Interview 1 - March 7th 2006 | Interview 2 - October 9th, 2006

Kyrstal Meyers Interview #2 - October 9th, 2006

Jeremy Koering of Music Faith: Dying for a Heart came out just a few weeks ago; can you tell me some highlights about the record?

Krystal Meyers: Yeah definitely, well this is my second record, [so] it was a very familiar experience. I felt a lot more comfortable in the studio… so that was really cool. Vocally I think… it was a lot more familiar and a lot easier. Because before hand I was only sixteen and never had been in the studio really, and I didn’t really do shows. So my vocals were still maturing, [so] it was a whole new world. This time around it was a lot easier to do it. It was a lot of fun Dying for a Heart basically has two meanings behind it. It has the Christian industry and such… ultimately that’s kind of what Christ did for us on the cross. But kind of more universal theme, our hearts are always looking for a place to find answers, to come home and find resolve. And I guess with this record we wanted to kind of point some direction towards that. And some meaning of hope and peace and stuff like that.

Jeremy Koering: What was the release day like?

Krystal Meyers: It was really low key! Well actually I had to get up and be at the label at 6:50 to start all of these interviews. And it’s funny because, I’d set my alarm clock for 5:45, 5:55 and 6:00 so I could make it down there and get ready. But I’d slept through all three of the alarms and didn’t wake up ‘til like 6:30 and I was like oh gosh! I have to be there in like ten minutes. And I got there on time thankfully. I had… man how long was it… lets see… like 8 hours of interviews [Music Faith Wow that’s crazy!] Yeah! Just doing phone interviews, newspaper article interviews, and going to lunch with one of the Christian book stores. So it was a very busy day, but other than that, just kind of came home and hung out with everybody. It wasn’t like last year where we had a big CD release show, and that was totally fine with me. Do interviews and be like “hey by the way my record released today.” [Laughs]

Jeremy Koering: What are some of the changes or differences that make your debut and Dying for a Heart different?

Krystal Meyers: Kind of like what I was saying the studio stuff, first [CD… I was] sixteen years old. We had songs that I wrote back in the 9th grade when I was 13-14, and then there were brand new songs. It was my first time to be able to co-write with people and so that was an experience for me… and also the studio was a new experience and touring after making that record was a new experience. So we were doing all songs off the new record, but touring in its self and meeting people from all walks of life and backgrounds and all that sort of stuff definitely gave inspiration for the new record. Also with the second record there is a year and a half of more growing, so I’m 18 years old now vs. 16 and I have matured as a person, but also as a song writer and also as a vocalist. It was a very familiar experience… writing and all of that… but it was also a challenge, I was told by my A&R a week before my first record came out, I need to start writing for a second record. And I was like “What? My first record hasn’t come out yet!” [Laughs] And so there was that pressure there and I was in… kind of in a dry season writing wise, because I was so focused on touring because that was such a new experience. And I still went through a five month dry season… I just wasn’t able to write for five months after she told me that. And finally inspirations come in. It was helping me as a writer and as a person, because I totally had to surrender it all to God because this is a ministry to me if I’m not kind of surrendering, I’m kind of doing it in vain basically. So once I kind of lay that all down I was like alright God if you want me to have a second record I’m going to have to trust you to give me inspiration and He totally did. So that was really cool, it’s also a relief to have it out finally, to be able to two records under my belt now, I’m finally writing for a third one not having to wait for months to write for inspirations. [Laughs]

Jeremy Koering: How did you continue the “Anticonformity” anthem into this album?

Krystal Meyers: There are a bunch of different ways and stuff; it’s who I am as a person and an artist naturally, but song wise… “Stand and Scream” is a song on the second record about basically finding your voice, about not backing down when people are saying what they think and having their opinions. About being able to step and not be walked on and say “Hey this is what I believe, and this is who I am.” Not kind of living in a shame because you’re afraid of what people are going to think… if you say what you really want to say… It’s not about living in silence it’s about having that voice and having the strength and to speak up in what you say and really show who you are. And also with the song “The Situation” that’s kind of a more specific form of that. It’s definitely about not having to conform to fact that everybody is having sex. It’s kind of being numb to the fact that hey this was created for marriage. God intended this to be sacred. It’s really been in the past however many years… 20-30 years… it’s began to kind of lose the intimacy that God had created for. And especially now I know six graders that are off having sex with one another and I’m like… uh do you even have hormones yet? Like I’m confused… [Laughs]… The media is so caught up in so and so is sleeping with so and so… or what’s her name just had an affair with blah blah blah how does that leave her husband… it’s such a big deal that there is so much pressure to step up to the plate or think that it’s not a problem. It’s about not giving into that lie. About, not thinking as a girl that you need a guy to be able to feel beautiful, it’s about finding your identity in Christ and being satisfied with that. Being ok with being by yourself or being ok with… hey… I am valued; I am beautiful, because God says so. Or chasing after God and becoming a man that way, instead of having the mentality of however many women I can sleep that turns me a man. Because you can be 40 years old and have that same mentality and you’re not a man you’re immature. And “men” aren’t immature, and so it’s mentally and emotionally a maturity level and stuff, and God can provide that…

