was in a position where it was like, my best friend is amazing mates with this huge band and they want to take us on tour, everybody would take the opportunities that you’re given. The point about the song was that it’s about the enablers and the fact that people don’t admit to it. There’s a lot of bands at the moment who have been given all these opportunities and these tours, and they’re saying, “we’ve worked so hard for this, blah, blah, blah“. In reality, they’re an industry plan, and their mate just gave them this tour. Just be honest about it. Unfortunately, people aren’t, which is frustrating.
Joe: It’s cool that someone’s saying this because people flip out when you use the word “industry plant”. There’s nothing particularly wrong with being an industry plant. It’s fine, as long as you’re honest about it but there’s a lack of transparency.
Meg: Exactly, either of those things are absolutely fine and justifiable. It’s the people that are lying about it or the people who are enabling it and have promised you certain things and then say, “Actually, no, sorry, we promised you this for the last six months, but we’re now giving it to somebody else because they’ve got tick-tock clout” or something.
Max: Is there no integrity in that?
Meg: Yeah, where’s the moral integrity? You know, if you’ve promised somebody something, keep your promises, you know, don’t just suddenly say, “We changed our mind because it will make me look good if I associate with this band“. I don’t know how people will interpret it. People will be upset about something, as always.
Max: People like to be upset about things, especially in the music world. It’s good to have someone in the position that you are being like, “This is bullshit. You can have these connections, but don’t tell me you don’t have them“.
Meg: Yeah, don’t lie about it. You just make other smaller bands feel like absolute shit for it. Be honest about it.
Joe: And I think that when you see it from a media side you realize, “oh, that person’s friends with that band”, and then they’ve got this opportunity.
Meg: The lesson from this album is just don’t get involved. Everybody in the sort of higher up places is corrupt. Nobody gives a shit about the actual bands. It’s just about money and clout. Just keep good people around you, basically.
Max: I want to talk about the secret vocal feature on this album from on PTSD. From Meyrick de la Fuente, doing his best news presenter voice?
Meg: It’s funny because I can’t take that song seriously, no matter how many times I listen to it. It’s like a really deep song, and I’ve had people who I’ve been speaking to be like, “Yes, it really took me by surprise. It’s a really deep song. It really hit me hard“. And I’m like, “I just laugh because it’s Meyrick“.
Max: And you actually got a vocal feature from Lockie.
Meg: I’ve been like a major fan of Alpha Wolf for a few years now. And I think they kind of realised that I was this ridiculous superfan. And probably to get me to shut up, they were like, “Yeah, we’ll feature on your album, just stop messaging us“.
No, though, we’ve been talking to them for a while because they’re just lovely people. And we’ve been trying to tour together, but that’s a whole different story. When we started writing “Lay Down Flowers“, we always wanted to have a feature on the album. And we originally were talking to somebody else, but their fee was and Lockie was always our number one as well, but because he was touring at the time, we didn’t think it was possible. When this other person who was our number two, was like, “Yeah, I’m going to charge five grand“, and we were like, “Yeah, we can’t afford that“. And then Lockie was like, “I’ve actually got a month free. I can do the song.” It worked out perfectly because he was our first choice. He’s who we wanted to work with. And yeah, he just nailed it in one, just got it done. And then he went back off on his tour. It was really kind of him because they’ve been so busy. They don’t get any time at home. So the fact that he was just like, “Yeah, I’ve got a month, let’s do it“, and he got it done and nailed it. Yeah, his vocals are insane.
Max: I do want to talk about “Anti Fetish”, obviously, you’ve probably seen all the comments and shit a million times over. The response to that song was quite interesting, I did see a few very tone deaf comments on that video.
Meg: There are people that it just completely goes over their heads. It just proves the point of the song.
I’ve watched a couple of review videos, I’ll always watch ones with YouTubers, or people that I trust and like, even if they don’t like the song, I appreciate them reviewing it. I watched one not that long ago, a couple of guys who I’d never heard of. After they’d finished watching it, they were like, “Yes, a good song but they do sound like Spiritbox“. And I was like, “What? We don’t sound anything like Spiritbox“.
Even on Spiritbox’s heavier stuff, we sound nothing like them. And I like Spiritbox, I actively listen to Spiritbox and we sound nothing alike. So again, it just kind of proved the point that a lot of people just can’t look past the fact that we’re female-fronted, to be honest.
Max: Exactly. Have you had anyone ask you the dreaded question on any of the interviews for this album cycle? “What’s it like to be a woman in metal?” Or, “How do you scream like that?”?
Meg: The funniest thing is that because I’ve been really ill with my teeth, the boys have had to take over a couple of interviews. And a lot of the time, they will get asked, “Well, I got all these questions for Meg, but I guess you’ll have to answer them. What do you think it’s like being a woman in metal?” And the boys are like, “How the hell would I know?“.
Max: It’s crazy, it’s just an absurd thing. You will still see people being like, “Oh, Spiribox are like if Paramore had breakdowns”. How do you even get to that? It’s literally just like you see a woman and you go, “That’s what they sound like. They sound like a woman“. Yes, that’s the genre. That’s the genre. I hate the female-fronted genre tag I always see online but there’s not a genre.
