Since the release of “All About That Bass” in 2014, Meghan Trainor has established herself as a major pop star. Does she write her own songs?
Meghan Trainor writes her own music, though she has worked with co-writers on each of her studio albums. Trainor worked as a professional songwriter before launching her own recording career, so the process of writing songs comes naturally to her.
For more on Meghan Trainor’s early career and whether or not she writes her own music, read on.
Beginnings
Meghan Elizabeth Trainor was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts on December 22, 1993. Her parents, Kelli and Gary Trainor were both jewelers and she is the middle child of three, with two brothers.
Her father, Gary, was an organist and music teacher in his spare time and Meghan began singing at their local Methodist church when she was six. Meghan told her parents that it was her dream to become a musician and they encouraged her to pursue her growing passion for music by exploring as many genres as possible.
At 12, Meghan and several members of her family were part of a cover band called Island Fusion, playing Meghan’s original music alongside her original songs.
In high school, Trainor played the guitar and trumpet, as well as singing in a jazz band. Her parents continued to encourage her musical growth, telling her to attend songwriting conventions and setting up formal guitar lessons.
In her teens, Trainor recorded three independent albums of original music: “Meghan Trainor”, “I’ll Sing with You” and “Only 17”. She enrolled in a summer program at Berklee College of Music.
Songwriting
Despite being offered a scholarship to study music at Berklee, Trainor’s skill at networking had made her contacts at Big Yellow Dog Music. They offered her a job as a songwriter and, thanks to her exploration of so many genres in her youth, her versatility made her successful.
Though her songwriting career was going well, Trainor was hesitant to pursue a performing career. According to her father, she “thought she was one of the chubby girls who would never be an artist”.
After graduating from high school in 2012 she traveled around the United States extensively, working on pop and country songs as well as providing vocals for demos, some of which occasionally made it onto final recordings.
While in Nashville in 2013, Trainor met Kevin Kadish, a producer who shared Trainor’s love of retro music. She relocated to Nashville and continued her songwriting career while writing music for herself whenever able.
Trainor wrote “All About That Bass” in late 2013 alongside Kadish and presented it to a number of record labels that rejected it for not having enough of what they considered a commercial sound.
After a meeting with Paul Pontius, who worked for Epic Records, Trainor performed for the label’s chairman L.A. Reid and was signed just 20 minutes later. “All About That Bass” was released on June 30, 2014, and was a huge success, topping the charts in 58 countries and selling more than 11 million singles.
Trainor’s debut studio album, “Title”, released on January 9, 2015. While she was no longer the sole songwriter, she has a writing credit on every song and wrote the majority alongside her producing partner Kevin Kadish.
It’s clear that she remained the primary voice in writing her studio records, with years of professional songwriting experience to her name. Her next album, “Thank You”, released the following year and featured far more co-writers than “Title”, though Trainor remained the primary writer on each song.
This continued with Trainor’s third studio album, “Treat Myself”, in 2020, where she has a writing credit on every song but worked with numerous co-writers to complete the album. Meghan Trainor writes her own songs but accepts a helping hand in doing so.