When an artist follows her instinct, rather than money or trends, she can find inspiration anywhere. It was instinct that first led Meg Remy out of her Illinois hometown as a teenager in the early aughts. Not long after making that initial life-changing departure, it was instinct that led Remy to start performing solo under a plural moniker, U.S. Girls. Decades into her storied career as the visionary behind the now critically-acclaimed U.S. Girls project, it was instinct that led Remy to blurt out “we should make a record together” to guitarist Dillon Watson at a hotel bar in Arkansas after playing a festival in Hot Springs, setting in motion the already classic Scratch It, out June 20, 2025 on 4AD.

Remy is far enough into her career that some great mythology about her floats in the ether of musical celebrity. One evening after seeing U.S. Girls perform, an interested 4AD representative gave Remy his card—an opportunity that many unsigned musicians would jump at—only to have Remy tucking away the contact information until a few years later, deciding for herself that she needed to develop more as an artist before thinking about joining any world renowned record labels. The cover of Half Free (2015), her first LP with 4AD upon signing, was a visual nod to Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town; years later at a festival somewhere in Canada and on the heels of breakthrough success with In a Poem Unlimited (2018), Remy would walk up to Jake Clemons, saxophone player for her working class musical hero’s E Street Band (and nephew of the late great Clarence Clemons), asking him to join the Poem live band in closing out their set. The resulting fever dream festival finale led to Clemons ripping a sax solo on Poem’s follow-up, Heavy Light (2020)— not necessarily closing, but synthesizing an important chapter in Remy’s musical evolution. If instinct were an instrument, Remy would be a virtuoso.