Natalie Mering

Natalie Laura Mering (born June 11, 1988), known professionally as Weyes Blood (pronounced , like "wise blood"), is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She was primarily raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She has been performing her own material under variations of the name Weyes Blood since 2003.

Mering's career began with her early involvement in the underground noise music scene and tenure as a member bassist of the Portland, Oregon-based experimental rock group Jackie-O Motherfucker and singer for the band Satanized.

As Weyes Bluhd she released three self-released solo albums exploring softer pop and folk sounds before adopting the alternate moniker Weyes Blood to release ''The Outside Room'' (2011) on micro-label Not Not Fun Records. She then signed a recording contract with independent label Mexican Summer, releasing '' The Innocents'' (2014) and '' Front Row Seat to Earth'' (2016). She released her fourth studio album, ''Titanic Rising'' (2019) on Sub Pop, to critical acclaim. Her fifth studio album, ''And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow'', was released on Sub Pop on November 18, 2022 to further acclaim.

Life and career

1988–2002: Early life

Natalie Laura Mering was born on June 11, 1988, in Santa Monica, California, into a deeply religious born again Pentecostal Christian family. Commenting on her upbringing, Mering said: "I was raised in a real spiritual, Bible Belt household. So I developed my own cynicism because there are always things in the Bible that really bum me out.... I became really obsessed with the Kids in the Hall as a kid, and they had Scott Thompson, who's like the one gay member. I remember having this feeling that 'Oh, Scott Thompson isn't going to heaven? How could that be?' That was my first big tipoff that something wasn't quite right with dogmatic Christianity. And then I was just trying to undo it at the age of 12."

Mering's family moved several times throughout her childhood; she spent her early life in Scotts Valley, California before they settled in Doylestown, Pennsylvania in 1999, where she attended high school. Both her older brothers and parents are musicians and music played an important part in her upbringing. Her father, Sumner Mering, is a musician and guitarist who was in the Los Angeles new wave band Sumner in the late 1970s.

2003–2014: Career beginnings and ''The Innocents''

At the age of 15, Mering began using the moniker Wise Blood (a reference to the 1952 Flannery O'Connor novel) to write songs. She changed to Weyes Bluhd on several self-released records before changing the spelling to Weyes Blood. After finishing high school, Mering relocated to Portland, Oregon to attend Lewis & Clark College, where she majored in music and had a radio show on the campus radio station. However, Mering dropped out after her first year of studies. She subsequently began touring the underground music scene, performing as a bassist in the Portland-based band Jackie-O Motherfucker and playing keyboards and singing with noise rock band Satanized.

In 2011, she released her debut studio album ''The Outside Room'' as Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices on Not Not Fun Records. '' Uncut'' magazine described the album as "devotional and ethereal, but with an edge", while Beatbots found it "an impressive and ambitious album". Brett Abrahamsen later included the album on his "ten greatest albums of the 2010s" list. Mering released her second studio album in October 2014 called '' The Innocents,'' which was released through Mexican Summer. It was recorded in rural Pennsylvania, Mering's apartment and Gary's Electric Studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It included contributions by Jacob Brunner (drums) and James Strong (bass). Mering described the theme of the album as being "about my first real relationship that went really awry."

2014–2021: ''Front Row Seat to Earth'' and ''Titanic Rising''

After the album's release, Mering relocated from New York to Los Angeles, California. She commented: "I was in New York alone: no friends, no money, no record deal at the time. Literally I had nothing." In 2016, she released her third studio album '' Front Row Seat to Earth'', on Mexican Summer to critical acclaim, and toured throughout Europe and the States. NPR wrote that the album re-examines "intimacy and idealism in ways that showcase Mering's gift for measuring and mediating heady emotions." Mering stated the songs on the album were largely inspired by the isolation she felt while living in New York.

On February 12, 2019, a new studio album was announced and available to pre-order on her website, along with dates of her upcoming tour. The album ''Titanic Rising'' was released by Sub Pop, on April 5, 2019 and received critical acclaim. Mering described ''Titanic Rising'' as "The Kinks meet WWII or Bob Seger meets Enya." ''Titanic Rising'' was described as a record about romantic disappointment, damaged reality, and finding hope.

