Souvenir Satellite

Souvenir Satellite is the music project of visual artist Meikle Gardner. Born in a small town in western Oklahoma and raised in Texas from age four, Meikle grew up listening to Kris Kristofferson, Willie and Waylon, Janis Joplin, and The Eagles. Most of that taking place in the back seat of their 1970’s Ford Pinto station wagon through an 8-track cassette player. Storytelling through song from these great songwriters found a place in his bones and provided a great foundation when he began writing his own songs in the early 90’s.

His band, Tele, opened for Tripping Daisy at Rick’s Place, a well-known college music venue near University of North Texas, in Denton, TX. This was in the late 90’s and his band was blessed by the talents of Michael Jerome, drummer extraordinaire for Pop Poppins, Toadies, Course of Empire, and Better Than Ezra. While Jerome was not in the band, he did join the band for the performance at Rick’s Place and recorded on the single “You” off Tele’s self-titled album released in 1998. At one time, Tele’s line up also included Meikle’s high school friend George Reagan, front man for the acclaimed pop punk band, Hagfish. After some success playing clubs in and around Dallas, TX, the band Meikle formed with his, to this day, best friend and collaborator, David Trammell (currently recording with Nik Lee of The Texas Gentlemen) – evicted him from the band. A classic rock and roll move, claiming they wanted to move in a different direction. That band failed within two weeks and Meikle went on to create Souvenir Satellite as a vehicle to record and release his songs.

Over the past 26 years, Souvenir Satellite has released four full length albums; Exiting Orbit Now (2000), Lucky Peso (2006), Hello Goodbye (2023), and Sweet Believer (2026). Between Exiting Orbit Now and Lucky Peso, Meikle lived in Memphis, TN. He worked as an adjunct professor at University of Memphis teaching foundation art classes, was the chief editor for a local arts and culture magazine (GAMUT) and continued to work on his visual arts career. Meikle holds an MFA in studio arts. Memphis has always been a hot bed of music and between visits to Nashville and New Orleans, his being steeped in the local music scene inspired the release of Lucky Peso in 2006, just before he moved to NYC.

Though his primary focus in NYC was his painting career, Meikle did continue to write songs, a few of those made it on to his 2023 release Hello Goodbye. The busy city life, working at a gallery and pursuing his painting career, did not leave much room for performing music. When COVID hit in 2020, he found the time to pick his guitar up and begin writing again. Those songs became Hello Goodbye.

A friend Meikle met in the NYC art scene had moved to Maine just before COVID hit and opened a recording studio just outside Portland, Monaco Studios. It was a natural fit, and the timing was perfect to record Souvenir Satellite’s return from 17 years of recording silence. During the recording of Hello Goodbye, Meikle was constantly writing new songs of a happier vibe, climbing out of the COVID era was essential. These songs are the meat and bones of Souvenir Satellite’s newest full-length release, Sweet Believer. This is the second album Meikle has recorded at Monaco Studios and time is already being planned for the 5th Souvenir Satellite album, Fault Lines, to be recorded again with the team at Monaco Studios. 

Souvenir Satellite's sound is a little spacey and a little folksy, good old fashioned storytelling mixed with subtle electronic instrumentation woven into traditional acoustic sounds. Cosmic-Folk, Alternative-Folk, and Electro-Acoustic are some descriptions of the sound. It is a simple sound with layered textures and passionate introspective lyrics. Souvenir Satellite is currently working on the fourth full length album, fresh on heels of the 2023 release Hello Goodbye. You can catch Souvenir Satellite performing locally in Brooklyn at various singer songwriter venues.