Project Meg is a new venture for 2026 and sees the artist behind it, Meg Mash re-establishing herself after some time combatting health issues that curtailed her involvement with her previous band Unpeople. They were on the cusp of success at the time with Festival slots aplenty and a prodigious support for Metallica on their M72 World Tour.

I spoke to Meg Mash about the new, absent from it all EP which has a release date of 6th March, I asked how it would be made available, was there a possibility of a vinyl release?

Meg Mash: “It's costly you know, especially vinyl, unless you're ordering thousands of copies it's not the most affordable medium to put music out on unfortunately. So given that this is a completely DIY independent project, I don't have a label behind me, I'm stuck with a budget so that constrains me to just digital. It is a direct way to reach people now so it's not the worst thing in the world. I have released music on vinyl and CD’s in bands in the past so I've had that joy of holding the physical product and being able to listen to it but yeah not with this release unfortunately”.

ReturnToSound: "I fully understand the situation you're in, things are tight and getting tighter and being creative, it's horrible to have to think about all the finances because it’s the music that matters. So for yourself being an individual against the world how's it gone through 2025? How long ago did you record the songs on the EP?"

MM: "Last year was strange as was the end of 2024 because I was quite unwell, I was diagnosed with long Covid and on the back of that chronic fatigue which is a very frustrating condition. When you have been well for 33 years then all of a sudden your abilities change, I had to leave the band I was in which was doing fairly well so I had been used to having the support of a label and a press team and pluggers and all that stuff, so as soon as I was well enough to pick up a guitar again I did and I started writing, because it's what I've always done. I spent some time finesseing them (songs) over the summer and then in October I went into the studio with a guy called Simon Jackman who had worked with a couple of my friends' bands and they'd recommended him. He's based over in Didcot, Oxford way so I made a bit of a trip of it, spent the best part of a week with him and yeah we recorded these three songs".

"I’ve been figuring out as I go along in terms of connecting with people, like yourself, who might be interested in giving a bit of space on your website to promote the release. There's always a lot of “no replies” or “this isn't quite for us” but then you get a few responses where people are interested so I've always believed if you don't ask you don't get. It's been going pretty well for a first attempt at doing this DIY".

RTS "Did you know Simon Jackman already? is he someone you've worked with before?

MM: So interestingly I didn't know him, we had a lot of mutual friends and he'd seen my previous band and was a bit of a fan. I posted on my socials, can anyone recommend someone? As I know the guys in the band Blank Atlas, they're based over in Bristol, they're sort of like a heavy alternative rock band they said "we've worked with this guy Simon he's great we think you'd really like him".

"I took a punt on it not really knowing if we'd gel, we met in the studio and he's primarily worked on heavier bands but as soon as I sat down with him we both bonded because we're both “gooners” (Arsenal football supporters, for the uninitiated) and realized we had really similar taste in music plus a similar age like mid 30s, so grew up in the same era of music. I feel like it was really good fortune that he was recommended to me, as I can see it being quite a long-term creative partnership now".

Project Meg has released a taster from the upcoming E.P on 16th January 2026 (Today!) with a track called "Force Quit". A song lyrically containing a nod to the time of Meg's downward spiral into ill health.

Here is the video:

I went on to ask how the songs were put together as Meg is the only band member and there are various instruments on this song including drums?

MM: "I've always been a multi instrumentalist, I actually started as a drummer when I was a kid, then I realized it's easier to write songs playing guitar. I know where my strengths lie so I actually brought in a friend of mine, Charlie Doe who I used to be in a band with. He played drums on the new EP, rhythmically he’s so creative that I think I would have been doing a disservice to the songs to not invite him along and have his creative input on it. I recorded everything else, all the guitars, bass, keys and vocals obviously, but that meant I did most of the legwork in the demo stage. Writing the tracks at home building layers of instrumentation so when it came to going into the studio it was really just a case of recreating those parts but raising the quality. Simon, Charlie and myself in the studio just gave it that polish and made the songs sound a bit more professional".

RTS: When I first listened to "Force Quit" with the synth refrain at the beginning and constant throughout I was taken to "Stranger Things" territory as it has that 80s vibe, I don't know if that's intentional?"

MM: "I'd say it’s intentional because I'm a big fan of 80s music, particularly that first big era of synthesizers being really prominent. My favourite band of all time being Fleetwood Mac and quite controversially my favourite album of theirs is Tango in the night".

RTS: That's their most sort of 80's produced album I think Lindsey Buckingham had a big part in that LP, it's sound and production".

MM: "There is a really good reference from that record that is “Little Lies” with that sort background droning, one of my all-time favourites, so just that blend of that 80s synth sound but also you still know they were a blues rock band originally so it’s still got that in the base of the song writing but with that 80s pop take on it, so yeah I'm glad you picked up on that”.

RTS: "When you first listen to a track if you have never heard it or know little of what is coming, you immediately make reference to other music or artists. This can be taken in the wrong way by the artist sometimes but it is just a natural way of critiquing something new?"

MM: “It's interesting, I don't take offense if anyone says it sounds like this or sounds like that because I'm always interested to hear how other people interpret that. You get deaf to a song when you've been labouring over it for ages and often people will ask me what does your EP sound like? It's tough to do that yourself, I can pick out all the little bits that I did whereas when you put it on and press play you're hearing it as that fully formed song. So yeah, it's really interesting actually to hear other people's observations of it”.

RTS: "You've mentioned the 80s I suppose your musical education would be the 90's and into the 2000's?"

