Tag: SCRAMBLED MEGGZ

OUT OF EARSHOT: INTERVIEW #5 – MEG HARNUM

As part of the media coverage for Out of Earshot’s inaugural festival on the weekend of August 23-25, 2018, not your boys club will be showcasing some of the truly wonderful people organizing, playing, and performing at the festival in the weeks leading up to it.

For the fifth installment in this interview series, I spoke with Meg Harnum (she/her), a musician/artist from St. John’s, NL. Meg has been playing drums in bands for over ten years (The Mudflowers, Punch Table, Hard Ticket, Thelma and Louise to name a few) and has been a drum instructor and band coach at Girls Rock NL for the past three years. In July, Meg was invited to Ojai, California where she was a drum instructor and band coach at Girls Rock Santa Barbara. Meg along with her partner and her two cats, Nanny and Poppy, will be temporarily relocating to Montreal for school at the end of August.

meghan harnum.jpeg
Photo by Shabnam Ferdowsi

Hard Ticket recently put out Same Pal – an EP about friends with shared lived experiences that can relate and offer support during personal hardship and struggle. As it’s an album about friendship, I first want to ask you about when you met Nicole and Mopey, and how the members of Hard Ticket offer each other the kind of support and friendship that this album is about.

I don’t remember exactly when or where I met Nicole and Mopey; St. John’s is a very small city and often living here you know of people long before you really ~know~ them but I am so eternally grateful that I did (meet them). Hard Ticket is like a family, we all offer each other a ton of support and love one another unconditionally and without judgement.

The year or so leading up to the time that Hard Ticket was formed, I was in a bit of a musical slump, full of self-doubt and unsure of my place in the music community. Then along came my Tickies, so upbeat, so posi, so full of love and light and encouragement and it made me feel so much better about everything. It lifted my spirits in a way that only they could.

In April, you put out a two-song EP under your solo project scrambled meggz. One of these songs, 2 little lazy eyes, is a song about friendship with Pepa Chan (of Lo Siento and Ribbon Tied). You sing about how she inspires you – I’m wondering if you can share a little bit more about this and more broadly how other women/non-binary people in the St. John’s music community inspire, support, and empower you.

Pepa Chan is one of my favorite people on earth. She is so unbelievably kind and talented. And strange. A true freak. In the best possible way. She is bursting with creativity. Everything she does is just so distinctly ~Pepa~. She is strong and resilient and a wonderful friend. I love Pepa.

St. John’s is full of amazing women & non binary folx doing incredible things, making beautiful music/art and just, like, making shit happen. All of the board members at Girls Rock NL, SWIM, The Out of Earshot committee. I feel inspired all the time by the initiative taken by all of these rad folx to create such an inclusive community for us all to exist in. I am so thankful to be given so many opportunities to play, teach and contribute. Everyone is so supportive of everyone else’s endeavors, it is a beautiful thing.

During your time working for Girls Rock Santa Barbara and Girls Rock NL, did you experience and build similarly supportive friendships, and furthermore, did you witness these friendships being built among the girls attending the camp?

Holy heck, yes, absolutely. Teaching and band coaching at Girls Rock NL/Santa Barbara has been, at the risk of sounding totally cliche, life changing. It really has. The level of support and understanding  that each and every person I have worked with at camp provides is unbelievable, to the campers and to each other. Watching the kids at camp get to know each other and encourage each other is so absolutely heartwarming and inspiring.

On a final note, I was wondering if you would be comfortable sharing what friendships with womxn and people with other marginalized gender identities means to you.

I have been so lucky in my life to always find myself surrounded by the most bad-ass, powerful, talented women/non-binary friends and I think there is something very special about that. The constant encouragement and love from my bandmates and friends and girls rock family has made me a much stronger and more confident person. I am truly very blessed.

STAFF CONTRIBUTION: Nikki A Basset

NYBC PRESENTS: LO SIENTO AT GREEN BEAN CAFE

On April 25th, not your boys club presented Lo Siento (NFLD) with scrambled meggz (NFLD) at the Green Bean Café in Windsor, ON. On the afternoon of the 25th, Lo Siento—Pepa, Andrea, and Meg (of scrambled meggz and filling in for Allison on drums)—pulled up to my house in their (hilarious) royal blue Dodge Charger. We had some time before they needed to load into the venue, so I took them across the river to Detroit to see the installations at the Heidelberg Art Project and the Detroit Industrial Gallery.

After our visit to Detroit, Lo Siento loaded into the Green Bean Café for their early show. Green Bean Café is a safe, accessible, dry, and inclusive space with a large capacity, great food, and a welcoming atmosphere. It was the perfect venue for the first not your boys club show. Before, between, and after sets, I played my favourite records (women and trans musicians only!).

Once a handful of people were there, scrambled meggz started her set. Meg has a way of making a show feel intimate and personal as if she’s playing in her living room to her closest friends. My favourite track that Meg played for us was “2 little lazy eyes (a song for pepa)” which was realeased on the two-track album xoxo only a few days before Lo Siento went on tour. When Meg didn’t have a trumpet for the solo, she compromised and sang it for us.

Lo Siento did not disappoint. Pepa sings in spanish, but regardless of language, she gets her (feminist) message across. Two specific songs, “Historia en el Placard” and “No Es No”, really resonated with me.

“Historia en el Placard” is a song that Pepa wrote about her experience of moving to Canada and learning of the injustices that Indigenous people face. She told us she wrote it specifically about the residential school systems and forced assimilation, and with the recent failures of justice for Colton Boushie and Tina Fontaine, this live performance hit me hard.

Second, “No Es No” (translates to “No Means No”) is a song about rape culture, victim-blaming, and informed consent. The song begins with a lyric that translates to “tired of feeling afraid”; a relatable lyric for any vulnerable person who is told that they are responsible for having resistance strategies when “no” is not enough.

Lo Siento delivered a set that was unapologetically sincere.  Their performance was a window into their unwavering friendship; while laughing at their mistakes and refusing to take themselves too seriously, they also communicated love for one another all throughout their set. It is unmistakable how much fun they have playing music together.

STAFF CONTRIBUTION: Nikki A. Basset