mehro performs a Tiny Desk (home) concert.

mehro performs a Tiny Desk (home) concert. / mehro

Credit: Courtesy of the artist

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

I find mehro's voice to be simply stunning; it reminds me of the moment I first heard Jeff Buckley. My favorite new artist of last year opens this Tiny Desk (home) concert with "chance with you," a song of regret from his 2021 SKY ON FIRE project. It's the song that first grabbed my attention and is performed so intimately here from a rehearsal space in Santa Monica. His bandmates include Dylan Bailey on guitar and Callen O'Brien on percussion and a 1921 Steinway.

mehro's strength is in his restraint. The guitars sit quietly under his storytelling and that yearning voice has power without volume. He writes songs to express what he can't otherwise say. "hideous" is about someone he loved who wouldn't acknowledge his presence: "Can't you look at me? / Am I that hideous to you? / Can't you talk to me? / Do I really mean nothing to you?"

Love and infatuation are themes that turn to poetry for this young songwriter and mehro embraces these well-worn emotions with a grace and beauty that is fresh and fragrant, ending this home concert with "perfume" as he looks inward while expressing outward: "Heels over head in the bedroom / You smell so good, don't need perfume / I'm a tulip, you're the spring bloom / I'd be a fool not to love you."

SET LIST

  • "chance with you"
  • "hideous"
  • "like you're god"
  • "perfume"

MUSICIANS

  • mehro: vocals, guitar
  • Dylan Bailey: bass
  • Callen O'Brien: drums, percussion, piano

CREDITS

Video:

  • Ryan Calavano
  • Alex Forsyth

Audio:

  • Adam Comstock
  • Steve Hammons

TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producer: Bob Boilen
  • Video Producer: Joshua Bryant
  • Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin
  • Tiny Production Team: Bobby Carter, Kara Frame, Michael Zamora, Maia Stern, Ashley Pointer
  • Executive Producer: Keith Jenkins
  • Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags: mehro  Series: Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts  Series: Tiny Desk