I Live For Love: Dylan Meek Chats About ‘Love Languages’

If you love 70’s soul and R&B with a entertaining modern twist, then Dylan Meek is the artist for you. His music feels nostalgic and fresh. With enchantingly groovy beats, soothing melodies, catchy hooks, fantastic choruses, stunning vocals, and honest songwriting, Meek’s music is a delightful blast to listen to. Recently, Meek chatted with OFM about his upcoming concept album, Love Languages. 

Creating a Concept Album

Love Languages is an ambitious project for Meek as it is a concept album. All songs are about love. “There is somewhat of a weight and a responsibility at least to me making a concept album,” he says. “It’s a serious commitment. Everything is tied together, and the theme is the same throughout the entire album. Not that every song expresses it the same exact way. There’s different keys, slightly different subject matter within love, within ways to love, within ways being vulnerable to love or within the different dynamics of love.”

Meek really enjoyed making an entire album dedicated to love. “I’m always thinking about love, different ways to love, and learning how to love better, more openly and more vulnerably,” he says about his upcoming album Love Languages. “Everything I do musically to me definitely expresses love. I’m a very romantic person. I’m very passionate about love, giving love, and receiving love. I’m human, so I’m not perfect, but I love to love. When I write and play music, I always try to breathe that into the music and give my entire heart to the music lyrically, melodically, harmonically, and even in mixing. I mixed this record, too. I just tried to mix it in a way that really wraps you up in that feeling, hoping it portrays to the listener to feel the kind of love I have to give and inspire people to love more vulnerably and courageously through the music.”

Meek cites concept albums like D’Angelo’s Voodoo, Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours (one of the first concept albums ever made), and multiple Stevie Wonder albums as huge inspirations for Love Languages. “I just am really into making a body of work that has one message throughout multiple songs,” states Meek. “I feel there’s power in that, even though there’s a weight in that too as an artist who creates it. There’s a weight of responsibility for bringing that message through all the songs and committing to it, especially if you spend a long time on a record.

This record I spent three years making—a lot of the tracks I spent two or three months doing. I layered a lot; my vocals are super layered. I’m harmonizing so many different counterpoint melodies with vocal pads. I used a lot of vocal tracks. Some of the tracks on this record have over like 800 vocal tracks on one song. The weight of that is intense, wanting the whole album to carry the same kind of energy, the same message, but I think there’s a power in that, and I live for music, and I live for love, so I’m just committed to the concept album.”

Evolving As A Musician and Songwriter

With Love Languages, Meek finds he has evolved in many ways. One such way is lyrically. “I just feel even more free as a producer and songwriter,” he comments. “I’m not judging myself as much when I’m writing songs. I’m also allowing a certain process of writing and really not putting myself in a box in my own creative style. I’m just letting it flow.”

Additionally, Love Languages sees Meek taking more creative risks and utilizing both poetic and simplistic lyrics. “I was less afraid production-wise and mixing-wise,” he reflects. “This record I was jumping into the deep one, mixing this one and lyrically, touching on more poetic things and allowing myself to be even more poetic, in my opinion, than the last record. I really love poetry. I really love writing poetry. I love double entendre, triple entendre and allowing myself to create more layers within the lyrics. Also, some of the lyrics are super honest, vulnerable, and simple, like you would talk to a loved one. Just talking to someone honestly without any of the layers—just being transparent and honest. Truth has beauty, and simplicity has beauty.”

Creating “Be Your Man”

The first single released for Love Languages is “Be Your Man.” Reflecting on what led him to write the song, Meek explains, “It was inspired by being insecure in a relationship and just being vulnerable and holding myself accountable and steeping to the plate and being like, ‘Listen, I have insecurities. I have separation anxiety. But I’m working on my problems. I want to be with you. I love you. I’m gonna keep working on myself, and I want to be your man.’ Just the honesty and truth inspired the song.”

Instrumentally, one of the best parts of “Be Your Man” is the stunning horn line. “I really love classic soul like Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Donny Hathaway,” comments Meek. “I love the records that had those horn lines. If you listen to some old Curtis Mayfield records or Al Green records, they all pretty much have some pretty catch horn lines happening, and I wanted it to have a classical catchy horn line happening.”

