August 19, 2022
Michael performing in December 2018.
Narcissism & shit talk with michael myerz
Michael Myerz is a Jewish rapper with 31 albums who has been making music for about eighteen years. He is a self-proclaimed narcissist and asshole but I like him anyways because he’s the right type of asshole. He’s real and doesn’t force anything for other people’s approval. He’s not the bigoted type of asshole, just the opinionated type. There’s far worse people out there.
I caught up with him at Videodrome one day to talk some shit with him. We talked about narcissism, mental health associated with Instagram, his relationship with Judaism, his hatred of hyperpop, his foot fetish and so on. I asked some direct questions and got some direct honesty back. His 31st album Mall Rat drops October 6th, 2022.
Read: VHS Fans Take the Opportunity to Rewind from The New York Times
introduction
You’re kind of a maniac?
I am kind of a maniac because all I do is make a bunch of music and then go to Videodrome and buy VHS tapes, then go to Publix, then I go back to work, then I do it all over again.
Are you a narcissist?
I’m an absolute narcissist. It gets hard for me not to talk shit when I call it from a mile away. Example: Everyone is going to get all hyped up about a certain band, then the band’s gonna break up and then I’m still gonna be sitting there like, “when’s it my turn?” When’s it my turn, dude? I’m just an angry bitter nerd. Just a bitter nerd and I don’t care - I’m 30. I can’t be caring if people think I’m an asshole or not anymore. I’m an asshole. Narcissism, mania. I got it all baby.
What makes you the most narcissistic?
Like my Instagram bio: I have thirty albums and you don’t. I mean, I haven’t been good at anything my whole life. I’m good at selling things in retail. Other than that, music, that’s it. I suck at everything else. I’m not a good cook. I suck at sports. Even before having a girlfriend, I was never good with the ladies. I’ve always been just kind of a bumbling idiot and this is the only thing that I’m really good at, so when people try to take that away from me, I kinda come at them very aggressively. I’m very territorial. I’ve been that way since the beginning. Before Michael Myerz, it was all that other shit in middle school: Mc Jew, Lil Jew, Dr Dreidel. Eventually I just couldn’t keep up with all the posers and I had to… dip out. It was too much. There was too many. The internet, I thought it was safe. In the Myspace days, I was like, “I’m the only guy putting out music in eighth grade.” Only to know that ten years later, everyone would. It’s crazy how that happened. You could put your stuff on Myspace, you could be a “band” on Myspace but you didn’t have this crazy competition with four hundred other people. Even in a small city. Atlanta’s not that big. There’s all these bands, there’s all these acts. Not even to make this a big shout out to Nelward, but he and probably ten (other acts) in total, I’m like, “they’re legit.” Even outside of Atlanta, they could flourish.
You have 31 albums but you haven’t amassed an audience to the point where I think you want to be at. How much of that do you think is on you, or what do you think the reason is?
Do I feel like it’s amounted to where I want it to be? I’d say, definitely it has because I’ve always wanted to get to the point with my music where I felt like I was truly an underground cult artist. I feel like now I am officially at that point. I’ve made it. So what if I don’t have a bunch of fucking money. I still have really good memories, good people, good times, and good art. Isn’t that making it? Isn’t that success? I feel good about it.
If you looked at me on paper: 31 albums, the people I’ve opened up for, (NY Times), the shows I’ve played, you’d be like, “man, he’s done it.” Then, it’s like, no, because then you go to my Spotify and I have 154 followers on Spotify, 1300 followers on Instagram. Then it’s like, which one weighs more? For example, John Dilworth, who did Courage the Cowardly Dog - he has an Instagram but he only has 5k followers.
I was gonna say that. If you were popular before Instagram, I think sometimes it’s hard to amass it again.
And I think I was popular before Instagram. I know this sounds like “ok, but that was middle school” but I remember in middle school, high school, early college, I had so many people who knew about me. And early college, before the internet got all saturated, having 1,000 likes on Facebook back in 2012 was a way bigger deal. It only took me not even a year to amount to that during the early stages of Facebook, before IG. I feel like I just don’t work well on the internet. I work well in real life. I feel like, yes, I wish I could play a local show here and have three hundred people show up, but then at the same time, I’ve had that. Not 300, but I remember in 2014, I would throw these showcases that I would come up with with my friends and we’ve have around 150 people come out to the Drunken Unicorn or to 529 and pack it to the brim. Then right around 2017, you can’t just continue to rely on your friends and trying to be cool with everyone to bring in your fanbase on a local level. That’s the thing. Anyone who’s killing it right now in the local scene just has a bunch of friends. That’s really it. They work at Argosy or they work somewhere in EAV or they’re friends with everyone who works in EAV. I’m jealous of that. I remember I had a friend who said, “if you went to more people’s shows, more people would go to your shows.” Well, for one, I don’t like their music. He said, “well, it doesn’t work that way.” Well, that’s bullshit. So, you gotta fake it until you make it. I don’t wanna do that. Because then when you make it, you’re still fake. Fuck that shit. I wish I had a bigger following, correct. Do I think I’ve accomplished nothing? Fuck no! Fuck no. I’m friends with all these cool ass people that do cool ass shit all the time. It just doesn’t get enough likes on Facebook and Instagram. Who cares? That shit’s not real.
