With songs both gritty and glam, Wilmington act Gay Meat aims for pop stratosphere
If Karl Kuehn looks a little young to be an elder statesman of the Wilmington music scene, well, that's probably because he's been part of it since he was a teenager.
Starting in his hometown of Southport in the late 2000s with the poppy punk band Museum Mouth, Kuehn attracted attention both in the Port City and well outside of it. Now, Kuehn has released a stunningly good new EP, "Bed of Every," for his solo project Gay Meat on Charlotte indie label Self Aware Records. The collection of five pop-punk bangers has been written up on such national music sites as Billboard and Stereogum.
On Nov. 11, Kuehn will play what's likely to be his last Wilmington show for a while when he opens for He Is Legend at Reggie's 42nd Street Tavern before a planned move to Chicago in December.
The new songs on "Bed of Every" feel like an artistic breakthrough: glistening yet gritty; deep yet tuneful; emotionally epic, yet tailor-made for Top 40 radio. Kuehn uses power chords, rock-solid melodies and slick production to mask lyrics about grief, anxiety and "getting mental health advice on Instagram," he tweeted recently from his highly entertaining Twitter account, @GayMeatKarl.
Writing happy music with sad lyrics, "That's always been my M.O. ... Bleeding heart to the Nth degree," Kuehn said with a laugh recently while hanging out in the Bespoke coffee shop downtown, sporting a Ke$ha T-shirt and sipping an iced coffee.
During an interview, he talked about how, even though he's often made lo-fi punk records as well as acoustic songs, he's always had a deep affinity for pop music. Earlier this year, Kuehn toured as a drummer, and later bassist, with the indie pop act Kississippi, which is fronted by his longtime friend Zoe Allaire Reynolds.
"Zoe and I always bonded over loving pop music," Kuehn said. "To see her pivot so hard into pursuing capital-P pop music with the last Kississippi record, 'Mood Ring,' it really inspired me. It was like, 'You know what? If you want to go down that route, what's stopping you?' So I definitely leaned into it."
The first song on the EP, "Heart Shaped Flail," about what Kuehn calls "an all-consuming crush," features a driving beat, poppy bleeps and bloops, thick synths and a catchy chorus: "There it goes again/ Swinging my heart around my head."
"Anne Marie," a euphoric, chunky punk-popper "about the misery of pursuing music" seems destined to inspire some head-banging concert moments, while the tender "Sweetheart" is "literally my first love song," Kuehn said. "It's definitely more of a song about my anxiety than it is a love song, but it's a love song nonetheless."
To get the sound for the new EP, Kuehn worked with his longtime friend Brett Scott of BNB Audio in Chapel Hill.
"I've always been really interested in polished pop production," Kuehn said. "But I'm also, at my core, a songwriter that only writes songs when I feel like I have to or, like, there's something inside of me that needs to come out. And I think that (combination) really lends itself to that concoction of poppy, fun-sounding music and lyrics that are mentally processing something insane."
The title song on "Bed of Every" is an anthem of grief that's also empowering. It was inspired by Kuehn's mother, who was diagnosed with brain damage in 2018. He was her caregiver for more than two years before she passed away. Heavy power chords blend with Kuehn's sweet vocals as he sings, "Who are you to me? Is that mine to know?"
He's actually written an entire album of songs about his mother, Kuehn said, but doesn't have plans to release them just yet.
With a name like Gay Meat, Kuehn isn't exactly pulling any punches. He's been open about his sexuality since his days with Museum Mouth, when the 2014 concept album "Alex I Am Nothing," about an unrequited crush on a straight friend, attracted attention for its frankness. Kuehn became an underground, gay punk icon of sorts.
Growing up in conservative Southport, a town Kuehn has expressed both deep affection for and profound reservations with − "My queer punk band never played (and is never GOING to play) the annual Fourth of July festival at the waterfront," Kuehn wrote recently on the "first-person media" site Talkhouse − he kept his sexual orientation under wraps until he revealed himself in his music.
In 2019, while on tour with Museum Mouth, "We got all the wind knocked out of our sails on every possible front," he said.
With Kuehn's mother ill, his band got dropped by their label (acclaimed indie Equal Vision). Then, their new label was consumed by a breach-of-contract scandal. Just as Museum Mouth was preparing to release and tour for its rarities and B-sides album, "Crumbs in the Bed," in 2020, COVID hit.
More: Wilmington musicMuseum Mouth celebrates past, looks to uncertain future
"I took a huge step back from music," Kuehn said.
"It's so absolutely devastating to say, but my mom passing opened up my whole world again. I was being the good son I was raised to be and I delved into that 100 percent," he added. "Her passing destroyed me. It took a year for me to get my bearings again."
Now he's diving back into music full force and, after playing his last Wilmington show on Nov. 11, he'll be doing it in a new city as well: Chicago, where his boyfriend of 18 months lives.
"Having made southeastern North Carolina work for 15 years at this point, it just feels like I should just move to a big city," Kuehn said. "There's bigger networks, more musicians."
"It's obviously daunting," he added. "But already the highs have been so fun that I'm like, 'All right. I love it. I'm back. I'm sold. Back and galvanized.'"
Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com
WANT TO GO?
Who: Gay Meat, playing with He Is Legend, Valient Thorr and Bronco
When: 6:30 p.m. (doors) Friday, Nov. 11
Where: Reggie's 42nd Street Tavern, 1415 S. 42nd St., Wilmington
Info: Tickets are $22.
Details: 910-799-6465
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: EP from Wilmington songwriter Karl Kuehn aka Gay Meat is Bed of Every
