Megan Colton Has Found Her Sound: The Former “Hadestown” Actress Is On The Road to Stardom With Her Debut Album “the loft”
Photo of Megan Colton by Sage Groves
It's a Friday night in Lincoln Heights; Americana clad Angelenos gather inside an art gallery, glancing at the art-strewn walls as they pretend not to hover near a door masquerading as a bookshelf. On the other side of the speakeasy entrance, twenty-two year-old Megan Colton prepares for her first ever solo show. Earlier in the week, Colton and I met for lunch at a local Pasadena diner to discuss this hometown show, her debut album, and her journey in getting to this point.
TMB: Can you name some of the feelings surfacing for you as you prepare for your first solo show, especially in light selling out both this one, and your added date?
MC: It's a really complicated bag of emotions. I've always been the kind of person who, like, jumps the gun really quickly. I wasn't planning on doing a concert at all. Like, my album's not coming out until November. I was just in New York, and I was bored, and I had nothing going on, and I was like, "What if?" And I just posted, like, a what if on Instagram, and it blew up, and people were like, "Yes, do it." Yeah. And so within two days I had planned the whole thing, made the calls I needed to make, listed the tickets, and it sold out in four hours, and that was insane. Watching that happen in real time was insane… It was like a wake-up call to myself where I was like, "You have so much more in you than you think you do." And just knowing that people were paying attention got me really excited. There was some stuff that happened in between selling the tickets for the first show and the second show that sunk me really, really low. So when I listed the second show, I was in that dark place. But selling out again, that community feeling just brought me back… I do have a really great community of not just friends but fans as well, and my family. I'm really happy with my life, and I really do feel like I'm living my dream in current time. When people ask me what my dream is for the future, I don't really have an answer anymore because I'm living my dream. This is the most exciting part of life for me in every aspect. Beginnings are the best part of life, whether that's a new friendship blossoming, a new relationship blossoming. Even after starting a new job — I feel like I thrive and I'm happiest in the beginning of something. And right now I'm at the beginning of this new career. And so I've got no complaints. I wake up happy and excited to just be here and be making art.
Despite being a native Angeleno, Colton has been based in New York City, the stateside hub for theater arts, for the past few years.
TMB: Why did you want these shows to be in LA and not New York?
MC: I think I knew that I would at least get my friends and family to come to the shows. If it didn't work out, then I'd get my mom to bring her pickleball friends. But it's kinda crazy, like, only three of my friends were able to get tickets to the show. And then hence the second show.
SG: Were more of your friends able to get tickets for the additional date?
MC: Literally only like four or five have gotten them.
The cozy venue, decorated like an artist’s living room, is a perfect space to house this preview of Colton’s debut album, appropriately titled the loft. Sounds of awe and excitement emanate from the crowd as they shuffle in and take their seats on vintage sofas and ornate rugs. Colton’s previous words ring true in my mind: this isn’t just your run-of-the-mill fanbase, this is a community of passionate and engaging people.
During our interview, Colton and I discussed the album she’s debuting at this show.
TMB: Your album the loft releases this November. What is the current status of the album's completion?
MC: We're probably, like, 70% of the way there. We were 80% of the way there, and then I went to the studio yesterday, and I wiped two of the songs to be remade. There was one that was this big piano ballad, and while it fit the theme of the song, it didn't fit my sound as an artist. And so now that one is gonna be, like, guitar and my quirky vocals. But we're almost there. A lot of them are ready to be mixed and mastered.
TMB: How many tracks are going to make it onto the album?
MC: At this current moment there's eleven tracks. I would say seven of them are ready to be mixed and mastered.
TMB: It’s pretty amazing that you get to have so much creative control over your album.
MC: Yeah. I mean… I still don't understand the music industry. Part of me doesn't want to. There's the highs and lows of any industry. I don't like the business side of things at all. I just wanna be an artist. I just wanna create. I wish, though, that when I started the album, I had known more about the music industry because I didn't know the verbiage. I didn't know how to make songs, and now I do. I wouldn't redo anything. I'm very proud of what I made. But I just wonder what's gonna happen on my next one now that I know a bit more. It's my first album, so I'm finding my sound. I think I found it. But a lot of the songs… Some of them are rock and I wouldn't normally write rock music. But you know what? That's what those songs deserve to be. I would probably do rock again.
