My Firsts: U.S. Ladies

Dreaming of JTT

Jul 02, 2025
Internet Unique

By Mark Redfern and Issa Nasatir
Pictures by Colin Medley

My Firsts is our electronic mail interview sequence the place we ask musicians to inform us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first phrase, first live performance, and many others.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, and many others.). For this My Firsts we speak to Meg Remy aka U.S. Ladies.

Remy lately launched her new album Scratch It through 4AD, her ninth studio album for the reason that undertaking’s creation in 2007. Scratch It got here collectively when the Toronto-based Remy put collectively a brand new band for a one-off efficiency at a competition in Scorching Springs, Arkansas. Aided by her buddy, guitarist Dillon Watson (D. Watusi, Savoy Motel, Jack Identify), Remy assembled a band of Nashville-based musicians. She then determined to journey to Nashville to report a brand new album with this new band, which options Watson on guitar alongside Jack Lawrence (The Useless Climate, The Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn) on bass, Domo Donoho on drums, each Jo Schornikow and Tina Norwood on keys, and harmonica legend Charlie McCoy (Elvis, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison). They recorded Scratch It in solely 10 days. “The creation of Scratch It was directed by somebody or some vitality that was unseen however so robust we had no alternative however to observe it,” Remy instructed us. “It’s an album that made itself.”

U.S. Ladies’ final album was 2023’s Bless This Mess, which was impressed by Remy’s being pregnant and the beginning of her twin boys. Remy’s album earlier than that, Heavy Gentle, got here out in 2020. Learn our interview with Remy on that album right here.

Learn on as Remy discusses Billy Joel, her first automotive, and a bizarre first social media account

First time you fell in love?

Jonathan Taylor Thomas aka JTT from the TV present Dwelling Enchancment. This was in my BOP journal section. I used to put in writing him letters. I bear in mind writing him a couple of dream I had the place we have been in a limo collectively, kissing. I believed he would discover this irresistible however he by no means wrote me again. Ever.

First time your coronary heart was damaged?

(See above) When Jonathan Taylor Thomas by no means responded to any of my unbelievable letters.

First TV present you have been obsessive about?

Cheers. I beloved the sensation of hanging out with these adults. I couldn’t wait to develop up and have an area bar and my very own stool there. I bear in mind being grounded for signing folks’s yearbooks “Have a fucking superior summer time!” and a part of my punishment was that I didn’t get to observe the ultimate episode of Cheers. I used to be devastated.

First favourite band?

Most likely The Seaside Boys. I used to name Oldies 104.3FM in Chicago and sing “Barbara Ann” or “Be True to Your College” over the road. I made it on air a number of instances. Then The Beatles Anthology got here out and I deserted The Seaside Boys for The Beatles.

First favourite music?

“Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel. Studying each phrase felt like such an accomplishment.

First musician you had a crush on?

Joey from New Youngsters on the Block. I appreciated that he appeared and appeared like a “lady.”

First live performance you went to?

Billy Joel on the Rosemont Horizon. He was married to Christie Brinkley on the time. At one level within the present, his shoe received untied and she or he got here on stage and tied it. The gang went wild. I recall carrying a tremendous windbreaker with an apple appliqué on it that received beer spilled throughout it by drunk adults. Zero reminiscence of the music.

First job you had?

True Worth {Hardware}. I used to be employed as a cashier, I feel the pay was $3.15/hr. However fairly early into the job, all of the outdated males working within the retailer tried to show me into their servant and my mother made me give up.

First time you bought fired?

By no means!

First automotive you owned?

1996 Dodge Spirit, four-door, gold exterior, tan inside, CD participant stereo. Scorching journey. Bought me in all places.

First nation you visited exterior of your individual?

Canada. My mother, my two brothers, and I went up for the opening of the Sky Dome. John Sweet was there on the induction ceremony and I bear in mind wishing my mother might meet and marry him. I actually wished him to be my dad.

First social media account?

Lipstick & Cigarettes—it was like a subcultural relationship web site or one thing. It was for “adults” however tons of highschool and junior excessive children have been on it. I met and made out with tons of random Chicago-area impolite boys, hardcore dudes, emo infants, and many others. from that web site. It was fairly enjoyable and bizarre and a complete foreshadowing of as we speak’s world. I came upon about quite a lot of good music from it too.

First instrument?

An amplifier with two inputs of which I might plug a mic into one after which a disc man into the opposite and I might sing over CDs. I bear in mind singing over the Operation Ivy CD till I used to be so assured with it that I invited some associates over to observe me carry out the entire CD in my storage. This turned a factor and we might put “exhibits” on for one another like this. I bear in mind folks singing over Blatz, Bikini Kill, Anti Flag, Dangerous Faith, CRASS, and many others.

First band you have been in?

Plastic Progress. We have been a duo, me and my finest bud, Kenny Sunshine. Guitar, Casio keyboard with in-built drum machine, and two vocals screaming. I feel our Geocities web page continues to be up someplace.

www.yousgirls.com