Three albums into his promising career and Markus Meier is starting to make a name for himself in Australian country music circles. As if to confirm his seemingly unstoppable rise up the ranks, the award-winning singer/songwriter from the bush has spent the last 18 months touring his native land with country superstar, Lee Kernaghan.
Meier's third album, Modern Days (released in July this year), marked a significant change in direction for the talented 30-year-old, who has been busy developing his own specific brand of the modern country sound, a brand that he hopes will appeal more to people of a certain age.
Markus Meier: Modern Days
"Modern Days is just what’s happening in the now," reveals the man himself in his friendly Aussie tones, talking to me from his home in Queensland, "and the songs are about general topics with a wider variety, as opposed to a lot of country songs.
"Stuff off my previous two albums is about being on the land and you’ve got a song about a dog and a song about a tractor and farm cars and that kind of thing - which is all good - but the new album is a little more general.
"Look, there’s love songs on there, there’s songs about growing up in a small town and a young person in a small town not sure where their direction is, where they’re going in life. Are they gonna leave the town and go to the city? - that kind of thing. Subject matter that’s a little more relevant to my generation and people that are living and working now in that sort of environment."
Suite101: And you're from the country yourself, aren't you?
"Yes. Originally I’m from Western Australia, which is sort of in the desert – I grew up in the desert over there - and then we moved over to the Northern Territory, which is a bit like the desert too! I’ve just been really lucky in that being in music has taken me all over the country. So I’ve been really privileged to live in all different areas, from hot and cold, to very remote and very busy."
Markus Meier: Country with a Modern Rock Feel
"Yeah, modern country or contemporary or whatever you want to call it," replies Markus, when asked to describe the new direction his music has taken. "It’s kind of funny that they have to put a category or a label on you. It’s basically so they know what section of the CD shop to put you in!
"But I guess you’d call it modern country. Look, I am 100% from the country and I still live in the country - it’s just my music sounds a bit different, that’s all. I guess it’s because when we write and when we perform, we want to appeal to more the generation that we're in, you know?
"Obviously country music has a very long history and in this genre, there’s a very, very big age gap. Sometimes you can have over 65s and under 20s in the same audience. That’s a great thing for a genre, but it’s also tough for an artist to try and keep everybody happy because the young ones want to rock and the oldies want to sit back and relax – tough gig!"
Markus Meier: Country for the Here and Now
Suite101: And then you have the traditionalists saying that it's not country if it doesn't have a fiddle and a steel guitar...
"That’s right. I do cop a little bit of that… I’ve got three albums and the previous two are a little more country than this last one. Modern Days is definitely a bit more of a step up and that was intentional. We wanted to penetrate to a younger audience out there.
"It’s just music that might relate to them a little bit more than possibly the traditional style of country. It’s just a point of being relevant in what’s happening now and what’s going on in their lives at the moment and hopefully the songs will mean something to them and will resonate a bit more than, say, something that was written 50 years ago."
Markus Meier: Only Human
So far, Meier (whose exotic surname comes courtesy of a Swiss--born father who emigrated to Australia some 30 years ago) would appear to have succeeded in his quest to broaden the appeal of the music he loves with his excellent third album.
The first single off Modern Days, A Perfect Night, hit the number one spot on Australian country radio, while a second release, Only Human (with its unique and instantly memorable video) is climbing the charts as we speak.
"It’s the current single and it’s definitely more to the rock side," explains Markus. "We’ve had to do two mixes of it because the mix on the album is the rock version, but we also have another version which we distributed to all the country stations in Australia.
"That has a bit of banjo on it, a bit of mandolin and some harmonies, whereas the rock version doesn’t have the harmonies or the banjo. It has more electric guitar and more sort of 'rocky' vocals. So there are two mixes of it and it’s crossed over into the mainstream FM stations here in Australia.
"We did the two versions of it so that it wouldn’t scare the pants of the country stations because that’s not our intention – it’s just that that song in particular is quite rocky. It’s about some of the things that make us human and sometimes we think we’re a little invincible and really we’re not. We are quite fragile and that’s what the song’s about."
Markus Meier: The Only Human Video
Suite101: And the video?
"Yeah, it’s a bit edgy. We intentionally shot that pretty dark and - in particular in Australian country - it’s not seen too often. I’ve had good and bad feedback from the video - a lot of good feedback at shows and on Facebook and that kind of thing.
"I think it’s just people are not used to seeing that kind of thing in country and are not too sure if it belongs there or not and that’s fine - that’s one of the good things about music as an art form. If you like it, then great and if you don’t, then that’s okay too."
Markus Meier: Proudest Moments and Future Ambitions
"Look, I’ve had a really good run, concludes the up-and-coming artist who won big at the recent Trans Act Southern Stars Australian Independent Country Awards, taking home gongs for Australian Independent Album of the Year (for his second release, A Different Land), Australian Independent Male Vocalist of the Year and Australian Independent Artist of the Year.
"I’m really proud of the albums, working in the studios down in Sydney and my producer, Garth Porter who is quite well-known from his days in a band called Sherbet back in the ‘70s. I’ve managed to do a few bigger shows too. I got to do CMC Rocks the Hunter down in Sydney in March of this year and that was headlined by Alan Jackson, so that was a really good bill to be on.
"In Australia, we’ve got the Golden Guitars, which is sort of our version of the CMAs, and I was nominated this year for my last album. It was really cool to be nominated and to go along and perform live on television at the awards – that was a highlight for me and I really enjoyed it.
"But I’m sure there’s plenty more to come. I’m really looking forward to touring in 2012 with this new album and possibly touring overseas as well in the next year and just seeing where it’ll take me ..."
Adrian Peel - Adrian is an English freelance writer and journalist currently living in Mexico. Over the past eight years, he has had articles, features ...
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