Jeremy Koering: What kind of comments have you been receiving for “The Situation?”

Krystal Meyers: A lot of positive ones! The cool thing is that a lot of people have been coming up… parents and kids [say] “Hey I appreciate the fact that you’re kind of taking a walk on that line, that very fine line on a touchy subject, and not being afraid of that hey this is a touchy subject.” So that’s really cool. I wasn’t sure what the label would think of it. Like me and my guitarist went in for one of the… kind of songwriter meeting that the label was doing with us, to narrow down what songs would make the record. And we saved that one for the last. We had like… 6 songs we were going through and we saved it last because [they’d] be like this is a little too edgy… That was the one song that they were like do not touch a thing, that’s great! You guys hit the nail on the head. So that was really encouraging and then I was really excited to start playing it live and to come out and the response and it’s been going really, really well.

Jeremy Koering: Your first single from Dying for a Heart is Collide can you tell me a little about it?

Krystal Meyers: Yeah, Collide is actually the one song on the record that I didn’t write. But it’s cool because when I was in the process of recording the guy who engineered the record was looking for another song we had been working on. And he accidentally hit play on Collide which was a song him and Ian (my producer) had written a years ago. He was like oops wrong song, and I was like wait no this sounds really cool and I want to hear it, he was like oh okay… and I was like who has recorded that song? And he was like nobody, I was like have you been pitching it to people, he said no not really. It’s kind of been on the back burning and so I was like can I have it? He’s like well maybe. And we all talked about it and they gave me the option to write on to it if I wanted to. They were like we know you’re a song writer, we know that it’s important to make it your own. Honestly I tried writing on it, but I was like this song is exactly where it needs to be. I wish I did write it, because it’s a great song. So it totally speaks what I want to would say. And so I left it alone and just recorded it. It’s such an awesome song and they did a great job on it. It’s about kind of letting loose and kind of running off to God and saying I am here, I want you to hit me with whatever it is you got. As hardest as you can with your love, with whatever you want me to do.

Jeremy Koering: Beauty of Grace is written like a letter to a friend, is there an inspiration or story behind it?

Krystal Meyers: Yeah there’s multiple stories and stuff behind it. There are a lot of people, and I think personally, not only with me, but with other people I know, I think all of us can have areas in out life that we don’t really want to open up about. It might not be a part of us anymore; it might not be who you are. But, you can’t really let go of that, because you don’t want anyone to think differently of you. You’re afraid of somebody might react if you tell them the stories you’ve gone through. I did write it from a friend to friend, saying hey no matter where you are in life God is there, God won’t tell your secrets. He wants to be able to hold you and make things good and wipe that slate clean. And He doesn’t keep a record of things you’ve done wrong, if you ask for forgiveness, and it can also be from God to His child.

Jeremy Koering: Hallelujah is your first worship song, what inspiration did you have to write a worship song?

Krystal Meyers: Y’know… being that it is a worship song makes it inspirational to me. It’s God, there is no other explanation for it. I know personally, I have always loved worship. That is my favorite part of going to church on Sunday or whenever, just be able to have worship between you and God. And of coarse I’m a singer and so it’s fun to kind of use your gift or whatnot to praise the Lord. Personally I didn’t know that it was going to make it on the record or not. I myself just wanted to write something I enjoy doing, and that’s worship. And being that it is a ministry that I do that just made sense, so I don’t know, I just kind of wanted to write a song, that for one there aren’t that many 18 year old girl artists out there, for two teenagers that have a worship song that they’ve written or that they can worship to, it’s all old hymnals… [Laughs] and I wrote it and threw it out there, if it sticks, it sticks, if not at least I wrote a worship song and it was my heart being poured out to my Heavenly Father.

Jeremy Koering: Is there a song that you like or that sticks out to you more?