If your following is small but it’s the right people, I think that can be way better.
My last show was with Clownvis Presley. There was probably only like 50-60 people there but that was a better crowd than when I used to play in front of 200 people because half of them are on their fucking cell phone and talking and drinking! Nah, I don’t care about that. I’ve gotten the checkbox on “I saw ___ at 529.” I’ve done that. I don’t fucking care. There’s no point. The Earl, I love but only when it’s a bill like Clownvis or Whitmer Thomas where I know I can get in front of some just some new faces but impress the national act. It feels good not to have a shitty band open for you and to have someone legit. It’s about connection. I don’t care how goofy it is. Making art for me is connecting with other people through their art and everyone’s just jerking each other off on their art. It’s like a giant bukkake fest of everyone’s good art. I’ll bathe around in some cum if it’s good cum. I’m just saying.
What’s one positive thing you can say about our scene?
Let’s not get it twisted -
I know you don’t think that it’s just all bad shit, but let’s just get a specific one.
I think it’s cool that - even though my paranoia is probably over-exaggerating the fact that so many people in this city that don’t like me - I know there’s been people in this city who have come to me with open arms and have let me in. I really do think there’s a lot of people in this city who are very openminded. I just think sometimes their judgment is skewed by the world around them and the people they admire who are “cool.” I feel like there’s a lot of two-faced shit. I’m guilty of that and we’re all guilty of that. We’re all flip-floppy and washy. We’re all temperamental and human beings.
The positive thing is this city does have a lot to offer. I do think for being a small city, even if one group doesn’t work out for you, you really can find your own group. It might not be a clique, so to speak, of your buds who you hang out with every weekend. I’m friends with so many different people in the city because this city has so many different types of people to offer. So, it’s not all bad. I just don’t like the high school lunch table politics elements to it. Whoever made so-and-so a taste-maker or the decider of what’s cool or not. I hate that shit but you know what? That’s everywhere, even in corporate America. You can’t run away from that. As angry as I am, I feel like I’ve mellowed out because I’ve come to terms with everything.
August 2022
judaism, mental health & vhs
What is your relationship with Judaism?
My brother put it best. His rabbi asked him if I was Jewish or if I practiced Judaism. My brother told him that I used Judaism as more of a marketing tactic. I said, “that’s the most Jewish thing ever.” No, first of all, I was bar mitzvahed. I still celebrate Hanukkah every year. I still celebrate Yom Kippur, which is the day of atonement where you fast all day. I do that every year. I celebrate Rosh Hashanah, which is the beginning of the new year for Jewish people. Every couple years, or so, I might celebrate a Shabbat service. Judaism to me is a cultural thing. Judaism to me is important because I don’t have a big family because some of my family didn’t make it because of The Holocaust. My ancestors are gypsies and before that, they were Hungarian goat stealers. Also, I look Jewish. I know that. I remember I used to say that I felt like I didn’t fit in here and my ex would say, “yeah, because you don’t look like these southern white dudes that move to the city.” Someone said that I looked like a Disney Saturday morning character off of a sitcom. Thanks, that’s kind of backhanded.
Judaism is very important to me because, my family, we grew up taking it very serious and making sure everyone went through the High Holy Days. It’s hard to learn a language like Hebrew as a seventh grader while also being in school and then doing a bunch of prayers in front of all your friends and relatives for an hour. I feel like that kinda killed my stage fright. After you speak Hebrew in front of 50ish people for an hour as a thirteen year old, you can perform in front of a bunch of people as a thirty year old.
I know people don’t like to admit it, especially in our woke bullshit society but we’re still an undermined religion and people. I remember my friend’s partner would always say that it was the same thing as being white. That’s so low-key anti-Semitic. That’s just undermining my religion basically by saying it doesn’t count. What doesn’t count? You tell me. How does it not count? Half of these people won’t watch The Pianist because they would vomit because it’s such an intense movie. Like, where’s the Jewish people section on HBO for the movies? There isn’t one. And everyone would say because Jews own Hollywood, Jews own everything, Jews rule the world. Right, you’re an anti-Semite. People need to give more respect to Jews. That’s all I’m saying here. That’s why I rep it so hard. It’s a shtick for sure. It’s a gimmicky part of my art for sure but It’s also something that I have no shame in. I want everyone to know, then have them go, “wow, Jewish people, what’s up with them” and then start to look into all the things we’ve done as people.
