Megan Louise on Desire, Italians Do It Better, Palm Springs, and More

Megan Louise spends her days not only as president of revered independent record label/creative collective Italians Do It Better, but also as one of its marquee artists, Desire. In the twelve years that have passed since Desire’s debut –and hitherto only – full-length album, Megan Louise has seemingly indefatigably built a creative empire in IDIB alongside legendary partner Johnny Jewel. Releasing not only her own music, but also that from an ever-evolving international roster of kindred artists, Megan Louise and IDIB have indeed created a world all their own, enjoyed by music fans around the globe.

While each IDIB artist is unique, the label has an uncanny ability to find, develop, and share a remarkably consistent and cohesive roster with an apparent infallibility that surely belies the passion and labor behind the endeavor. Long curious about the future of Desire and some of the inner workings of IDIB, a face-to-face conversation with Megan Louise has long been on our wish list here at WMF. Consequently, we were equal parts excited and grateful when Megan Louise carved time out of her daunting work schedule to graciously lend insights into Desire, Italians Do It Better, life in Palm Springs, and more.

Bobby Weirdo: Looking back at this year so far, the first thing that happened in Desire’s world was the “Zeros” single and video.

Megan Louise: Yes.

BW: My understanding is that it has been a long odyssey…that some version of “Zeros” has existed for a while now.

ML: We played “Zeros” at Webster Hall in 2010, and it was called “Mr. Midnight”. So “Mr. Midnight” became “Zeros” over time. We continually write, write, write, and feel like the best part of the writing process is giving the track time to breathe. There’s just so much [that can happen] in-between different takes, or moments. Or you get frustrated, having heard something so many times that you don’t see it anymore, so you [take] a step back, and revisit it. “Mr. Midnight” was always such a special song – and one of my favorites – but it just was never quite right. It evolved into “Zeros”, and we’re super happy with it.

I feel like “Zeros” is the beginning of what will be the album that comes out in the fall. Everything that came out last year – “Escape”, “Black Latex” and “Liquid Dreams” – will all be revisited for the album.

*Megan Louise, 2021. Photo: Cameron Murray for WMF*

BW: The “Zeros” video appears to be in – or close to – Palm Springs.

ML: Yeah, it was shot in the desert in the Palm Springs area. The director – my friend Chris [Kirill Nong] from Belarus – was in [L.A.] in December just to buy a RED Camera, and I said, “Let’s do a music video.” He came to Palm Springs, we put a plan together, and shot two music videos in a couple days. He went back to Belarus with the hard drives, and then sent me the “Zeros” video. And then there’s the “Ghosts” video, which I’m really excited about. It’s kind of dark, but it’s really good.

BW: And the “Ghosts” video is a continuation of the “Zeros” video?

ML: Yes. Without saying too much, we follow me going through a moment that leads us to why we’re burying a bag in the desert. There are some bad boys, some violence, and a death.

BW: Do you live in Palm Springs?

ML: We live in Palm Springs now. The “Ghosts” video was shot in our L.A. house right before we sold it. We decided to have a more chill lifestyle for our daughter – family style, more remote. And then we’re out here [in L.A.] two or three times a week. I was out here on Sunday for dinner with Kate [Hollowell], and then I’ll go home tonight. It’s like an hour and forty five minute drive – I call my grandma, call my mom, listen to amazing music, work on my mixes for the next week, and then I’m already home.

BW: Best of both worlds.

ML: Best of both worlds – yeah.

BW: Are you experiencing anything differently living in Palm Springs now?

ML: Moving out there has truly saved our lives – resourcing, the energy from the mountains, less distraction, but on the weekends everyone is in town. Every single weekend, someone comes to see us.

And then shows are starting again so Pappy & Harriet’s is going to be popping. I begin my monthly DJ residency at the Ace Hotel in June. As soon as they can re-open the Amigo Room, I want to start bringing all the artists out to Palm Springs, and continue the extension of the L.A. lifestyle, which I think Palm Springs is a big part of. It’s hot, it’s fun, and I love it. I froze my ass off in Montreal for twenty-eight years, and then I came out here to California for the heat, and L.A. just wasn’t hot enough for me. I want it hot!

