This article appears in FLOOD 12: The Los Angeles Issue. You can purchase this special 232-page print edition celebrating the people, places, music and art of LA here. Download the issue here.
As the California wildfires of 2020 turned the sky crimson, and the world was undergoing tectonic shifts around a global pandemic, the devastating reality of the natural disaster made mehro recognize the brutality and beauty of life. “The songs were coming from my body, my soul, and the universe,” says the Los Angeles avant-pop songwriter of his debut project SKY ON FIRE, “and I felt they spoke to how I was feeling, like they were written for me.”
Fixated on the human experience, SKY ON FIRE documents the 22-year-old artist’s growth and vulnerabilities, a realization of abrupt ends, living struggles, and the capability to renew and emerge from the ashes.
“The songs were coming from my body, my soul, and the universe, and I felt they spoke to how I was feeling, like they were written for me.”
“There wasn’t a conscious or deliberate execution in them, but when we saw our sky blazing red, the idea and concept for the project was born,” says mehro. “The universe has led to almost every decision that was made. We just listened to it.”
mehro worked on the seven tracks for more than a year and a half, while waiting for the right moment, a sign, to release them. “We listened to the universe,” he says. “My first show ever, opening for Elohim in New York City, was the same day that ‘perfume’ came out. It aligned perfectly.”
Tina Eves 