Recently I interviewed Megan Knight. She is a young upcoming singer-songwriter from Southern New Jersey. Knight has been honing her craft as a musical artist from the very young age of 14, withdrawing from school and studying independently in order to focus her attention on music.
Knight has a very down-to-earth disposition with a great sense of humor. While she is still working on her musical direction, she is unafraid of mixing genres. She also has a wise demeanor well beyond her age.
Her music is primarily country-based with an amalgam of many other styles. I found her voice reminiscent of Lucinda Williams and Shania Twain. Knight’s voice is full of clarity and power developed over many years of practice. She has found her feet and is grounded in Americana Pop Country Rock with a very modern sensibility. She also mentioned that she is influenced very heavily by the alternative sounds of 90’s music.
I asked her about her beginnings in music and this is what she had to say:
“I got started when I was young playing the game Rock Band. I enjoyed picking the costumes, traveling to different continents playing shows.” She also said, “I come from a musical family with my uncles playing in bands, I never considered that I could make a living at it. After going to an open mic, I was hired on the spot and the rest is history.”
She writes her songs on guitar and piano and she gets plenty of practice. Besides writing and recording her own music in Nashville and the famous Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, she is also a cover artist and she works consistently in music for television and film. Her single “Fade” off her EP was chosen by Country Music Television for their show Racing Wives.
I asked Knight about her songwriting process. She said, “Most of the time I write the lyrics first followed by the music, but sometimes the music arrives first, and I work out the music on guitar or piano.” She has a tremendous range; she has a classically trained 4-octave voice.
I asked her about the Nashville Cats (studio players) and their reputation of being second to none as far as their playing is concerned. She said, “Those guys are the best, you just drop a chart in front of them and they get it on the first take. I asked her about Covid and how it has affected her career. She said, “It was the first time in 10 years that I had time off, I was sad and depressed, but then I got over it and wrote a whole bunch of songs.”
As far as touring is concerned, she is looking for an opportunity to tour overseas as an opening act and is working very hard to be a headliner herself. She has been up and down the east coast on state-to-state tours, she also has made quite a name for herself in Nashville, playing many shows there.
Knight co-produces all of her own stuff. I asked her about the process, and she said that they lay down guitar and drums first and then layer all of the other instruments including vocals later. She sings with a country inflection. Recently she released a video of her song “My Drama.” She remarked that the drums were very reminiscent of early 2000s music. I feel that there is a very strong Shania Twain influence in this song and Knight handles it with grace.
Knight has the talent and the drive to go as far as she wants to. Her attitude is that the kind of music that she is writing (country) will become popular with young people. She said, “everything becomes cool again.” She told me that she would stick to her guns and grind out the work until she gets there. I think that she has a big future in store and people will be talking about her for many years to come. The girl next door with the big voice will be coming to your town soon.
