Weyes Blood (fka Weyes Bluhd and Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices) is Natali… Read Full Bio ↴Weyes Blood (fka Weyes Bluhd and Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices) is Natalie Mering, a musician from Philadelphia, PA, United States, and ex Jackie-O Motherfucker bass player.

Her solo work is raga-inspired, psychedelic music, using guitar strings as basic sound material and sound effects as an instrument. Home-made one string bass stick used to produce low bell-like sounds out of an horror movie. Most tracks have vocals, usually strangely deformed through effect pedals. Track editing and cueing is kept to a minimum in the DIY, abrupt tradition, giving freshness to the music.

Weyes Blood has existed since at least 2006, starting as a conventional folk singer in an unamplified universe, then transforming into a more a crouched/hieroglyphic electronic chasm style, culminating in a European tour with Axolotl. After two seasons of hibernation and a relocation to Baltimore, she materialized her evolution and began writing/playing the darkly haunted narcotic drifter ballads that make up "The Outside Room", her first official full-length. The entire album was recorded, mixed and produced by Mering herself, then mastered by good friend Graham Lambkin. The record has shadows of "The Shadow Ring" in the oddly creaking ambient sounds and stark, nuanced production, which lend the eerily beautiful folk laments à la Nico. There’s still echoes of her old drone / tape-ghost-clouds moods on tracks like "In the Isle of Agnitio" and the long, bells-laden outro to "Romneydale", but the bulk of the LP is swooning and sweeping, with Natalie’s gorgeous, quasi-Teutonic vox leading the way.

Ashes
Weyes Blood Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Lead astray
By a turn in the wheel
And now I'm afraid
By how you made me feel

How bad to dream
More of things untrue
Ashes of you

Still haunt me this way
Still haunt me this way

Stained by your sun
With your eyes open wide
You once let me inside
Now the time passes me by

How bad to dream
More of things untrue
Ashes of you
Still haunt me this way
Still haunt me this way
This way now
Still to this day
Still to this day

In my own tomb
Where I like to keep you
All tangled into
My own very vision of loss

How bad to dream
More of you today
I'll throw your ashes away
Right now
Right this day
I'll let them blow away
Away

Now I'm on my own
Now I'm all alone
My heart longs for
Where the grass is green

The meadow I destroy
So that I am free

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Weyes Blood's song "Ashes" depict the aftermath of a failed relationship. The opening lines of "Lead astray / By a turn in the wheel / And now I'm afraid / By how you made me feel" suggest that the relationship may have been ended abruptly or unexpectedly, leaving the singer feeling lost and unsure of their feelings. The theme of uncertainty continues in the second verse, which touches on the idea of false hope and ever-lasting attachment. The singer is still haunted by the ashes of their beloved, and the inevitability of the ashes becoming a fixture of the singer's reality is expressed in the repetition of "Still haunt me this way".

The final verse of the song marks a decisive moment for the singer as they declare their willingness to move forward and sever their attachment to their past love. "Now I'm on my own / Now I'm all alone / My heart longs for / Where the grass is green / The meadow I destroy / So that I am free" represents the singer's need to move on and find a new beginning, and they understand that the only way to do that is by releasing themselves from their emotional burden. Ultimately, "Ashes" is a cathartic song that highlights the depths of heartbreak and the difficult journey to recovery.

Line by Line Meaning

Lead astray
I was misled

By a turn in the wheel
By a twist of fate

And now I'm afraid
And now I'm scared

By how you made me feel
Of how you made me feel

How bad to dream
It's terrible to dream

More of things untrue
Of things that are not real

Ashes of you
Remains of you

Still haunt me this way
Continue to haunt me like this

Stained by your sun
Marked by your light

With your eyes open wide
With your eyes wide open

You once let me inside
You once let me in your life