Meila Finds the Beauty in the Everyday on The Good Place

Just a mere seven months after the release of her debut EP 20 Something, emerging dream-pop artist Meila returns with her sophomore EP The Good Place.

Produced and engineered in London with acclaimed producer Ewan Vickery and mixed by Armlock's Simon Lam, the five-song collection blends Meila's comforting indie pop sound with effortless vocals and honest lyrics.

"The Good Place is an EP about moving from escape to presence," says Meila. "It follows a journey that begins with chasing aliveness through distraction, fantasy, and external noise, and slowly turns inward toward awareness, grounding, and acceptance. Across the songs, moments of disconnection, self-doubt, and comparison give way to gentler ways of being - honest connection, simplicity, and attention to life's small, ordinary moments."

Featuring the singles 'Jimmy' and 'Make Sense', The Good Place shows tremendous growth from Meila as an artist and cements her as one to keep an eye on over the next 12 months.

Chatting with the Melbourne-based artist ahead of the release of The Good Place, Meila opens up about the creation of the EP, the influence of The Office, her favourite song on the EP and what she hopes people take away from the five-track release.

For those discovering your music for the first time, how would you describe Meila as an artist?

I'd describe my music as indie-pop with some dream-pop and indie-rock mixed in there. I love hazy guitars, warm, slightly nostalgic production, interesting textures and sounds and harmonies on harmonies. I try to be as honest as I can lyrically, usually writing about growing up, figuring myself out, or whatever's taking up too much space in my brain. 

You released your debut EP 20 Something in February this year, and it's already racked up over 780K streams. What was it like writing and recording your first EP, and have you been surprised by the love it’s received from listeners?

I had the best time making it. Some of the songs were written in Melbourne, then I went to London and finished the rest over there. It was a pretty scattered process, with the songs coming together over a long stretch of time, but somehow they ended up belonging together. That slightly messy, imperfect feeling was kind of the point of the EP.

Yes definitely! I'm so grateful for the response. I've always just wanted to make music that means something to me and hope it finds its way to other people. Knowing that people are listening and connecting with it is a pretty great feeling.

Now, less than a year later, you have your sophomore EP The Good Place out in the world. Why so soon with the follow-up?

Ah yes - it probably looks like a quick turnaround, but I started writing 20 Something in 2024 and released the tracks bit by bit. By the time it was all out in the world, I was already somewhere else creatively and had been living with the songs on The Good Place for a while. So this one feels less like a rushed follow-up and more like the next chapter. 

Although it's been a short interval between the two releases, did you approach the making of The Good Place in the same way as your debut, or was it a different process? 

I think I was a bit more relaxed this time. With 20 Something, I was figuring a lot of things out as I went, whereas with The Good Place, I had a better sense of what I liked and what I wanted the songs to feel like. I gave myself a bit more freedom to experiment and follow an idea, rather than overthinking it (too much). 

The songs were written between Melbourne and London, some with Ewan (Vickery) and some on my own, so they came together in quite different ways. But they are all part of the same story and world, which I love. 

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You mentioned that the EP is inspired by Andy Bernard's famous quote from The Office: "I wish there was a way to know you're in 'the good old days', before you've actually left them". Can you expand on this a little and provide more details about the overall theme of the EP?

I'm pretty guilty of looking ahead to the next thing, or wondering whether I'd be happier somewhere else doing something else. Then I'll look back on a moment and wish I'd appreciated it more while I was in it. A fun cycle! The quote really stuck with me because it captures that feeling so perfectly.

The EP follows that journey of chasing greener grass and getting caught up in comparison, before slowly learning to appreciate the good that's already there. I don't think I've mastered being present by any means, but making these songs has been a step in that direction.

Speaking of The Office, do you have a favourite episode? 

Thought you’d never ask! I'm on a pretty constant The Office binge. I'll finish it and go straight back to the first episode. There are so many, but the 'Dinner Party' (Season 4, Episode 13) episode has to be the winner. It's so painfully awkward, and I love every second of it.

The EP was produced and engineered in London with acclaimed producer Ewan Vickery and mixed by Armlock's Simon Lam. What was that experience like, and what did those two bring to the project?

