Interview with MEGG
Inspired by pop star Britney Spears, sophomore vocal performance major Meghan Mahowald always knew she wanted to sing but just didn’t know what type of venue would suit her — until she arrived at USC. 
Growing up with the likes of Paramore and No Doubt flooding her MP3 player, Mahowald sang country, participated in a pop group and performed in musical theater. It wasn’t until she came to USC that she realized singing rock was her passion and that she felt most comfortable with the pop-punk style.
In addition to singing, Mahowald is also a songwriter.
“I didn’t realize I could really write songs ‘til my senior year of high school, and toward the end of high school I realized that musical theater is great but I want to be in a band and I want to sing on stage, I want to write and sing about my own experiences,” she said.
In her songs, Mahowald writes about everything from boy troubles to the tough life experiences sparked by her father’s passing when she was in 7th grade. The only girl among four brothers, she was forced to mature at a young age. As a result, songwriting became a means to express her colorful emotions.
A few weeks into her freshman year, Mahowald, who is now a sophomore, met classmate and guitarist Matias Mora and immediately began writing songs with him. Since then, guitarist Rob Nagelhout, bassist Hunter Porter and drummer A.J. Novak — all Thornton sophomores — joined the duo to form the up-and-coming pop-punk group, MEGG.
Although together for less than a year, MEGG has been quite prolific, releasing an EP and recording a music video. Ryan Silva, a friend at NYU, noticed Mahowald’s upbeat first single, “Break Up With Her,” and saw her potential. He proposed that MEGG create a music video to help publicize their music. Mahowald eventually agreed. She swiftly put together an artistic team comprised of USC sophomores Shayna Thea, a computer science and business administration major, and Justin Bettman, a business major, to film, edit and co-direct the music video.
“Everything was low budget, student run; we did it at my house, put a stage over my pool and invited all my friends and just kind of did it,” Mahowald said.
During the course of two days, the band recorded its first music video and also grew closer.
Despite MEGG’s astounding success, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the young aspiring artist. Between juggling her classes, performing in MEGG and having a social life, Mahowald struggles to find balance.
“It’s a lot of work because you have schoolwork and the music classes in the pop music program are extremely difficult so I have all those classes I have to balance, plus my GE, plus we have class bands in pop performance class,” she said.
To fellow aspiring artists, she recommends, “Do the work. You can have the talent and all that, but it really comes down to putting the work and time and you have really got to love what you’re doing. It’s a lot of time, a lot of hours and sacrifices and if you love what you’re doing, it’s worth it, but you have definitely got to put the work in.”
In the upcoming months, Mahowald hopes to build a larger fan base, work with other producers to release more EPs, perform at different venues, shoot another music video and perhaps tour this summer — and maybe even play some California dates for Warped Tour.
Mahowald’s energy seems limitless; she’s even been working on a clothing line that will hopefully be released in fall 2011.
To hear and find out more about MEGG, you can purchase MEGG’s music on iTunes, visit www.meggmusic.com or go on YouTube and search“OfficialMEGGMusic.” MEGG will also be playing a show at Tommy’s Place on Jan. 15 at 9:30 p.m.