Meet Megan Davies, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter taking the industry by storm

With over a million subscribers on YouTube, Megan Davies boasts a large social media following for her acoustic covers and mashups, but nearly four years after her internet debut, the artist is ready to give her fanbase a fresh look into her music. On July 28, Davies is releasing a fully produced EP, Bad Poetry.

A Pennsylvania native, Davies discovered the guitar when she was 12 years old. The first song she learned how to play? A Spice Girls hit, naturally.

“Every snow day, when kids were out playing in the snow, I was inside playing guitar because it’s all I ever wanted to do with my free time.

“It was never a ‘oh, I want to do this when I get older,’ it was a ‘I want to do this now,'” Davies said.

To follow her passion for music, Davies moved from her east coast town, which lacked a music scene, to Nashville, the music mecca. She attended Belmont University and earned a major in songwriting with a minor in guitar.

“Nashville has taught me a lot about songwriting. It’s looked at as a craft there, and people work really really hard,” Davies said. “So I think that’s shaped a lot of who I’ve become in the last few years.”

While at Belmont, Davies built a following after posting several acoustic covers on her YouTube channel. Her most popular to date, a See You Again/Love Me Like You Do/Sugar mashup, which has over 50 million views and counting. After harboring the robust following, Davies started posting original songs to the site.

“It was a little bit scary to do originals after building up this huge audience from covers and mashups,” Davies said. “But I put my own words in front of that audience and hoped they liked it.”

And they did. But that wasn’t enough for the artist.

“The internet is just through a screen and there’s always that barrier. There’s something amazing about playing music to people in the same room.”

To break the barrier, Davies quit her job at a music publishing company and cold-called coffeeshops and bars across the country to setup a DIY tour. Soon after, she was touring Europe with Glee star, Noah Guthrie.

Nonetheless, the biggest step in her musical career is yet to be released.

“Bad Poetry is my first fully recorded in a studio, fully produced recording ever,” Davies said. “Everything until now, I’ve released acoustic vocals, which is very simple, just one guitar and me singing. This has drums and electric guitars and bass and violins.”

Davies’ EP, which stands for “extended play,” is a short-form album running five original songs long. She describes Bad Poetry as an evolution of the growth she’s had on her YouTube channel over the past four years.

“For a long time my music was acoustic,” Davies said. “Bad Poetry feels very raw and passionate because I approach things full-heartedly.”

Her full-hearted songs originate from things she has experienced in her own life. Sharing those sacred moments with others while working on the EP was most memorable for Davies.

“Working with other musicians was my favorite part,” Davies said. “Watching them interpret the song to meet me emotionally, and rising and falling with me dynamically, that was really cool.”

Her fans also make her time spent songwriting worthwhile.

“I released a song two years ago called All I Ever Want is You. It was just a very simple love song I wrote that I just recorded it in my apartment.

“I’ve heard from so many people that have used it as their first dance song at their wedding. One person even proposed to their girlfriend with it,” Davies said.

She hopes Bad Poetry will have a similar emotional connection with her audience. And good news for all you lovebirds in need of a wedding song – Davies might be announcing an upcoming tour soon, the perfect time to scout out a first dance song.

In the meantime, check out Bad Poetry, coming out July 28.

@TheTab