Colton opens the show with her rock ballad “Falling,” a song she had previously posted an acoustic snippet of on her socials. This folk-rock version of the song echoes through the room with striking clarity and emotion. Colton’s stage presence holds on tight to the audience through each verse; her signature, unworldly belt fills the bridge, and soars through the end of the song. The crowd is mesmerized.
MC: Making this album was like uncovering what my soul wants to do as an artist, because I grew up in musical theater, and I was trained in musical theater. And within that, you are trained to do anything and everything with your voice. I can mimic someone else's voice just because, like... I was obsessed with Stephanie J. Block when I was a kid. So I can do the Stephanie J. Block voice. I can do the Eva Noblezada voice. And so growing up, learning different tones, it was really weird to try and find my own voice. Hadestown, I have to credit for helping me find my own voice. And working at [a] jazz club helped me find my voice. But making music without knowing what my sound was… that was a hard journey because I can do anything. Does that make sense?
Photo by Sage Groves
TMB: That makes total sense!
MC: I was really scared of sounding “musical theater” on my album. Especially because it's my first one. And that was also in my brain where I was like, “I just don't wanna sound like I do musical theater.” I would, like, calm my inflection to make my voice really lazy and just very folky, which is how I love singing. But I'm realizing now within this last week that I have an extremely unique voice. And there are so many different colors and tones that I can play with. So I think on my next one that I do… it's gonna be colorful.
TMB: That's so exciting.
MC: I think I just needed to prove that I'm not musical theater. And now I can lean into my training.
Colton recently starred as the lead role of Eurydice in the Broadway National Tour of Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell. Hadestown fanatics, eager to hear where the songbird has been flying since leaving the show, speckle this LA show’s audience.
Photo by Evan Zimmerman for the Hadestown National Tour
TMB: I did want to ask about your musical theater background. Last year, you led the Broadway national tour of Hadestown as Eurydice, and left the tour in order to focus on recording this album. Tell me about that shift in your artistry. What skill or mental labor goes into transitioning from traveling the country with the same show to planting roots and creating new music?
MC: Well, Hadestown, like, we gotta give that girl credit! [The team] hires unique voices. They don't look for musical theater people. They look for pop singers, folk singers, R&B singers. So I didn't really struggle with not feeling like myself on that show because they let me make it my own.
TMB: Oh, wow! What a unique experience.
MC: They asked me to make it my own. So that was very creatively fulfilling. I would say it's as creatively fulfilling as making my own music.
TMB: I would also say that your portrayal of Eurydice is very different from the actresses that have tackled her in the past, or even currently.
MC: And you know what? It didn't start that way. Because I booked Hadestown when I was 20 years old. It was my first real professional show. I knew that the Hadestown fan base was kind of nuts, and I didn't wanna be a hated Eurydice. So I would try to copy Eva to the T. I would watch videos of her and just study, do certain inflections over and over and over again until I got it. But no one wants a carbon copy. And it took me eight months of touring to figure that out. I'm only proud of the last three months of shows that I did for Hadestown. Because everything before that wasn't me. It wasn't honest. We took a break in between touring and then we re-rehearsed in the summer. And I did three more months of Hadestown, and just like stuff started clicking for me in that rehearsal room when we came back to it. I was being extremely challenged by the directors and the music director to just find the core of myself in [Eurydice]. Not to play a character, but to just let me happen on that stage, not to look like I'm acting or anything, but just be present every night. And that changed my show. I freaking loved that show. I miss it.
TMB: Would you go back?
Megan flashed a cheeky smile.
MC: Not for the tour.
TMB: Our eyes are set on Broadway?
She chuckled.
MC: There's new horizons.
Photo by Sage Groves
TMB: After spending a year in Hadestown, do you think that Anaïs Mitchell's songwriting has influenced your own in any way?