BW: I imagine there are some times when your heart and head are more aligned with being Desire, and other times when you’re more label head, business…

ML: I’m all business. I’m always thinking about the moving parts, and what we have to do to get it there, and then I give Johnny massive to-do lists to hit those goals. And then in there, we find room for Desire. I feel that maybe that’s something we can eventually come to, where we can just focus on Desire, but until then, I still have to be really hands-on. I want to make sure everything is done right, everyone’s happy, and everything is going well.

I’m really a part of everything. We talk to everyone [on Italians Do It Better] about their photos, their music videos, their mixes…everything is a conversation with all the artists, and we’re there to help elevate what they are doing.

I feel like Desire is my super fun other personality that gets to come out when we’re touring. Especially when I’m onstage, I can really focus on the Desire persona. And I go all out when I’m onstage. Did you see the tour in 2019 at the Wiltern? [I was] all in latex, whipping, and having the best time of my life. It was “Do or die!”

BW: Is “Yung Prezzy” a one-off nickname, or…

ML: Johnny’s been calling me that forever, because I’m young. I’m thirty-five now, but I started working with Johnny thirteen years ago. I was twenty-two when he met me, twenty-three when I started working with the label.

Johnny had just started the label and said he had all these things going on, but didn’t know how to organize it. I had already run a recording studio, rehearsal spaces, I owned a venue, and was a promoter, so I said, “Give me that – I got you.” We started from there, and it grew into what it is now – a family business. It’s Johnny, me, and our daughter, so everything we do comes from the heart and is an extension of ourselves. It reflects who we are as people. It’s important to set those good role models and good intentions.

BW: You say it’s a family business, and I’ve noticed something remarkable about Italians Do It Better that I haven’t seen on most other labels: It’s literally a family business because you have your core family in Palm Springs, but there’s also a lot of interaction among Italians Do It Better artists spread throughout the world. They’re verbally and visibly supportive of each other, and I think that’s highly unusual.

ML: That’s because I encourage everyone to talk with each other, collaborate, share experiences, and hang out. [They’re] making the same kind of art. Everyone [on the label] is the same type of person, and I know they would connect, so I’ve just been introducing everyone and making sure they all feel accepted. I think when everyone on the label is around Johnny and I and gets to know us, it feels like they become a brother or sister, and then there are other brothers and sisters that are joining and supporting each other.

I don’t have tolerance for negativity, or for someone who’s not going to want to be part of that ensemble. I wouldn’t let that go. It’s hard enough with what we’re doing; this industry is very difficult. There’s so much competition, so we’re very selective about who we work with, who we sign, and who we release. It takes a lot of our time and energy, and if we’re going to give that to someone, [we want it to] come back from the heart.

BW: One outlier on the historical roster of Italians Do It Better is Ramona [Gonzalez], as Nite Jewel.

ML: Ramona is so cool.

BW: Super cool, and we’re longtime fans. In some kind of a way, though, she doesn’t seem a typical artist for Italians Do It Better.

ML: Johnny released her first 12 inch "What Did He Say". That was in 2008, before me. We gave Ramona her first shows outside The States. She played my club Zoobizarre in Montreal with Glass Candy, then we took her to Toronto, and down to New York. I drove both bands on that little tour around. We’re still friends, we have dinner, and we chat all the time. I was so excited to release the Obsession 12 inch a couple years ago with her.

Italians Do It Better is a very open door. You want to talk about putting something out on Italians? Let’s do it. You want to self-release? You can do it. One of our artists is John Eatherly, and sometimes he releases [his music] under his solo thing, and sometimes he gives it to us for the Club Intl project. There are no rules, laws, contracts, or obligations. There’s just a promise that we’re going to do our best, and that we’re going to put as much energy behind any project as we would our own. And that is a thing too – there are only so many resources that we have at our level, not being Universal or Sony.

BW: That’s something I wanted to touch on, and I recently spoke with Glüme about this as well: What is a record label in 2021 and 2022? If you tell one of your artists that you will give them whatever you can, what does that entail?

ML: Well, over the last decade, we’ve built a big community. We have our fan base, and for the last ten years, I’ve been working with directors and music supervisors that place us in TV shows, movies, and advertisements. My reputation that I’ve been building for the last decade is that I’ll put any artist that I work with on the line and give them those opportunities.

