Meghan Trainor on #MeToo, Her Fiancé, and Her 'Bomb' New Music Video
Meghan Trainor is in love. In fact, she’s so in love with her fiancé, Daryl Sabara—yes, of Spy Kids fame—that the relationship has informed much of her new music era, which so far includes three bouncy, buoyant bops (“No Excuses,” “Can’t Dance,” and “Let You Be Right”). “I’m very in love, so you’ll hear these beautiful love songs, happy songs, and honest songs. It’s fun—and a lot of dancing,” Trainor tells us when asked about her upcoming third album. (A release date hasn’t been announced yet.)
Because Sabara is a major inspiration behind Trainor’s new music, she has no problem talking—gushing, even—about him. “I’m so confident about [our relationship],” she says. “I’m so in love, and I want to tell the world. I feel like it’s almost unfair how lucky I am, you know? Every moment of every day we always look at each other like, ‘How did I get you?’ I always say it’s better than the movies. They don’t talk about this kind of love in the movies. I love talking to people about it. I love bragging about it.”
One Trainor song in which Sabara is up front and center is “Let You Be Right,” a pulsating dance track with a slick, retro vibe. The title sums up the song’s message: Trainor typically comes out on top in an argument, but she’s willing to give Sabara a win—for just one night, of course. “I wanted to talk about my relationship with Daryl [in the song] and a cute thing we do,” Trainor says. “What I taught him early on was, you know, I’m always right. I really am. Daryl learned that early on, so any little fight we have he knows it ends with me being right. I wanted to put that in a song.”
The video for “Let You Be Right” just dropped today, and it’s a fun kaleidoscope of neon lights, choreography, and roller rink shenanigans. “I’m obsessed with lights—a lot of lights,” Trainor says of the video’s inspiration. “So I told [the video directors and producers], ‘I want lasers, and I want it to look cool.’ I wanted cool effects. I wanted it to look like we spent a lot of money, you know? I wanted to dance and show my body, and I did it. I looked bomb.”
Yes, she does. Check out the video for yourself, below:
Lyrically, “Let You Be Right” is more relaxed than Trainor’s recent single “No Excuses,” which feels particularly resonant in light of #MeToo. (The song is about Trainor checking a man for his behavior. In a previous interview, she says it came after an incident of mansplaining.) “I didn’t write ‘No Excuses’ because I was inspired by anything except a personal experience I went through,” she says. “I was really proud and really pushing this song to be first [single] because of everything going on in the world. I was like, ‘This is what everyone needs right now.’ Everyone will relate to this.”
“I had a personal experience with men in the industry and had to write about it,” she continues. “It was one of those—like, I have write this song or I’m going to freak out. As soon as I wrote it, I played the demo for the label and they were like, ‘Whoa, that’s powerful.'”
Trainor says #MeToo has caused her to reevaluate some of her previous experiences. “As a girl, I feel like you’re raised to just put your head down and be like ‘OK, yup. That happened. That’s normal.’ But when I look back, I’m like, ‘No, that was pretty messed up.’ I didn’t even think like that until everyone started speaking out and telling their truth,” she says. “It makes me feel so much better knowing you’re not alone. Everyone else feels this way too, and it’s not right.”
Though we still have a long way to go, Trainor does think the music industry is making progress. Above all, she just wants people in Hollywood to be kinder to each other. “I hope [the industry] changes, and I hope the younger generation comes up and comes in with kinder hearts and spreads the love more.”
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