The ''Titantic Rising'' album cover art was shot by underwater photographer Brett Stanley. His team, and a set designer, built an underwater teenage bedroom in a pool in Long Beach, California. In a two hour photoshoot session, before the set was destroyed by water, Stanley visually presented a life submerged in water and Mering rising above it. Mering described an adolescent's bedroom as a symbolic "subconscious altar", influenced by western culture. "The bedroom is an archetype. To me it stands for a lot of the silliness of our modern culture where the kind of things that we worship in our sacred spaces are based on media and movies because we don't really have much else in the way of myths, if that makes sense." The bedroom set's walls featured a series of posters—notably of her father, and Lou Reed. Mering was originally inspired by friend and artist Ariana Popedum-Metropolis, who gave her the concept of a bedroom album cover. Mering had researched old childhood bedrooms from the 1990s, and wall collage art. She was also influenced by the band The Magnetic Fields, and their use of a bedroom stage set.

The music video for her song "Movies", starred a Hollywood starlet looking at herself in the mirror, while underwater. "I experience movies, as these dark, psychological manipulations or something. My relationship to them is maybe a little more intense than most people." Later, Mering released a music video for her 2019 hit song " Andromeda" on April 16, 2024, five years after the initial album release of ''Titanic Rising''. The album received high placements on the 2019 year-end and decade-end lists from publications such as ''Pitchfork'', ''Uproxx'', ''Paste'', ''Uncut'', ''Dazed'', ''The Guardian'', and NPR.

On July 16, 2019, Mering had her television debut on ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'', where she performed her single "Everyday" from ''Titanic Rising''. Live performance highlights include sold-out tours in the US and Europe, as well as opening for Kacey Musgraves in the fall of 2019 and singing with Lana Del Rey at the Hollywood Bowl.

On October 29, 2020, she helped canvass for the Democratic Socialists of America.

2022–present: ''And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow''

On September 12, 2022, Mering announced her fifth studio album ''And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow'' and released her first single, " It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody" on the same day. The music video was inspired by Gene Kelly's Jerry the Mouse performance from the 1945 musical film '' Anchors Aweigh.'' Mering introduced the album as a statement on the current state of the world, and the effects of capitalism, social media, and the rise of technology. "I think there's a hyper-isolation situation going on where technology has created this environment where people are expected to be completely self-sustainable and not interdependent on other people." The album's second single, "Grapevine", followed and was released on October 11, 2022. The song was named after the Californian Ridge Route highway, and was inspired by a personal break–up from a "narcissistic" musician.

On November 18, 2022, the album ''And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow'' was released and received critical acclaim, aggregating a weighted average score of 88 on Metacritic based on 24 critic reviews. The album's cover art was photographed by Neil Krug. Mering described the album as "''Blade Runner'' meets ''Pride and Prejudice''." Musically, she was inspired by the late British-American artist Scott Walker, and his series of 1960s innovative albums—in particular, ''Scott 3,'' and ''Scott 4''. For the album, Mering told ''Loud and Quiet'', "I wrote the song 'Hearts Aglow' and when I was thinking about the album artwork, I was like, well, you know, what I've never done is built a prosthetic. So I found somebody that could build a prosthetic, glow-in-the-dark chest plate. I just thought that would be so fun to take pictures of and make videos with. So we just went for it. And the dress was actually a Halloween costume that I just happened to put on for one of the shoots."In 2023, Mering embarked on the In Holy Flux Tour, a promotional tour for the album, where she traveled across North America and Europe. Mering performed at Coachella 2023, on the Park Stage at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival, and at the 2023 Fuji Rock Festival. The music video "God Turn Me Into a Flower" was a featured video on her tour, and was a retelling on the myth of Narcissus. The music video for the song "Hearts Aglow" was directed by Neelam Khan Vela, and showcased as a visual collage of the tour, summarizing key moments.

Collaborations

Mering collaborated with Drugdealer for his 2016 album ''The End of Comedy''. She featured on his songs "Suddenly" and "The End of Comedy", appearing among other guest artists on the album. Mering was also heavily involved Tim Heidecker's 2020 concept album ''Fear of Death'', singing on all twelve tracks, co-writing two, and receiving a co-producer credit.

In 2021, Mering and Zella Day released the topical song "Holocene". Day told ''Rolling Stone'', "My hope is that 'Holocene' reminds people that the world is much bigger than ourselves. I've never lived through a world war but I imagine that what we are dealing with is comparable suffering on the global scale. This song poses the question of how we as the individual can move forward as well as how the world is going to begin healing. Time will and always does tell."

