There’s a moment on Mega Bog’s seventh studio album that perfectly encapsulates the catharsis End Of Everything has to offer. It arrives at the last few seconds of “All And Everything,” where a cinematic build of instrumentals is unleashed with a blood-curdling scream courtesy of bandleader Erin Birgy.
Aptly titled, End Of Everything was written during a time that felt, well, like everything was ending. Needing a creative outlet for the chaos that surrounded her, Birgy channeled her emotions into haunting synth-pop. The album is perhaps Mega Bog’s most personal work to date. It explores sobriety, turmoil, and healing.
In a statement about the album, she describes the need “to feel… instantly.” She added: “I no longer wanted to hide behind difficult music. I was curious to give others the same with the music I create; to make music someone could use to explore drama, playfulness, and dancing, to shake the trauma loose.”
Ahead of the release of End Of Everything, Birgy sits down with Uproxx to talk sleeping on the ground at a rest stop, filming a hurricane, and sneaking into a Gwar show in our latest Q&A.
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
It’s 2050 and I will only be 61, and releasing new music, but I think the way we absorb music will be more like a direct — telepathic, possibly transparent, conversational with a new set of gentler, less insecure filters. I will still be telling stories, and our stories will be able to merge in a less verbal and more psychic, somatic space. The air that rests after the breath of music will embolden a more responsible and fluid anarchic existence, people are honest, and the word is no longer needed, industry is a myth.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?
I try to bring the same magic to every place I perform, but obviously need to be sympathetic with the society we engage with. The most pleasure comes from open-heartedness and engagement with the audience. This is outside of place.
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
My friends. They make me feel safe to explore myself, loved in a way where I am free to pursue desire and wildness. They inspire me to do the work necessary to mirror those gestures for them.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life?
So many absolutes! The only food I’ve even enjoyed was in Greece. My favorite meal was in Rethymno, Crete at a hotel restaurant called “Avli.” That food gave me hope. I wept.
What album do you know every word to?
It would be easier to list the albums I don’t know every word to. This is what my brain was made for.
What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?
Joel Gregory (who painted the album art) and I snuck into a Gwar show by crawling between the security guards legs when I was 14 or 15. The performance changed my life.
What is the best outfit for performing and why?
Either something that entirely obscures the human form or fully bare. We like the extremes, the commitments.
Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?
I cannot encourage anyone to use either of these platforms. I find little to no enjoyment engaging in either, and find the militarized metaverse being built upon the guise of what we’ve accepted as community and poetry is beyond unethical. It is the end of everything.
What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?
Today the song is “Amo Non Amo” by Goblin, yesterday’s was “All My Love” by Hollow Hand.
What’s the last thing you Googled?
Thuja oil.
What album makes for the perfect gift?
For who?
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
A person we were on tour with maybe a decade ago kicked all of Mega Bog out of the car one night because I was clicking my nails and made us sleep on the ground outside a rest stop in rural Texas. Not the weirdest, but that just popped into my head.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
I was reading Black Dawn, Bright Day by Sun Bear on a train across the country. This was the year of the floods and the train took four extra days to reach Chicago. The air stopped circulating, two people died, there was no food and people weren’t allowed to leave to get food. Everyone was stirring and manically confiding, sharing resources with one another. I made some very deep friends not only on that ride, but many trains. Anyway, I was reading this book out loud on this trip, which talks about the volcanoes of the northwest being a family who spoke to each other and the world would change with each phrase passed. So I got a very rough drawing of Mount Rainier from the book when I finally got home.
What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?
Judas Priest.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
Flew me out to a hurricane and towed me behind their canoe so I could film the flood for my birthday… something among many very nice things that comes to mind.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
I wouldn’t have listened anyway.
What’s the last show you went to?
Hulder with Wolves In The Throne Room.
What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?
Dog Day Afternoon.
What’s one of your hidden talents?
Environmental design, specifically castle architecture.
End Of Everything is out 5/19 via Mexican Summer. Find more information here.