Krystal Meyers: Probably “The Situation” honestly, I think that, as a song writer that is the one song that stuck out to me and I guess I’m proud of, because for five months, ever since my A&R said you need to start writing, my guitarist is like I have music and stuff for it. And I was like oh this is awesome. I had the melody and the music, but I couldn’t write lyrics to it. And when I did the lyrics wouldn’t stick. And I was just like, I think this song can be a really strong song, but the lyrics I have right now aren’t coming up to par. But I was like I don’t want to throw it away because it has great potential. It took 5 months with just music and melody to come up with anything. And when me and my guitarist, Bryan, were in my dads office and finally we were like AH! I think we got it. And it poured out in just an hour basically, and I was like alright I feel good about this. And the label loved it and its fun to live and it’s been having a great response. I don’t know. It really felt like it was God breathed I guess. Five months of waiting of uh, I’m not going to through it away, because I know God has a reason for it. Finally it came out and I think it’s a challenging song, I think that there’s nothing sugar coated about it. It’s just how thick it is. And some people aren’t going to like and think that it is too much of a touchy subject. Why should I be singing about that, but that’s just who I am. I’m not afraid to take a chance at that. And so far I haven’t gotten a bad response from it. It’s great!

Jeremy Koering: You’ve turned out to be a huge hit in Japan right?

Krystal Meyers: Mmhmm

Jeremy Koering: What has been the most exciting event or thing to come from the whole Japan experience?

Krystal Meyers: I think everything honestly. Like there is not one bad experience over there. It’s really surreal, first to be in Japan at all. And second for it to be so accepted and stuff. ‘Cause I went on vacation with my family and I came home and I knew the first single had just been released which was “Anticonformity” and the record hadn’t released yet. So I’m like home and tired and my dad races into the room and he’s like you’ll never believe what just happened. And I’m like what, and he’s like I just got an email you went number 1 in Japan. And I was like what?! And I was like are you serious? And he was like yeah! And guess who you beat out, and I was thinking, and I have no clue trying to think of some random Asian artist that I’ve never heard of, and he was like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I was like uh, NO! [Laughs] And I totally freaked out; it was one of things where I was just thinking… uh this is weird! To be over there and have so many people listening, in a country so void of Christ, to have the spotlight, not for my benefit but for Christ and God’s glory. And it was cool the first time we went over there! And we did the cover shoot for Nylon Magazine, and that was cool because that is one of my favorite magazines. And we did the Vans cover shoot and that was cool because I’ve always have loved their shoes and got free shoes so that was cool! [Laughs] It’s a different world over there, its different culture… people are so full of respect and are so soft spoken. Its celebrity status, but it’s not the way it’d be here. If you’re a celebrity you’ll have paparazzi and people are intrusive, they want to know your business is. That country is so built on respect that they’d never dare to mow you down and disrespect go up to you. They do want your autograph and they do it in a very orderly fashion. They come up and got it on a clipboard and say “Can you please sign here?” You sign everything first, then take a picture, it’s so orderly. It’s exciting, they’re excited, and I’m excited. They don’t know very good English, but yet they’re singing along, it’s awesome, it’s so cool! The people are just so cool over there! I get to go back November 1st and can’t wait to see what happens next. The 25th of this month Dying for a Heart releases over there! So it’ll be cool!

Jeremy Koering: I’m working on a story on AudioA, have they influenced you or your music?

Krystal Meyers: Yeah it’s funny… I actually, grew up listening to them. I’ve always loved rock music and stuff. When we moved down to Nashville, Way FM was kind of the first Christian station out there. And they always played AudioA and I loved their stuff and had at the time all their tapes and listened to them all the time at home. I actually… when I first started making an appearance on the music scene and stuff, when I recorded Anticonformity for the first time, Ben Cissell [who plays drums for AA] played drums on that song for the first recording. And then he calls Will and Mark and was like Hey I’m playing for this girl and she’s awesome, come down and see! Will brings a video camera and is like hey Krystal come outside and talk to us and is video taping it and everything. Then after that I talked to Flicker records, which was their record label for a long time and we ended up signing with Essential and whenever we played shows we’d be like Hey man what’s up? And we would all talk and everything which was great. And so Flicker just merged with Provident/Essential and stuff, which was cool, I was talking to Will and Mark at GMA this year and they were like it’s really neat because it didn’t work out with us but not that our two labels have merged so we still get to see what is going on in your life, its is really neat! They’re awesome guys, it’s sad to see that this is their last closing days as a band. But they’re such awesome guys and they have an awesome vision and such a passion for everything they do which is awesome!

Jeremy Koering: Do you have any last comments?

Krystal Meyers: No I think you touched on everything! [Laughs]