Mering received wider attention when she featured, along with Zella Day, on the closing track of Lana Del Rey's 2021 studio album ''Chemtrails over the Country Club'', a cover version of Joni Mitchell's "For Free". Previously, in 2019, they performed the song in concert as an a capella trio. Del Rey has described Day and Mering as, "Some of the most talented singers in L.A., and maybe the world." For Del Rey's album, Mering was involved in the photoshoot by Neil Krug, dressed in an all black western attire.

Mering has toured and collaborated with Caroline Polachek. In 2022, Mering made a guest appearance serving coffee to Polachek in the music video for her song " Welcome to My Island". On February 7, 2024, they released an alternative remix version of Polachek's song "Butterfly Net", from her 2023 album '' Desire, I Want to Turn Into You''. The song appeared on the 'Everasking Edition' of the album.

In 2025, Mering reunited with Drugdealer by realising a new single and music video ''Real Thing'' , her first collaboration with the L.A. based artist after six years.

Musical style and influences

Mering's musical style has been labelled as chamber pop, psychedelic folk, soft rock, noise and experimental rock.

Mering has stated that church music, which figured prominently in her upbringing, has been an influence on her song-writing. "Most of the great classical music and early music of our time is written for God in a sacred space," she said. "So sacred music and sacred space music—that was my favorite thing about music. Not so much content-wise. Not so much the theory and concept of God, but just the idea that we've built this gigantic, stone cathedral palace for people to sing in...When I record, I think about sacred space and I think about what would be the sound of your soul if there is music coming out of it. It would probably be an echoey, strange chamber."

In a 2019 interview with Nardwuar, Mering revealed that she is also influenced by the Velvet Underground, Wolf Eyes, and experimental artist Inca Ore. Mering states in the same interview, that earlier on in her career while making experimental music, people likened her songs to horror film soundtracks. She began to listen to and be influenced by film soundtracks, such as '' Jaws'' (1975) and ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939).

Mering is highly influenced by the late singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, in both singing style and song-writing. Mering tends to emulate men over women artists, however, she has also been influenced by Joni Mitchell, Nico, and Judee Sill. In a 2021 ''Mojo'' magazine article on the celebration of the 50th anniversary of ''Blue'', Mering talked about Mitchell's song "My Old Man". She described Joni's general sound as "blues and gospel meets jazz" and how "it's her individual timing and strangeness that gives it the transcending feel." She holds Mitchell in the highest regard and named ''Hejira'' as her favorite album. However, Mering has found it difficult to relate to Mitchell's high soprano voice, and preferred the style of Nico's lower voice. "Here's a woman with a ridiculously low voice who is not always on pitch—like me—and she's just ripping it." In 2022, Mering appeared in the music documentary ''Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill'' (2022) and described Sill's style of music, as her "literally crying out to God for mercy. It's a level of desperation and vulnerability that totally transcends a lot of the real personal songwriting that goes on at the time." In a 2022 interview with the Quietus, Mering listed thirteen albums that are influential to her: Alice Coltrane's '' Universal Consciousness'', Ween's ''Quebec'', Stevie Wonder's ''Talking Book'', XTC's ''English Settlement'', Vangelis's ''Opéra sauvage'', The Roches's '' Speak'', Joni Mitchell's ''Hejira'', Cocteau Twins's ''Treasure'', Syd Barrett's ''The Madcap Laughs'', Robert Wyatt's '' Rock Bottom'', Lou Reed's '' The Bells'', John Cale's '' Paris 1919'', Can's ''Monster Movie''.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Soundtrack

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Promotional singles

Music videos

Guest appearances

Tours

;Headlining
* Something to Believe Tour (2019)
* In Holy Flux Tour (2022–2023)

;Supporting
* Father John Misty – Pure Comedy Tour (2017)
* Beck and Phoenix – Summer Odyssey Tour (2023)

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

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Weyes Blood
at Bandcamp
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{{Authority control

1988 births
American contraltos
Living people
Lewis & Clark College alumni
Mexican Summer artists
Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area
Musicians from Santa Monica, California
Musicians from Portland, Oregon
People from Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Singers from Los Angeles
Singers from Oregon
Singers from Pennsylvania
21st-century American women
American feminist musicians
Jackie-O Motherfucker members
Former Pentecostals