MC: Oh, yeah. When did I start writing? I’ve dabbled with songwriting since I was, like, 14. But when I booked Hadestown, I think that's when I started exploring it — like really, really writing songs. Yeah, that's true. It took me being recognized by artists that I appreciate to feel confident in being an artist myself. I've always felt like I needed to be the missing piece for someone else's puzzle. Like plugging myself into shows or, like, how can I help this cabaret project or, like, this or that. But once someone did see me as the big finishing piece to their puzzle, I started making my own puzzles, which I'd never done before. Do I accredit Hadestown to my sound? I've always loved folk music. I considered myself a folk singer before Hadestown, so no, but [it is] the reason I take myself seriously. [It’s] the reason I have come this far. Also I got to sing the greatest music on earth every single night — how could it not affect me?
Colton slows the motion of her set with a singer-songwriter track titled “Before.” Stretched through the ethereal instrumentals and polished narrative lyricism of the song, a repeating question rings through the audience: Have I loved before, have I been loved before? The song stirs feelings of blossoming love and yearning, and is both thematically and tonally reminiscent of Mitchell’s “All I’ve Ever Known,” a song Colton would sing nightly on the Hadestown tour. The audience is captivated in this slice of blissful contemplation Colton portrays with her matchless, silky vocals.
TMB: Anaïs Mitchell and Hadestown aside, who either professionally or personally comes to mind when you think about who has influenced or inspired your craft?
MC: Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell. Carole King. Carole King I think is, like, the blueprint of my voice. I saw Beautiful at the Pantages when I was, like, thirteen, and I lost my mind.
An image blossomed in my mind of Megan singing with the Laurel Canyon Legends. From her unique vocal style to her masterful understanding of instrumental storytelling, she fits right in.
MC: Anilee List. Right now she's a backup singer for Yebba, and she's incredible. Who else? Sonically, like modern folk stuff. I love Weyes Blood and Role Model. Kansas Anymore — I have never gotten sick of it, and I think I listen to it every day.
Colton covers Anilee List’s “Blue” towards the end of her set, and gives her audience homework: if you haven’t listened to List before, do so now. The aforementioned realization Colton came to during her run in Hadestown, that nobody wants a carbon copy, translates to her own music. Although all of these influences are prominent in her sound, Colton has created a body of work that is entirely unique to her.
TMB: While we’re on the topic, your comment sections on socials are flooded with highly deserved “queen of folk” praises. But you’ve previously described this upcoming album as landing in the singer-songwriter genre.
MC: That's what I thought it was gonna be. And then we got into the studio, and stuff started moving. It's all over the place. I would say most of them are living in the singer-songwriter genre. One is, like, country pop in a weird way. I don't want to say country. It's folks and twang, but it's rock… It's rock with the pedal steel.
TMB: Do you feel the need to separate this new personal brand of Megan from Eurydice, or are you carrying Eurydice with you as you go?
MC: Eurydice is me. Like, I wasn't playing a character, she’s me.
TMB: I love that the first big musical that you were a part of you were able to embody a character that just resonated with you so much.
MC: It didn't when I was 20, because I was such a goody-goody. And then I think I just grew up.
TMB: Switching gears here a little, could you walk me through your approach to songwriting?
MC: I don't really have a choice. I sit down, most of the time I hate what I write, but once in a while... I'll sit down and it's just there, and I don't understand how that works. The bad songs come when I try to write. It usually is when I'm feeling overwhelmed and I can't take control of my mind. Stuff just starts moving because I'm not trying. It’s happening without my awareness of it happening.
TMB: It’s just an extension of you?
MC: Yeah.
TMB: Now, in a broader sense, you have a lot going on in your career. Not only are you working on your own music, you have also recently been featured on the concept album for Teagan Reynolds’s Emily Dickinson Musical. You also performed a lead role in an ASCAP Workshop production of Maria Andreoli & EmmaLee Kidwell’s The Waiting Musical. When you foresee the trajectory of your career, where do Megan Colton the singer-songwriter and Megan Colton the Thespian intersect?