If someone unfollows you, do you throw away their art that you bought from them?
Damn! Damn! No one has made art that I follow that has unfollowed me. If you drew me a painting and you unfollowed me, I’d throw your fucking painting out. There’s some people I just can’t be friends with anymore or I’ve had to block them because mentally seeing their existence isn’t good for me. I have to make it so I don’t even have the urge to look for this person.
I do this thing now where I write my gratitudes down. Another thing I’ll do is go through the contacts on my phone to remind myself of all the people that I could call if I was having a problem. I feel like if you can come up with five people that you can call, you’re doing alright.
People need to spend more time focusing on the good things that are going on in their life and not all the bad things that are going on in their life, but more importantly, all the bad things that are going on around them. It’s so easy to get sucked into negativity that’s not in your personal life. You make the world’s problems your own. It’s not healthy.
I hate performative. I hate virtue signaling. Just don’t be fake. That’s all it boils down to. You can literally talk about any category of anything that’s going on right now in 2022 and it would always end with me going, “just don’t be fake! Just be genuine. Just be real.” If anyone would follow just one of those things, their life would instantly get better. I know this because the day I stopped spending so much time on Instagram looking at everyone’s fucking stories was the day that my life got better.
I remember you got off Instagram for a while.
Four months. I was cleansed. Even when I came back, I couldn’t get back into it the same way because it had been a quarter of a year of not being on it. I swear it messes with your brain chemistry. I started enjoying smaller things like going on walks or watching old commercials from the 2000s on Youtube. All these tiny things. Now there are days where I’ve checked the time I’ve spent on Instagram and it’s thirteen minutes and I’m like, “fuck yeah!” Then theres times where I’ve spent an hour and a half. Why did you do that? Sometimes I leave my phone in the other room and see how long I can go.
I wanna talk about VHS without being corny.
Well, fuck hyerpop because I think a lot of things that they’re doing and that whole bandwagon of fucking idiots is they take nostalgia and bastardize it. It’s like CGI graphics for a person who’s constantly on their phone, their apple watch, all this new technology, Roku at the house and then they’re trying to be VHS aesthetic.
VHS for me was a huge window for my music too because I remember I had been collecting tapes since I was a kid. I got rid of more and more and recollected. (I had found an online community for people who also liked VHS tapes.) Next thing I know, Lunchmeat is putting out my first (collection of music videos) on VHS. I remember my friend saying, “this VHS shit won’t do anything for your music.” Are you kidding? That’s how i got into The New York Times. That’s how I’ve gotten events at the Plaza. I’m not saying I own the VHS aesthetic because that’s not true at all. Of course I don’t but if there’s someone who’s doing the VHS thing before the VHS thing got cool with music, I’m gonna call dibs on that shit, especially in Atlanta. I don’t know any other person in Atlanta who puts out their music with an accompanying VHS tape.
January 2019
July 2018
more shit talk
What’s your opinion on hyperpop?
Hyperpop, and how much I don’t like it? How much I fucking hate the stupid shit tone sounding - like they’re fucking each other, the high hats, and everyone thinks they’re so fucking original. I fucking hate hyperpop. I really wanna go off. I really want to talk a lot of shit. I think of all the hyper pop artists and they’re just a bunch of Gen Z kids who weren’t even born during the nineties. Half of these kids were two when the late nineties were a thing. I have this theory. If you’re 1989-1993, maybe 1994, you can rep the nineties and you can rep the early two thousands. If you were born in 1997 or 2000, I’m just like, “shut the fuck up.” It has less to do with hyper pop, the music, and more to do with the aesthetic accompanied with it. I hate this Y2K rip-off shit and all this “if I steal from an era that I wasn’t even a part of, then I’m an originator.” No, you’re not. I don’t really like hyper pop. I don’t really like music today in general. I don’t really like a lot of things. Everyone tries to act all serious, right? But then no one likes to listen to serious things. It doesn’t make any sense. No one’s driving around in their car listening to Tom Waits wearing Y2K aesthetic. That’s not happening.
