Editor's note: Click the listen button above to hear host Mary Williams Engisch's conversation with Eve Meehan.
Vermont musician Eve Meehan has manifested a lot in the past two years.
Meehan, who performs under the moniker tip/toe, has just earned an anthropology degree from the University of Vermont. "I've been obsessed with finding out why we're here on Earth," she said.
On top of the degree, there's the new album, two years in the making. Hot Girls Don't Trust the Government is out now on streaming platforms.
A follow-up to 2020's IPSHST (I Probably Shouldn't Have Said That), Meehan says the new album title comes from a reference to a trans perspective, one that she says is a "very radicalizing force that makes you very, very, very conscious of what we need for collective liberation."
Despite the seemingly heavy lift of writing, recording and producing all the tracks on her own, Meehan says the record was some of her least intensive work. "Because it was so instinctual. Because I started making it when I started transitioning," Meehan said.
"I didn't really know how to write songs about my life. This album felt more natural than it ever felt before. And I thought that made sense, you know? Given that I hadn't really known myself before I started transitioning," she said.
Meehan has amassed a community of loyal fans through a steady social media presence and by accompanying singles with digital comic books and videos. Meehan has performed live this summer at Radio Bean in Burlington and Higher Ground in South Burlington.
Meehan says being onstage performing used to be a scarier prospect, "because you're in front of a bunch of people and you're trying to like, sell them who you are through your art, which is a little bit difficult."
Now, Meehan says, "I look forward to it so much. Because I have this beautiful community around me that is really excited about it now. Like, me is messy... cat mom, trans girl wanting to dance around on stage with my friends."
And through the songwriting process, Meehan says she manifested the world she wanted in real life.
"I don't really believe in cisgender identity, and I don't really believe in straightness, or gayness, or queerness, I believe that people are people," she said. "I think all these arbitrary categorizations are about to be blown up in a real way. Because people are starting to realize trans people aren't going anywhere."
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