Q&A: Love Lives Beyond All Discussion on Meghan Chen’s Single “The World Needs Time”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ASHLEE PALMER ☆
DOES TIME TRULY HEAL ALL WOUNDS?—is the question Meghan Chen asked when releasing an intimate demo of her track “The World Needs Time” into the digital ether. Amassing 1.1 million views on Instagram and 358k on TikTok, she has proved it a debate not easily settled.
Emerging from the sonic realm of Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzy McAlpine, Chen distinguishes herself with the sharp wit she aims at the system. Her previous EP, Cynic In the Making, interrogates adolescence as misleadingly misshapen and paints a franker portrait of maturation’s anguish. Chen approaches genre with verdant intuition, bent and expanding in all explorative directions like youth does, but never abruptly felled. Recent single “Sophia” is a cinematic, piano-ballad retrospective of when consecration masquerades as friendship. Meanwhile, its predecessor “Following The Money” illuminates corporate patriarchy’s faceless suits with swanky guitar and a convictive poetry likened to Annabelle Dinda.
Hailing from Fishers, Indiana before moving to Los Angeles to pursue music, Chen is no stranger to the pursuit of vivid honesty. Her songwriting functions to recast the deeply personal as universal, crafting an intersection of queerness, heritage, politics and personal histories that refuses to obscure emotional truths.
“The World Needs Time” sustains Chen’s enigmatic wisdom, yet vulnerability is delivered through a touchingly anecdotal lens. The folk-pop track unpacks a cardinal tale of queer youth as urban prey, based upon Chen and her partner’s own distressing experience. Over warm yet driven guitar, Chen condemns bigotry with scornful grace and bitter optimism.
Read below to investigate Meghan Chen’s sagaciously intimate “The World Needs Time” and its foundations.
LUNA: This track wastes no time painting a confronting picture. If you wouldn’t mind, could you describe some of the hostility you faced that informed “The World Needs Time?”
CHEN: My boyfriend (who is transgender) visits my house often, and usually he’s able to leave on his own just fine. One day, he called me on his way home, clearly in shock, saying “I think your neighbor just called me a slur.” My neighbor had been sitting on his front porch, and upon seeing my boyfriend pass by, started shouting profanities and telling him to get off of our street. The two of us decided it would be better not to engage the first time, but the second time, we decided to get the police involved. Thankfully, we haven’t seen much of this neighbor since the initial incidents, but we’ll occasionally catch him outside and have to get creative about leaving the house.
LUNA: What was it like producing such a personal song in collaboration? Was there any hesitation to approach writing about this subject so autobiographically?
CHEN: I’m so lucky to be able to work with people I know I can trust. For that reason, writing and producing this song was really special. I wrote most of the song on my own, but brought my boyfriend, Sawyer, in to help me finish it. Lyrically, the bridge reflected both of our perspectives: we might not have everyone, but we at least have each other. In the production stages, Sawyer, Barry (my producer) and I were careful to preserve the initial intention of the song. Most of my music has heavier production on it, and with three people co-producing, it’s definitely easy to keep piling on ideas. However, we knew the bones of the song told an important story, so we were super intentional about protecting that. We would often hold each other back from adding too much.
LUNA: Aside from lived experience, what else inspired “The World Needs Time?” Any specific production or lyrical influences?
CHEN: Lyrically, I was influenced by the writing of artists such as Kevin Atwater and Jensen McRae. Their storytelling is so artistic; it’s as direct as it is visceral. While I love abstract and metaphorical lyrics, I also wanted to tell the story exactly as it happened. In terms of production, we heavily referenced Phoebe Bridgers’ version of “The Gold” and “Ceilings” by Lizzy McAlpine. They both have a classic similar singer-songwriter feeling with a little bit of cinema attached to it.
LUNA: Before announcing the song’s release, you shared a video playing “The World Needs Time” on guitar that went massively viral. A viral moment can be framed as this fabled, “big-break” prospect that hangs in the air whenever you post something online as a musician; how did you react to this influx of positive reception on “The World Needs Time?” Did you feel that this song in particular had something special in it?
CHEN: I hear this all the time from artists who have their first viral video; it was always one they didn’t expect. I could say the same thing for “The World Needs Time.” While the song was certainly special to me, I write songs about my life every single day, and often I put them up on the internet. This time, however, I took a leap of faith and provided a little more context to the situation. I texted my boyfriend before posting the song because it felt like I was claiming the vulnerability for the both of us, but he assured me that I was only sharing my own truth. With that, I posted the video, and I was both shocked and humbled to see the response I did.
LUNA: Have you received stories from listeners about how this song resonated with them? Have any of those stories imbued the song with any new meaning for you?
CHEN: I’ve received so many stories from listeners—it’s heartbreaking to hear how universal this experience is, yet so heartwarming to know that love and support exists in every corner of the world. I’m honored to have so many people connect on this level. As songwriters, we strive to be “relatable” or "universal," but the only truth we can represent with 100% certainty is our own. To have stumbled upon anyone else’s truth is a blessing.
LUNA: As queer identities have become more culturally visible in recent years, what impact do you hope this song has on those who are less conscious of how queer marginalization continues to persist?
CHEN: Most queer people have probably been told at one point that the community is always “asking for too much.” We’ve gotten this, so we should wait a little longer before we ask for that, etc. It’s true that queer identities are more integrated into popular culture than ever before, and we have come a long way in the past 50 years, but clearly transphobia and homophobia persist. I hope this song serves as a reminder that these problems continue to permeate our daily lives, and that progress can never come too soon, no matter how much “we’ve gotten” as a community.
LUNA: What is next for Meghan Chen? Have your recent singles been quietly shaping up into a body of work, or do you have any live shows on the horizon? What do the coming months look like for you?
CHEN: I’d actually been working on an EP before posting “The World Needs Time,” and I’m excited to dive back into those songs after this release cycle. My upcoming EP is all about uncomfortable truths, and it’ll be in a similar sonic direction as “The World Needs Time,” but thematically different. We will be getting messy, so stay tuned! Until then, there are still some “The World Needs Time” related surprises coming soon…