I had the best time working with both of them. I can be quite particular about how I write, so working with Ewan pushed me to let go of that a little, in the best way. He has so many great ideas (both writing and production), and he's also become a really great friend, which makes spending hours obsessing over tiny details a lot more fun.

I've loved Simon’s work for a while. He has a way of making a track sound like the version I can hear in my head, which is what you want after spending so long writing and producing the songs. I feel so lucky to have had them both be a part of the project! 

Do you feel your sound has evolved over the past eight months or so since your debut, or is The Good Place an extension of 20 Something? 

I think my sound has evolved quite a bit, although I still feel like I'm figuring it out, which is part of the fun. Most of 20 Something was written in 2024, and I think I was still finding my feet creatively. With The Good Place, I tried to give myself more room to experiment with different ideas, chord progressions, sounds, etc. 

I can get caught up in my head, overthinking whether something makes sense, or whether it needs a catchier hook or whether it's actually any good. So I had to force myself to trust my instincts a bit more and follow that ahh feeling when something just clicks and makes me feel something. It's hard to explain…but it's clear to me when it happens, and I tried to trust it a lot more on this record. 

One of my favourite songs on the EP is 'Missing The Point'. There's something about your voice paired with the horns that soothes the soul. Tell us a little about how this track came about. 

Ahh, thank you - that song feels so warm. I wrote it when I was back in Melbourne, sitting at my favourite coffee shop (shout out Mid Square). I remember having one of those rare moments where I wasn't rushing off to the next thing or thinking about what I needed to do. I was just sitting there, looking around, and feeling really happy to be exactly where I was, which ended up becoming the meaning of the track. 

Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the chaos of everything that you forget to look around. 'Missing The Point' is a reminder that life doesn't always have to be some big, extraordinary thing. Sometimes the small, ordinary moments are the whole point.

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Besides The Office, were there any particular artists, records or other unexpected influences that found their way into the making of The Good Place?

So many! I was listening to a lot of Clairo, Matilda Mann, Faye Webster, Men I Trust, Olivia Dean - and watching The Office and Past Lives on repeat. I sometimes get a little too inspired by everything around me. I'll hear a song or watch a film and immediately want to make something that feels like it. So when we got deeper into writing and producing this EP, I tried to switch off and trust what we were doing in the room. Those influences are in there somewhere, but hopefully it all comes out sounding like me.

What song on the EP are you most proud of?

I think it would have to be 'Where'd You Go?'. It started out as this really simple, repetitive loop, which it kind of still is, but I love how we built the song around that idea rather than feeling like we needed to change it.

The bridge became one of my favourite parts after Lloyd Haines added these groovy bossa nova drums, and then the outro gets so big and spacey, and it literally feels like you’re being launched into space. Who doesn’t want that??

You're launching the album with a special show in Fitzroy in November. What can fans expect, and do you have plans to tour the country? 

A perfect segue…I'm so excited for the launch. It's all very DIY, which has been hard, but also really fun because I get to shape the whole night and make it feel like me. It's happening in this cultural heritage space (sBase) in Fitzroy with a cool warehouse feel. Yuni, an amazing RnB artist, is opening - I'll be playing with a very talented five-piece band, and then we have Selena on the decks. 

I want the event to feel like an intimate, thoughtfully curated event. sBase is such a cool space, and we’ve brought together artists and DJs with different sounds and energies. It'll be a night where people can discover new music, catch up with friends, meet new people and stick around after the live music. 

There aren't any national tour plans just yet, but definitely something I'm working towards.

As you look towards the release of The Good Place, what do you hope listeners take away from the EP, and what would you like this next chapter to open up for you as an artist?

I hope people can find their own experiences in the songs. For me, the EP follows a shift from wanting to escape everything to realising I might be missing the good that’s in front of me. I think a lot of us go through some version of that, and I’d love for the songs to be a little reminder to slow down and appreciate where you are, even when life feels pretty chaotic or pretty ordinary.

I poured a lot into this project, and I'm so proud of what we’ve made. It has taught me so much about writing and production, and about trusting myself creatively. I have lots of exciting things planned for next year, including working towards my debut album, which has been a big goal of mine for a while, and I'm feeling super inspired at the moment, so watch this space…

The Good Place is out now. Listen here. Melbourne fans can catch Meila's EP launch at sBase in Fitzroy on Friday 27 November. Tickets on sale at humanitix.com.