QRTR

Meagan is keen to connect with her fellow New York artists, and has built collaborative spaces and events where like-minded creatives can express themselves in a judgement free-environment. “We started it in 2015,” Meagan tells us. “My best friend and I basically wanted to make a party that we wanted to go to. There was this kind of brooding, too-cool, atmosphere in a lot of electronic music nights in NY. We wanted to go, have fun, let our hair down and enjoy a variety of music without feeling judged. We started this thing basically as a monthly party. I’d invite some friends to DJ and perform as well. It became a little more sporadic in terms of when we’d do it. But we ended up opening a shared artist studio space in Bushwick, Brooklyn. That was ‘The .WAVCAVE’ –a brick and mortar space. We recently had to transfer it over to other artists because of Covid. It had a good few years though. We had mixed media painters and graphic designers who worked there, alongside musicians. We kind of morphed it into a kind of record label. I think at this point in its life, we’ll consider doing some events down the line. It’s really a bunch of people, artists, who are out to create together.”

As last year’s Covid restrictions meant a diary full of crossed out live dates, Meagan turned – reluctantly – to livestreaming to get her music heard. “It’s funny, at the beginning I was really opposed to live-streaming, which was less to do with thinking it wasn’t a legitimate alternative to a gig, and more the fact that it made me sad,” she says. “I did a few initially and would get into it, interacting with people – get a little bit of that high of being in that community of people. It felt almost there. But then, the stream would stop and I’d be alone.”

Her attitude began to change, however. “I did start to warm up to it a bit more, and started doing it more consistently over 2020. I started hanging out in some online communities that were really warm and inviting and fun; it was so nice to have that experience. It’s not the same as seeing a dancefloor full of people, but it did help a lot. I think I got a special joy in seeing how people enjoyed it. I imagine that a lot of them had similar feelings of loneliness during that period. It was beautiful actually, to see people come together that way. People will always have that desire to share music.”

>Awash with lavish synth textures, mangled ghostly vocals and head-bobbing house beats, QRTR’s debut album Drenched is certainly among the most characterful debuts we’ve spun recently. Built using a sound design ethos that resulted from years of professional study, merged with a love of transcendent house music, Meagan Rodriguez’s electronic alter-ego has carved a beguiling sonic identity.

The three main facets of her life as QRTR – that of sound designer, gigging DJ and an experimental electronic artist – are all integral to her approach to making tracks that skirt around the dance music genre, while still diving headfirst into its tropes if she feels the need… Examples of which include the trance-like movement of the hypnotic You Won’t Return, or the lo-fi synth stammers of My Bad.

Making up for lost time after 2020’s Covid restrictions with a full schedule of live shows, we spoke to Meagan the morning after a particularly exuberant set, to share her story, talk tech and explain more about her process.