Meg: Yeah, like it all just sounds the same but to be honest, I have seen some improvement. I’ve spoken to a few people now who have commented or messaged me being like, “You’re one of my favourite female-fronted bands,” or “This is on my female-fronted playlist“, and I’ll be nice to them and try and explain how that is problematic without trying to make them feel stupid or disheartened. You know, I’ll try and say to them, “Do you mind just calling us a metal band? Because it actually has nothing to do with anything between my legs, you know, we’re just a band.” And they’re like, “Oh, right. Yeah, I didn’t see it from that point of view. Yeah, fair enough“. So I think if you can just talk to people about it, without having a go at them, try and get them to see it from your point of view, there are people who are starting to realise that it is just dumb, and an alliteration obsession. There will always be people that are just jerks and just don’t like women in metal, that will never go away.
Max: So, “It’s Not The End” is gorgeous. And very, very fucking sad. It’s also, I think, appropriately one of the more melodic ones on there, I’d say. So it looks a lot more like in an album that is like borderline deathcore. At points, it feels like a very somber break from that sound. Yeah. And it really makes some plays through that. I think. Was there an intention with that?
Meg: Yeah, definitely, it’s obviously about my grandpa who died. He was probably the band’s biggest fan, but also didn’t like the music. So when he’d wear our merch and go fishing with his country friends, and be wearing a VEXED t-shirt and be like, “Yes, this is my granddaughter’s band, terrible, but go support them, you know?” And yeah, he was just, you know, the most supportive and loveliest man. But he didn’t like the music so it was like, if I’m going to write a song about him, it’s got to be one he’d like.
Max: I think that song in particular is my favorite. I’m glad you were able to express yourself in a way that hopefully helps you cope with it. Writing a song about such a situation is never going to be easy.
Meg: Indeed, it was horrendous and I delved deep into it in many of the lyrics. I had to quit my job to provide home care. He was given 18 months to live but only survived three. He couldn’t breathe on his own and needed 24/7 oxygen. We set up a bed downstairs in the living room, and someone had to stay awake with him around the clock in case he couldn’t breathe. For those three months, I slept on a sofa next to him. I had nothing to do except watch over him and use my phone. I wrote the lyrics while sitting next to him, which makes singing, recording, and performing the song live even more challenging. It wasn’t like I wrote about it a few months after the fact. I was literally writing it while beside him, capturing the moment. So, it’s as personal and vulnerable as it gets. I’m glad people can hear that, but I also feel really bad as I’ve had several of the boys’ mothers texting me saying the song made them cry.
Joe: Where did the inspiration come from for the Negative Energy artwork? Was it K-pop inspired?
Meg: I don’t really know, it wasn’t originally intended to be K-pop. I just love 3D art and that sort of vibe, that aesthetic. Then when people said it looked like K-pop, I thought “Oh, yeah. It actually does“. It’s kind of like a happy coincidence, it wasn’t intentional, but it’s an added bonus.
Maximo David: Was there like a specification or an intention with the artwork? Like, did you request for something specific to be evoked?
Meg: I made a rough sketch on the iPhone equivalent of paint and sent it to a designer. I said, “I really want this but not terrible“. He sent back a few versions of what is now the album art. He absolutely nailed it. I love the whole melted metal 3D aesthetic and knew that’s the road we wanted to go down with the artwork and the look. I did a terrible version of it and our artist, Andre, drew it up and perfected it. His Instagram is filled with different things. It’s his job and it’s incredible how talented some people are. He finished that in a week. It was just insane.
Max: New Era now.
Meg: Yes, because we were trying so hard to be metal, and aggressive, just to stand out as a proper metal aggressive band. This time, we were just like, “I’m sick of barbed wire. I’m sick of red. I’m sick of all that sort of stuff“. So yeah, it’s a bit different in contrast, but fun to do something different.
Max: Definitely. The alternative aesthetics have been a thing in the merchandise recently as well. It’s like a bootleg band shirt that you did last year with the glitzy logo. It’s like something you’d find at a market stall of a glam metal band. I love that aesthetic. It’s just like, “Yeah, screw the whole, we need to be dark and metal. Let’s just be glitzy and have fun with it“.
Meg: Yeah, we like to make things that we personally like. And I’m sure you guys are the same. We don’t listen to metal all the time. Most of the time, I’m listening to Charlie XCX or Ashnikko, or something like that and the boys are the same. The clothes we wear, we don’t walk around wearing battle jackets and carrying Viking drinking horns.
Max: Going back to earlier, who did you see at Download?
Meg: I was going to Download really for Graphic Nature and Lake Malice, they were both amazing. They both completely nailed their sets and they didn’t let their nerves show at all, were just brilliant. Graphic Nature, I know, I’m biased anyway, but best set of the weekend, just absolute fucking filth. People were throwing down, people were leaving Lorna Shore to come watch them. And that’s saying something, they absolutely fucking nailed it. And then Bring Me The Horizon, I wanted to see them because they were the band that made me want to be in a band. So seeing them was amazing, I did have a little bit of a cry, which is embarrassing. they were incredible. And then I saw Evanescence, and Amy Lee is just pitch-perfect, she never hits a bad note. We saw Parkway? That was really cool. And then apart from that, I saw Three Days Grace. Me and my brother used to love them when we were little. We were headbanging along to “I Hate Everything About You“.
A huge thank you to Megan for chatting to us and answering our questions, you can pre-order Negative Energy here, and read our review in the coming days. You can also sign up to VEXED‘S Patreon here.