I bet people are going to read this and be like, “he doesn’t make any sense. He doesn’t even understand what he’s mad about.” I don’t know what I’m mad about that. That’s part of the manic thing, dude. I just wake up angry and I drink coffee and get mad at the tiniest things, like people moving around too much. I really get pissed off. How are you going to make such garbage music using very little talent but then get bigger than the person who spent sixteen hours, like recording something by a lake with a trumpet, or something, to get that one noise on their jazz album? The bar is so low that when something real and authentic does come into the spotlight, people are so quick to write it off because it intimidates them. “I’m not used to this, fuck this!”
I’m a strong believer that you can’t just be 27, never did art, nothing, and just go “you know what? I’m going to be this.” I don’t care if you pick up a camera or pick up a microphone or pick up a guitar, sure whatever. It’s when you start making it your whole persona. It’s all for the fucking Gram and it’s all for the screen. What about when you’re not being recorded? I don’t know about you because i’m struggling at my house trying to come up with lyrics or watching some slime bullshit nineties crap that I found with 26 views. All these people with money too. There’s so many people with just so much money and they just do whatever they want and I hate that. I fix people’s Dysons all day five days a week, then I put out an album with my money, not crowd-funded. People have no pride. They have no shame. They want everyone to feel sorry for them. They use making people feel sorry for them as a way to market their art which is the most disappointing - when did mental illness become trendy? I have mental illness. You should interview Sarah and ask her how fucking crazy I can get. I go to therapy. I do all this shit so I don’t freak out on people like I used to. I’m ashamed of who I used to be. I’m an angry person but, goddamn, do I own a lot of my bullshit. I feel like if anyone was to call me out on some shit saying I was mean - yeah, I probably was. Four years ago, I probably was mean. Nowadays, not really, because I don’t let myself get to that point.
I spent my entire life trying to people please that I wound up not pleasing myself and then I had to make up for the last four years of learning how to re-love myself because I hated myself for being such a fuck. I own the shitty person I am but I love the shit I’m doing now.
What would you do if a hyperpop artist threw a carcass through your window?
I would go to their hyperpop concert. I would throw a bunch of marshmallows in a microwave and they’d be all gloopy and shit. I’d put them in a bowl and I’d scoop it up and just throw it on people, then I’d just start screaming “Ooey Gooey Productions.” Fucking gross, dude.
Worst nineties Nicktoon?
That’s hard. It might be early 2000s, but Pelswick was the fucking worst. I don’t like the show. Same thing, it’s early 2000s, but Butt-Ugly Martians. Oh my god, it’s the fucking worst. That horrible CGI. So bad. That’s what hyperpop reminds me of. Hyperpop reminds me of Butt-Ugly Martians. Just ultimate dookie shit. Your hyperpop music is fucking trash. It looks like you’re doing math homework on your laptop with your little knobs. You’re not even twisting knobs, you’re just hitting buttons. Button smashing prick.
Michael at Videodrome where we did the intro to the interview
Music
You’ve worked with a lot of different producers, video makers, photographers, etc. What’s your process for choosing who you work with?
For the production of the last six albums, it’s been my friend Ben who lives in Seattle. I’ll just randomly get in touch with some producers. I don’t feel like I scramble through producers like I used to. I feel like I just use Ben and that’s pretty much it. As far as video people, it’s never really online. I don’t go to that many shows and I don’t do that many shows but I always seem to bump into the right people in those small little windows of time. My friend Michael did my last video for Mall Rat and I met him at a show. Same thing how I met you. You just went to a show. I don’t do the online hit up thing anymore. I feel like I just meet everyone because the universe, as meta as that sounds, tends to connect the right people in my life, especially as of late. I’d say the last four or so years, everyone that has come into my life, you can tell was put there for a very specific reason.
How many albums do you think you’ll do? How far do you think you’ll go? There’s no specific plan?
I’ll just die. There was a plan. I remember my plan was that if I hadn’t made it by 26-27, then I’m gonna quit. Then I hit that, got out of a four year long relationship and was like, “well, I can’t stop now.” I gotta make even more to get over heartbreak. Any time I felt I needed to stop or take a break, something else would pop into my head or someone would say something. I can’t do breaks. There are no breaks. To me, 31 albums doesn’t feel like a lot anymore. I wanna see forty now. I wanna see that number forty.
What do you say to people that say you put out too many albums? I personally don’t think you rush them but a lot of people say “quality versus quantity.”