And we do have budgets for billboards, marketing, and radio. It adds up – you do an album, and you’ve invested ten or fifteen thousand dollars in a project when a million streams gets you three thousand dollars. There’s no guarantee how to pop off that artist. I don’t know the magic formula, and I don’t think anyone does. If they knew it, they’d be doing it.

What major labels have is crazy amounts of money to put behind a project. So we’re on a smaller scale financially than the majors, but we’re doing exactly the same things. And now people at big record labels are calling me to ask what I’m doing because it's working. We have our formula, and we put it in [what we do].

There’s pressing, mastering, production…all of that is what you logistically could use a record label for. But the fan base that we’ve built is amazing, and our fans are very receptive to everything we put out. We know that, and that’s why we’re very careful about what we release. We’re really a brand, so you’re joining a brand that has an established fan base that will automatically put you at a level where a lot of people want to be. And if you don’t see the value in that, that’s OK too. It’s not for everyone.

BW: I think the brand part of the equation you mention is crucial to Italians Do It Better, because it’s such a great way to introduce people to new music. Fans recognize the movie poster look, and instantly know that the music is in some kind of wheelhouse…

ML: Exactly. And there aren’t that many cool record labels that are doing that. I think of Ed Banger, who are still doing something cool after so long. Caleb [Braaten] is doing an amazing job with Sacred Bones – I’m a huge fan of everything they put out. We’re focused on keeping it super fresh, really sexy, fun, and good. Johnny makes sure everything is produced, mixed, and mastered really well so that our level of quality is really high. That’s the bar.

Suzy Weirdo: There’s something about the bass tones that he gets…

ML: Yeah, I know. When I’m in the studio, I’m like, “If my ass ain’t shaking in my chair when the bass is going, it ain’t loud enough.” Especially for Desire.

BW: On the Desire side of things, sometimes we say that those spoken sections are like The Shangri-Las meet Chris & Cosey…

ML: I love it!

BW: Do those kind of ideas come from something particular, or are they unconscious ideas?

ML: It’s subconscious; we’re always experimenting. We have so much fun, and Desire is really a project from the heart. When Johnny and I work on Desire, we’re not working on it to make a product. We really have to express what’s happening in our lives at that moment.

When we began putting the Escape album together at the beginning of last year, we were going through massive trauma. Then COVID hit at the same time, so there was so much darkness and isolation. We looked at each other and said, “Let’s sit in the studio.”

We’d wake up in the morning, get Jackie set up with school, and we’d sit in the studio until it was bedtime. We didn’t see a day go by [without working in the studio]. We were in the studio non-stop analyzing tones, thinking about everything, going through past demos, building the album. We recorded more, and the lyrics were really expressing how we felt. It’s my and Johnny’s feelings as Desire.

BW: Another thing that strikes me as very unusual about Italians Do It Better is that you look at each human being on the label and really work with what they are – and are not – able to give [professionally], and then figure out ways to support that. When we spoke with Glüme, she said that her understanding when she signed with you was that she was not going to be able to tour, and you said that was cool.

ML: Right – Jorja [Chalmers] too. She told us she would never tour, and we said, “It’s fine.” Some labels have in their contract that you will tour two hundred dates for an album before you can put out another album. That makes sense as a business strategy, but Johnny and I are not running it [strictly] as a business.

By definition, it is a business, but we’re not making decisions based on finances or profit margins, if that makes sense. That may be foolish, but we’re obsessed with the music and the people who come into our lives through running the label. All of them are so special, and truly are our brothers and sisters.

Johnny’s been working with Farah since 2005, and she still calls me if she’s had a hard day. Most of our artists aren't traditional "bands". But it's important for everyone to have an outlet to express themselves. I know how that feels. We didn't start this label or Desire as a way to make money.

BW: Farah’s got something really special going on.

ML: Farah’s incredible. She sends me books and books of lyrics, and so many demos. She’s a prolific writer; it’s really cool.

BW: What’s the experience of being a mom, running a label, and being an artist? Would you have had the same attitude with your work, or has being a mom changed it?

ML: I already had this attitude. Before I was Yung Prezzy I was Little Mommy. When I was nineteen, I was managing bands like Les Georges Leningrad and Dutchess Says in Montreal. I was Little Mommy to all these 30-year-olds, so Yung Prezzy came from the fact that everyone was always ten years older than I was. Yung Prezzy came from Little Mommy.

