mp3 premiere: "Magic Castle" - Meredith Meyer

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Artwork: Meredith Meyer

Today we're excited to premiere "Magic Castle," the self-titled track from Meredith Meyer's upcoming EP. You may know Meyer from Young Unknowns, but this release is solely her own. "Magic Castle," is a romantic, dreamy declaration to "risk it all," making the most of the moments life has given us now. It's a more than suitable message as Meyer explains the otherworldly inspiration behind the single:

I wrote this song about 8 or so years ago, when I was slumming it in Los Angeles, after having an experience in the magician's dressing room at the Historic Brookledge Theatre.  There is a rich history to this place as it is considered the "original Magic Castle," a school for magicians and home to performers that is now part of Hollywood folklore. The dressing room at Brookledge is supposedly haunted by the spirits of magicians past. 

I performed there for a private party and had an odd experience in the dressing room where I felt like I encountered a ghost. One of the daughters of Milt Larsen asked me about it, and she told me she believed me. She asked me if I believed in magic. I have never forgotten that moment.  I wrote the song but never recorded it. Instead I put it in the bottom of a cardboard box along with the lyrics of dozens of other songs I have never recorded. 

A long time later when packing to move to New York, I found the lyrics in the box, and remembered the melody. I began to play it live at solo shows but never recorded it. But I couldn't get the melody off my mind. I've even had people hear it live and tell me they couldn't get the song out of their head; that it haunted them. I finally decided to record the song with a NY musician/ producer friend Matt Keating, and he loved it. We worked on the song in New York but for some reason it didn't feel 100% finished, so I finished recording it where the song began, in Los Angeles, during a visit to the musically rich Laurel Canyon. ( I recorded the rest at Canyon Hut with Tim Hutton, and I had Brandon White add some guitar to it. Then had my longtime producer and friend Bill Racine do the final mix). 

I feel like the song is a little bit prophetic, with everything that is happened in the world since it was written. The question of the song is, who do you choose to be? What kind of person are you going to be in your lifetime? I don't think there has ever been a more important time than now for us to ask ourselves that question.  Maybe the ghost back then saw into the future. Maybe he/she knew what we'd be going through today. Either way, here we are.