There’s definitely a few albums that are rushed and sound like shit. Scary Stories To Smoke In The Dark (2016) is a badly recorded album, horrible takes on my end. It’s never rushed. It’s what I wanted to make at that point. It’s what I was capable of making at that point and it’s what I put out at that point. There’s probably one album, Scary Stories, that probably could have not been put out. There’s going to be a bad seed. I always argue the quality over quantity. The first album I made, Nightmare From The 90’s, the last track is called Hot Garbage. If I made that track today, I would go,”wow! Fuck yeah! This track kicks ass!” I just happened to make it eleven years ago. It held up. I think that’s more of a comment. You have 31 albums but how many of those 500ish songs are good, solid songs? I’d say 200-300. Even if you discount half of my entire discography, I still have 15-16 albums that are good. Who the fuck can say that? I don’t get shittier. I get better.
Frequent topics you write lyrics about? I think a lot of them are about how full of shit everyone is and not just one specific side.
I love calling people out. The left and the right both suck ass, and the middle sucks ass. Everyone sucks ass. An assholes an asshole. A dicks a dick. You can be an android and if you’re an asshole, I fucking hate you. Topics? I love talking shit. That’s a no-brainer. About anything too. I love talking about nostalgia. I love using lines from movies and sprinkling them in.
January 2019
CONCLUSION
Let’s talk about the foot fetichism.
I love feet. I always have! I always take feet sexually no matter what. I think there’s a lot of people who don’t know how beautiful their feet are. Feet, they tell a story. They really do. Like, someone who has small cute feet but they paint their toes purple, they probably are going to be good at giving a foot job. I’m just saying. Feet are cool and it’s not to be shocking. It was a thing that I was shamed for a lot, then I embraced it. Sometimes I wish people would embrace it more, and they are embracing it more and it makes me happy. It’s not a taboo thing to talk about anymore. It’s the arches. Soles are cool, the toes. Sizes really don’t matter. I’ve seen some beautiful big feet. I’ve seen some beautiful small feet. I’ve seen beautiful in-between feet. I get really pissed off when I see some beautiful feet that aren’t painted. How the fuck are you going to ruin this? I’m really sick of seeing red toes. I wanna see more blues. Blacks are good. I wanna see more decals. I wanna see more turquoises, greens, baby blues, sky blues. I wanna see more designs on the big toes. That’s the best. If you’re gonna do black toes, I want the big toes to have the decals of, like, skull and crossbones or some white stars. You gotta jazz it up a bit.
I know you’re good friends with the creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog, John Dilworth. What’s the funniest thing he’s said or done in front of you?
He wanted to dance with my girlfriend and it was kind of awkward. He was like, “can I dance with your wife?” I was like uhhh and Sarah was like ehhh and then he apologized. He just really wanted to dance but he just got scared and thought he offended us but really we were just caught off guard.
Is it a faux pas to make your own Wikipedia page?
No, it’s not. I think if you have enough shit to work with - think about mine. My origin stories would be dated back to seventh grade, talking about Lil Jew, MC Jew. My first album, Live in Jewrusalem. It’d be super long and maybe that’s what would help me break the internet, is having a Wikipedia page.
Maybe by the end of the year, I’m going to have a Wikipedia page.
Is there anything specific you want to talk about or rant about?
I just wanna know why all ya’ll fuckers don’t go to my shows and if the only way you’re going to go to my shows is if I go to yours, it’s not happening. I’ve been to a lot of your fucking shows and I’m not gonna lie, I was not impressed. So, now you gotta come to my shows and if I suck, you can say I suck. If I was good, you don’t have to come again, you have to at least tell me I was good. I just want criticism. You can’t ignore me and neglect me.
I don’t expect everyone to like everything I do but I do expect people to like most of what I do and not jump on the bandwagon. Here’s an example. When Plaza Theatre did that whole “listen to Michael Myerz” - it was stupid how many people hit me up with “congrats.” Mother fucker, I haven’t heard from you in like two years. Get the fuck outta here! I hate that shit. It’s because people watch from afar, they don’t want to act too interested, which I don’t understand why because that just shows they’re being a supportive friend or fan. Then when you do something “big” then they jump and they’re like, “oh my god! That’s my boy!” They reap the benefits off of your success. That makes no sense. Why don’t they just be part of the journey?
Years ago, I was one of the acts in the Pabst Blue Ribbon music festival, Project Pabst. I remember that day, several people were like “my boy Michael Myerz killing it!” and I hit someone up and I was like, “you haven’t talked to me in a year and a half.” I don’t do that with shit! It’s like the Leo Fitzpatrick thing. I read that on my own time and hit you up personally directly. I wasn’t on Instagram being like, “whoop whoop! My boy Casey interviewing Leo Fitzpatrick!” It should be apparent enough that I respect you as an artist and a person to not have to boast it on your fucking wall. My boy!
Who is Michael Myerz at the end of the day?
I’m the best, dude! He’s a maniac who’s all over the place.
December 2018