meka, aka Melissa Lingo, is an unconventional and somewhat nomadic multi-instrumentalist from the USA who went to Stockholm to record her latest track Temperance. With artistic references like Joan Baez, Vashti Bunyan, & Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter, her deeply personal music explores the intersection between introspection and public catharsis, with thick, organic layers of strings and background vocals, and a rambling folk-inspired musicality that reminds me a little bit of Jim Croce, or the exquisite Laura Marling. This melancholic track is a teaser from her debut album scheduled for release in 2025 via Dumont Dumont.

[Temperance] is my attempt at explaining the haze of memory and desire to feel something other than numbness, after a loved one died suddenly. To cope, I clung to what made me feel alive: the most vivid memories of my former self which was in the process of a different kind of death. The first lines are the scene of my drive to my newly widowed friend, from north to south California during an historically devastating fire that turned the usual poppy-covered hills and orchards into ash.

-- meka recalls an experience she had of traveling across California during a devastating fire.

‘Temperance’ was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden at Rymden Studios; produced and engineered by Daniel Bengtson, who also features on piano and bass. With more to come from meka, this soothing track serves as an important indicator that the future is bright for this young yet well-traveled songwriter.

Visit meka on instagram.