{"id":243458,"date":"2020-01-29T21:45:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T02:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243458"},"modified":"2020-01-29T21:45:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T02:45:31","slug":"meghan-trainor-leaves-pain-behind-and-offers-fresh-new-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/29\/meghan-trainor-leaves-pain-behind-and-offers-fresh-new-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Meghan Trainor leaves pain behind and offers fresh new music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was her second time in the operating room for vocal cord work and it led to weeks of silence, anxiety and depression. The \u201cAll About That Bass\u201d singer worried she’d never be able to perform again. (File photo<\/a>: Ronald Woan\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Four years ago, Meghan Trainor won the Grammy Award for best new artist. On the first anniversary of that very win she was literally speechless \u2014 under the knife for vocal surgery.<\/p>\n

It was her second time in the operating room for vocal cord work and it led to weeks of silence, anxiety and depression. The \u201cAll About That Bass\u201d singer worried she’d never be able to perform again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to a dark place. And I climbed out of it and I conquered it and I was really proud of myself,\u201d she tells The Associated Press \u201cMy therapist was like, `You should treat yourself after what you went through.\u201d’<\/p>\n

So that’s why Trainor’s third album is called \u201cTreat Myself,\u201d a 15-track collection that sees the singer-songwriter stretch past her signature doo-wop pop sound to embrace hip-hop and electronic elements.<\/p>\n

There’s the Sia-like \u201cWave,\u201d the slinky club banger \u201cNice To Meet Ya\u201d with Nicki Minaj and soaring ballads like \u201cAfter You\u201d alongside familiar retro and ’60s-inspired tunes like \u201cNo Excuses\u201d and \u201cEvil Twin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve always been writing songs in many genres,\u201d she says. Her dad introduced her to gospel, soul and funk, like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. Mom leaned toward the pop of Madonna and ABBA. A Trinidadian uncle turned her on to soca music. She herself grew up with Brittney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I try to write, I try to give all my influences in that. I always want to make up a pretend genre \u2014 six different genres in one song,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Tommy Bruce, her manager, has watched as Trainor over the past three years has explored whatever musical inspiration strikes, not caring about labels or charts.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is such a wildly talented artist, from musicianship to songwriting to producing, and she has this ability to move between genre and style with such ease,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Listen very carefully to Trainor’s new album and you’ll discover it’s very much a family affair. Her brothers \u2014 Justin and Ryan \u2014 have writing credits and sing background. Her parents \u2014 Gary and Kelli \u2014 supply background vocals and claps. Even her husband, actor Daryl Sabara, sings on nine tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s my No. 1 fan, like legitimately,\u201d she says of Sabara. \u201cHe plays my music all the time. I hear him blasting it in the car and when he’s in the shower. It’s just the best to feel so loved and supported like that by your husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this album, Trainor sought out new producers, which resulted in stretching her sound. She had success with Ricky Reed on the last album, \u201cThank You,\u201d but says she felt too safe doing it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m a creature of habit. When I found someone who understood how I worked, I thought, `This is great. Let’s do this forever.’ So for this album, I really wanted to get out there and meet as many songwriters and producers as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time, some of the producers include Mike Sabath, Eddie Benjamin, King Henry, Ojivolta, Zach Skelton, Sigala, Tyler Johnson and Andrew Wells, purposely trying to lift up emerging talent. She also shared the microphone with Minaj, Nicole Scherzinger, AJ Mitchell, Lennon Stella, Sasha Sloan and Sabath.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like finally we have an album full of hit singles and I’m so confident in every song. We kept writing and saying, `May the best song win,\u201d’ she says. \u201cNow we have this album that we’re finally read to show the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the songs have Trainor’s trademark messages of empowerment. \u201cLove yourself,\u201d she sings in \u201cBabygirl.\u201d On \u201cWorkin’ On It,\u201d she admits to fighting thoughts of self-loathing: \u201cI should give myself way more love.\u201d And on \u201cNo Excuses,\u201d she demands respect: \u201cI don’t disrespect you, don’t you disrespect me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really hard to write a self-love, empowering anthem without being cheesy,\u201d she says. \u201cThat’s something that the world loves and needs. I know I need it, and it’s something I want to hear on the radio. So those are my favourite songs to write because I’m working on it every single day \u2014 my confidence and my self love. I know somebody else needs it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album also has a few inside jokes. It gives her a kick that the title `Treat Myself’ is her initials backward. And she has a call-back to her first big hit in \u201cGenetics\u201d when she sings \u201cHow you get dat bass?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trainor, who plans to tour with Maroon 5 this year, also has a side hustle as a musical judge. She spent two seasons on \u201cThe Four\u201d and recently replaced Jennifer Hudson in the spinning chair at \u201cThe Voice UK.\u201d For someone who’s been writing songs since she was 7, is it easy for an artist to shoot down another artist?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is weird, I’ll tell you that. The majority of the singers on `The Voice’ are way better singers than I am,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was really difficult to be like, `Who’s the best of the best?’ and knowing we had 40 more people to listen to. It was a very difficult mission to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Four years ago, Meghan Trainor won the Grammy Award for best new artist. On the first anniversary …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":243459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243461,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243458\/revisions\/243461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}