MM: "100% yeah, I became I'd say sentient to music in a proper way after my childhood Spice Girls obsession as the whole new metal thing was breaking. I've got an older sister and she got really into heavy music, she was listening to Slipknot and Marilyn Manson and things like that in the early 2000s late, late 90s and I piggybacked on to that I suppose. I leaned a bit more into things like The Deftones who were one of my favourite bands, as I've matured and really understood what music I like, I love anything that's shoegazy and when I go back to 90s music it would be stuff like Slowdive”.

RTS: "I'd say that's been a common thread recently, I hear Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine mentioned possibly more than in the past".

MM: “I suppose I wasn't old enough at the time to really understand how that sound was perceived but I can imagine it was seen as quite different and experimental, maybe why it was quite short-lived but you'd still hear those influences in Radiohead and the more successful popular Indie rock bands, so yeah I've always been drawn to that sort of dreamy sound”.

RTS: Radiohead's a good example they took a little bit of this and that, take "Street Spirit" with it's dreamy shoegaze dynamic. My favourite shoegaze band would be Ride, they eased out of that sound as they progressed and as if to say we're not shoegaze anymore, though wrote fantastic music and still do".

MM: “I feel like I need to delve a bit more into their back catalogue because all I really listen to, if I listen to Ride is that early super shoegazy stuff hmm.... but it'd be interesting to see that journey they've gone on”.

"I remember there was this era I'd say about ten years ago when a lot of hardcore and punk bands randomly started bringing out records like they'd all just discovered chorus and reverb pedals. There's one in particular by the band Title Fight. They brought out this album called Hyperview I think that was 2015 and that all their records before then had been very hardcore, aggressive punk albums and then they brought out this album and it's so wishy-washy and shoegazy with these droney vocals. It's so far removed from what they've done before. Then a couple of other bands in that scene cottoned on and did similar. That Hyperview album I have on vinyl and I just put that on and it just envelopes the whole room with that sound”.

RTS: "With a lot of heavy bands they seem to contain amazing instrumentalists who maybe really well-trained they just chose to go down that route of heaviness in their output but they can produce amazing stuff in any musical genre?"

MM: “Yeah the band I was in before I got unwell was quite a heavy band, the two primary songwriters in that band, Jay Crawford and Luke Haley are just the most technically proficient musicians I've ever worked with, just hum a crazy tune and they'll be able to just knock it off on guitar, you're so right those heavy musicians, the technical skill that a lot of them have is insane”.

RTS: "So getting back, we need to talk more about you and what must have seemed a very low time and a struggle, stopping playing completely, especially not of your choice as you've explained to give up something obviously you adore doing. I can't imagine what that must have felt like?"

MM: “If I could look back at the 12 year old me when my family were asking me what I wanted to be when I grow up, I genuinely used to say I want to be an international rock star, that was the phrase I used and I'd get laughs and eye rolls and then you fast forward to the beginning of 2024 and I'm opening for Metallica in Austria that is crazy! When you feel like all your dreams are coming true then have them taken away, it was incredibly hard and it wasn't just that. I had to learn how to trust myself to walk again and to sleep as so many different things in my life were affected by this strange condition. But it was a blessing in disguise though I would never say I'm glad this happened to me, I definitely was burning the candle at both ends you know. I had a full-time job and the band as well, living in London. That sort of crazy fast-paced lifestyle trying to fit in friends, family, partner, all that stuff and I think it really was just my body's way of saying stop, you need to stop! because I can't do this anymore. It's given me a completely different perspective on life and also on being a musician, I had those amazing experiences and they can never be taken away, I'll always want to create music but I understand now that I need to do that in a way that's healthy for me so I can see myself playing gigs again but I'm not going on a 30-day tour. I need to remember that I'm a human and my body needs me to take care of it and my mind needs me to take care of it so there are some things more important than that gig supporting that band you know”.

“I'm still figuring it out as I go, even going into the studio I was a bit unsure if I'd be able to hack it. That's three solid days of intense creative work, especially when you're recording most of the instruments. I was used to being in a band where you get a break between takes. I managed it and that was really positive for me so I'm hoping that as I move into performing live again I'll just take baby steps and figure it out as I go. I'm excited to play these songs live. I think they’ll be fun songs to play”.

RTS: Have you enough for a set do you think to go public?

MM: Interestingly all three of the songs on the EP I've had sat somewhere for quite a while, I've got an extensive back catalogue of things that I've worked on over the years, maybe they're songs that I've written for bands I was in and they didn't work out so I've certainly got a set worth of songs, it would just be finessing them and working out all the parts, then getting a live band together because it's one thing to ask somebody to come and be in a band with you where you're all equal parts but I feel a little bit weird about saying can you come and play for me, it's actually my backing band”.

RTS: "This is a first isn't it?

MM: “It's positives and negatives because I always felt a lot of pressure when I was in bands, not wanting to let my band mates down, if I was ill I just pushed myself to do it because I didn't want to let people down and we're a team, a unit but not having that pressure is quite nice just knowing that I'm the only person I need to be concerned about in that sense but equally as you say it's it it's quite a hard thing to get used to”.

RTS: "For instance, I'm being a bit naughty here, if you're playing a live gig and you've got someone in who's not really doing justice to your music it's gonna be you who's got to deal with that situation?"

MM: "Yeah that's gonna be interesting, it's certainly more responsibility for sure but I'm very fortunate in that I've got a lot of really talented friends who I feel like I could call upon to come and be part of this project with me. I'm from Northampton and I'm based here again now and for a pretty normal, nothing town we actually have a really incredible music scene”.

Cover art for the EP Absent From It All

The EP is released on 6th March, 2026

Review by Dan Reddick for Return To Sound

Photographs provided by by Meg Mash