\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSacha Lecca<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tKuehn\u2019s mom is also a major presence on his solo debut album as Gay Meat<\/a>, Blue Water<\/em>, which he\u2019s releasing on April 24 after six years of working on it. Over 13 tracks, Kuehn preserves his mother\u2019s memory with emo-tinged alt rock that never shies away from her complicated life (\u201cBorn Cursed\u201d) or the painful situation he found himself in (\u201cMore Good Angels.\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAfter the storm, Kuehn moved into his mother\u2019s fixer-upper in his hometown of Southport, North Carolina. \u201cAt the time, I was living on, say it with me, Memory Lane,\u201d Keuhn says with a wry smile. During that time, his mom was staying at a skilled nursing facility in nearby Wilmington to receive rehabilitative care. In January 2021, three years after doctors had given her a prognosis of a few days to months, she died.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\t\u201cMy goal was always to get her home and really bounce back,\u201d he says. \u201cUnfortunately we didn\u2019t get there, but we did have all this beautiful time to recontextualize our relationship\u2026 And we even have this incredible record, which I\u2019m so proud of. I\u2019ll always have that,\u201d Kuehn adds, his crystal blue eyes welling up with tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMany of the heartfelt songs on Blue Water<\/em> came together on the aptly-titled Memory Lane in 2019, when Kuehn spent his days documenting his time with his mom on social media<\/a>, and his nights trying to make sense of his unpredictable reality. \u201cI would have these moments where I felt like a Sims<\/em> [character],\u201d he says, adding, \u201cA lot of the record was just me processing what I was feeling inside while the Sim<\/em> of it was happening to<\/em> me.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSacha Lecca<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tOnce Kuehn had pieced enough tracks together to make an album, he considered what name he would one day release it under. His rather unconventional moniker, Gay Meat, was borne from the same humor his mother taught Kuehn to bring to everything he does. \u201cShe was so lighthearted and took the piss out of everything,\u201d he says, adding, \u201cIt just feels so right that this insane record about grief is attached to this project named Gay Meat. The total picture is really reflective of who I am and who I am because of her.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe name also works to honor his identity as a gay man. \u201cWith queer musicians and queer art, there\u2019s so much camp built into it, regardless of how serious it is,\u201d he says. Still, he admits that Gay Meat \u201cis a deeply polarizing band name\u201d with cheeky connotations. \u201cSo many people are like, \u2018I\u2019m not Googling that.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, I have the SEO on lock,\u2019\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSacha Lecca<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tIt\u2019s fair to say that Kuehn has a pretty good handle on band names and the power of discoverability. Prior to coming up with Gay Meat in 2020, he spent a decade as the drummer-singer of pop-punk band Museum Mouth. Kuehn founded the band back in 2009, when he was 18 years old, after years spent circling bands in the Wilmington and Raleigh scene that reminded him of Blink-182 (the first CD he bought with his own money was Enema of the State<\/em>).<\/p>\n \n\tA few years later, Museum Mouth found enough moderate indie success in the local scene that Kuehn dropped out of the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he was studying graphic design, to focus on the band. \u201cWe truly did so many things that were bucket list,\u201d Kuehn says, like catching the attention of pop-punk mainstays Say Anything (who briefly added him to their lineup in the late 2010s) and playing the Raleigh music festival Hopscotch<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tBut Kuehn had to put Museum Mouth on pause after Kuehn\u2019s mother suffered through her seizures. Two years later, the coronavirus pandemic \u201creally just obliterated what we had going on,\u201d Kuehn says. The time away from his punk-driven band helped Kuehn stretch his sound, taking inspiration wherever he could find it. \u201cI wasn\u2019t really thinking about music at all in a rock sense. I was just thinking about it in my internal diaries flying out of me,\u201d he says. He cites the baroque indie pop of Perfume Genius<\/a> and the studio synths of Gorillaz<\/a> as informing Gay Meat\u2019s \u201cmature palette.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSacha Lecca<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tIn between his 10 years self-recording songs and joining DIY tours, the multi-faceetd musician worked on graphic design projects for indie labels and bands and built a healthy roster of collaborators he would eventually tap for Blue Water<\/em>. Kuehn called up Brett Scott, who had worked on Museum Mouth records, to produce and his high school friends to play bass and drums. He also drew an indie all-star crew of backing vocalists, including Jeff Rosenstock<\/a>, Chris Farren, and Sarah Tudzin<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gayt-meat_Sacha-Lecca-10_1-1.jpg?w=819\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gayt-meat_Sacha-Lecca-11_1.jpg?w=732\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gayt-meat_Sacha-Lecca-9_1.jpg?w=820\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>