Each song from Love Languages means a lot to Meek. However, he mentions that “Be Your Man,” in particular, is special because it features MacKenzie on vocals. “He ad-libbed it,” comments Meek. “He did a couple of perfect takes, but I think that was the first take he did. It was perfect. He’s one of my favorite vocalists of all time. I’m honored to have him on there. That makes this track extra special to me because it’s the first track I’ve featured anybody else as a guest vocalist. I’m very honored that I was able to get one of my heroes, MacKenzie, to sing on it. I’m also grateful to call MacKenzie a close friend.”

Finding Your Sound

Meek’s music is a homage to the 70s, especially 70’s soul and R&B, but at the same time sounds like something that is his own distinct thing. “I just go with what sounds and feels good to me, and obviously we all, no matter who we are, no matter what we create or do, we’re inspired by something,” remarks Meek. “At the end of the day, if you follow your heart and follow what you like, and everybody is unique in their own way, you’re gonna have your own sound—even though you’re emulating the records you love like the classic 70’s soul records. I also love D’Angelo. That’s why I’m into layering my voice and stacking my voice. I like mixing different things and inspirations of mine. I also have a deeply rooted history in jazz music, so I do that classic way of singing. All of my inspirations are kind of a melting pot within what I do, and then I just go with what I like.”

How Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker, and Buck Meek Influence Dylan Meek’s Music

Dylan’s brother Buck is also a musician and is part of the band Big Thief. Buck, Big Thief, and Adrianne Lenker, lead vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter of Big Thief, greatly inspire Dylan. “This record, I feel, was more influenced by Big Thief, Buck Meek, Adrianne Lenker, and that community of songwriters and family,” comments Dylan. “I’ve been around it for so many years, and it has had this subconscious influence and then a conscious influence as well. This album started having more of that influence in it, and I was allowing that influence to come through more because that’s where my heart was in certain moments of the album. I just wanted to allow that to come through.”

Hearing how Lenker talks about lyrics has shaped the way Dylan views lyrics, too. “Over the last decade or 15 years, I’ve been hearing Adrianne talk about lyrics,” states Dylan. “Just hearing her talk about concepts, even if it’s in passing, even if I’m overhearing her talking about it to somebody else, it’s just been creeping into my psyche of thinking about lyrics more deeply in the story and reworking the lyrics over and over again if you need to.”

Dylan gets quite a bit of advice from Buck on improving his songwriting. “My brother and I talk about lyrics all the time, and actually, I lean on him a lot,” says Dylan. “I like to get his opinion. When I write a song, he’s usually one of the first people to hear the lyrics. Sometimes, I don’t want his opinion ‘cause I just want my own energy, but sometimes, like when I’m going for more of a story-style song, which I feel is his mastery, I send it to him and ask him to critique it. He always gives me really good constructive criticism, not always negative, and sometimes it is in the best way, and I learn from it. It’s inspiring.”

Dylan hopes to do a song with Buck in the future, adding, “In the next album I make, I’ve been talking to Buck about this; we’re planning on doing a co-write together where he’s featured as a vocalist.”

Gaining Experience and Confidence

Dylan Meek has collaborated and performed alongside some of the biggest names in music, including Dashboard Confessional, Post Malone, Nathaniel Rateliff, Questlove, and Jack White, among many others. Meek finds that these experiences have greatly inspired his confidence and creativity. “Experience builds confidence,” he states. “Working with people who had tremendous success as songwriters or musicians or artists I feel like it helps confidence. Confidence, I believe, only helps creativity. It inspires you to create.

Seeing how hard they work, how serious they are about their art, even if they might stylistically be making music I’m not making, how dedicated they are, and how passionate they are about building their thing inspires me to do my own thing. It’s just inspiring. Artists inspire me. Artists who dedicate themselves to their craft and believe in their vision inspire me so much and makes me want to dedicate myself to my vision even more so and inspire me to be more courageous towards my own vision.”

Concluding Comments

Love Languages will drop later this year. “I have a lot of concepts around it but how many ways can you love?” says Meek. “They say there are five love languages, but I also believe there could be more love languages. How many ways can you love, give love, receive love, learn how to love better, and learn how to receive love better? That’s what the album means to me.”

Follow Dylan Meek on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with the latest announcements.

Photo Credit: Chris Keller