MC: I think I'd like, in my dream life, to be mostly recognized for my music, and act as well. Like we talked about earlier, I don't really wanna be someone's missing puzzle piece anymore. I want my own picture. But I do wanna do shows. I just want to do shows that I'm really passionate about.
TMB: So you want to be selective about the projects you take on?
MC: Not right now. Maybe when I hit 50. When the dream is to be like that. Right now I go in for everything my agent and manager send me in for.
Colton and I had met at the aforementioned ASCAP Workshop for The Waiting musical, and I can personally attest to the hit-potential of the show. I shared my excitement about the show’s trajectory with Megan and she expressed her love for the project in equal measure.
TMB: Are you gonna try to keep going with The Waiting?
MC: Oh, yeah.
TMB: Are you in talks? Even if it's just on the music side?
MC: They're in the writing process; they're not in show format. So that's something that maybe they figure out in six months, or maybe they figure it out in years. There’s no deadline for something like that. But yeah, I might be playing my own music [with them]. I don't know! I just got a text from Maria today saying, "Do you wanna play a bill this summer in New York?" I'm like, "Yeah, I'm down." So even if it's not as a theater role, we're still talking.
TMB: On a semi-related note, we've talked about your performance as Eurydice, but for your other roles, and pertaining to your show this week, how do you differentiate performing as yourself versus as a character?
MC: [These shows are] my first time I'm really performing my music.
TMB: Do you expect there to be a difference?
MC: Yeah, of course. I've been thinking about this a lot. How do I wanna present myself on that stage? I'm a very quirky person. I think that's what attracts people to me. And so I think that I'm just gonna be... I'm just gonna sing my songs and be myself. I don't think I'm gonna, like, make a script or anything… I probably should. We’ll see!
There is no script for such an intimate, singular show like this night in Lincoln Heights. Each song performed brings her audience closer and closer to the glimpses of life she captures between melodies.
Photo by Sage Groves
TMB: Is there anything pertaining to your album that you would like to share with an audience who maybe is not able to attend these LA shows?
MC: You want the exclusive?
TMB: Yes I do.
MC: It's called the loft. THE loft. Not the clothing store.
TMB: Good distinction.
MC: All lowercase.
TMB: Okay, all lowercase. I'll make sure it's all lowercase in the article.
MC: It's about a mix of things. My grandparents have a cabin in Northern California. They've had it since before I was born. Every single one of my siblings, except for my brother John, everyone goes there on their honeymoons. My parents went there on their honeymoon. It's just the cutest place. We go there every single summer. And since I was 18 years old, I, for some reason, am in New York City, and I'm dating a guy, and it ends badly right before we do this family vacation every single year. And so the cabin has become my oasis. Things end, and then immediately I have to go to California to go to the cabin. It's just this place where I've come to every single year now to just feel and reflect on what happened and everything. So the album is a mix of that, where it's like the cabin is my safe place. And it's also about why those things that happened, or those memories that pushed me forward. Those memories that affected me so drastically, how they live in me now. And so the cabin is also this figurative place of these things I've left behind. And they are the cabin in a way. Like, one song I imagine is the kitchen. Another one is the river, another one is the porch. And they're different. The memories are what I choose to put in my house, and the house is me. Or the cabin. The cabin is me, the memories that make me.
TMB: I love this concept, and I can’t wait to hear the album on Friday. Thank you so much for sharing!
Colton closes her show with a final rock ballad, “Blackberry Song,” that perfectly encapsulates this through-line of the album. Each vocal run is hit with surgical precision, every belt supported with passion. Her crowd erupts. After smiles of appreciation and words of gratitude, Colton steps outside the venue to offer her time for anyone who wants to say hello. To her surprise, nearly the entire audience lines up to meet their new favorite artist. Colton makes time in the chilly spring night to chat with each and every fan.
Colton may have left Hadestown, but she is certainly on the train to stardom. The time for us all to hop on board is now. Megan Colton’s debut album the loft is expected to release this November on all streaming platforms. You can follow the journey on her socials @megancolton.