I’ve always been very nurturing; making sure everyone is happy and feeling taken care of. I’m devastated when someone is having a hard time. I’m like, “Here’s my cell phone – call me! What can I do?”

BW: When you go through long periods when Desire is on the backburner as you work on other projects, do you have a notepad where you jot down ideas, phone notes, or any place to put ideas you may get in the meantime? Or do you just turn that part of you off for a while?

ML: It’s hard to say – there are two parts of me. There’s a part that gets really emotional when I can’t work on Desire. Sometimes I’ll just have a little nervous breakdown where I’ll say, “What am I doing? We need to work on Desire!” [Then] Johnny will say, “Let’s just get in the studio.” So when I reach that boiling point, start being weird, and need to lay something down, we record and then I just feel so much better.

Then Johnny has the hard job of fixing the mess that we just recorded into something. So I’m really grateful to him for being the producer, which is a massive part of what we’re doing. I just get to express myself and vomit some energy and emotion onto tape.

BW: When you’re coming up with those ideas that you eventually put on tape, is it in the physical studio, or do you make music on a laptop or instrument away from the studio?

ML: It’s always in the studio. We usually start by playing some demo ideas that we’ve recorded over the years, and say, “OK, this will fit great with this part, we have these lyrics, this bass doesn’t sound fat enough…” and then we’ll start tweaking stuff from there. Johnny writes lyrics non-stop. He’s always writing for Chromatics’ too. He’s really an amazing lyricist.

So [we use] my mess of ideas, and take what I’m going through emotionally out on my music. We have a new song coming out called “Friends and Enemies”, and that’s clearly what it’s about. 2020 tested a lot friendships. I think everyone experienced this during COVID isolation in their own way.

BW: It feels like “Ghosts” touches on that as well.

ML: Yes. That’s a big part of it – coming to terms with the grief of a lot of things.

BW: A crucial question now: do you ever actually work on your laptop while in your pool?

ML: Yeah, that’s my office – my hot tub. I’m just hanging out, and might as well work out there. I do my e-mails, and tend to do a good two hours of work in my hot tub. Why not? My computer is a MacBook Air – what’s the worst that can happen?

We don’t record on computer. I don’t even know what programs we would record with on the computer. Everything is done analog: recording on tape, mixing on ADAT, burn that to CD, and that’s it. We still burn CDs, and have a CD player in the car. Glüme came over to record and asked, “Where’s the computer?” Johnny said, “We don’t need a computer.”

It’s the way Johnny’s always done it since the 90's. It’s not that he doesn’t want to use a computer – because we talk all the time about how it might be more efficient – but the learning curve for him to know what to do with a computer versus knowing how to manipulate the stuff in his way…he’s the team genius.

BW: Another vital role you play at the label is listening to demos.

ML: Yeah, every single demo.

BW: And out of all the demos you’ve ever heard, you’ve said that there’s only ever been one artist you were possibly interested in that Johnny wasn’t.

ML: Right. And I do blind tests. When someone sends me a demo, I don’t know what they look like, and I don’t look at their Instagram. I don’t care. I click, and within five seconds I know. Jump, jump, jump, and if it catches my attention, I listen all the way through. When I heard “E.T” by JOON, for example, I was like, “This is fucking hot! Am I crazy?” I asked Johnny if it was too much, and he said it was awesome.

The one thing I played him that he didn’t like was also something I wasn’t sure of, so it was fair. But every single other artist that I’ve played Johnny, we’ve signed. I ask them to call me and we talk on the phone.

BW: As we cautiously and optimistically move toward better days, 2021 is going to be a big year for Desire…

ML: Yeah, it’s Desire’s turn now.

BW: So what does that look like?

ML: I can’t say too much [yet], but we have a mega-cool project that we’ve been working on for two years. A huge collaboration for something visual. We’re beyond excited about that, and then 2022 is going to be a lot about Desire touring the album and throwing parties, fully supporting that. Desire being on the road promotes all the other artists, because I’ll bring everyone’s vinyl and merch with me. I’ll give it out to fans for free, sharing the music and message of Italians Do It Better.