Weyes Blood addresses state of our planet in new album Front Row Seat To Earth

"You can't really ignore what's going on in this planet, in our world, and the way it's all falling apart."

So she's "happy" to speak about the end of the world. "The changes that we're facing now are very particular to our generation, and are, in some sense, new, but the apocalypse has always existed," she says.

"Imagine how people must have felt during the Plague. Almost two-thirds of the population of Europe died."

As its title attests, the album is more about humans standing by as we hurtle towards oblivion, than about the apocalypse itself.

"The songs are about us watching the theatre of the planet, and choosing to either become more involved, or become more detached," Mering says.

"Being in a first-world country, it's like we have a first-row seat to witnessing humanity, but we're not really witnessing anything. Despite all the new technological tools we've been given, we're still powerless, watching everything happen like it's a theatrical performance."

In the standout jam Generation Why, Mering sings of technology as a way to seek comfort – or distraction – from our own mortality.

"Our desire for interconnectedness, our desire to be seen, our desire to be acknowledged, our desire to be liked – these are all deep needs, these survival instincts we've evolved to function in a tribal society.

"We haven't evolved as loners, we need each other. It's easy to believe in the illusion of technology bringing us closer together. But if you were to protest that and say, 'I'm not going to use a smartphone, I'm not going to use email, I'm not going to use social media', it's like you're no longer a part of humanity."

Front Row Seat To Earth is serving as a Weyes Blood breakout. Mering has been surprised "how kind people have been" to the record. "I always feel so vulnerable, like anybody could tear me apart at any moment," she says. "I'm so exposed, I really just wear my heart on my sleeve."

She calls her sound "cosmic gospel", and her goal in producing the album was to match "pop sensibilities" with "astral depth".

Mering grew up in the cornfields of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, singing in choirs. Her parents were musicians-turned-missionaries, and she took up playing music early.

She released her first record, 2007's Strange Chalices Of Seeing (as Weyes Bluhd), when she was 18. Even when cutting her teeth, she was thinking on a grand-scale, and needed encouragement in the face of the "oversaturation" of music in the world.

"When I was a kid, I used to get really freaked out about how many people there were on the planet," she says.

"I'd think 'how can I ever do anything worth anything?'. And my dad would tell me 'the cream will always float to the top'. As an artist, you have to have faith in that idea. There's so much music out there, but if what you do is honest and real, it will eventually attract attention, and respect, even if that's not fame and success."

Weyes Blood is performing at the Sydney Festival on January 19, Northcote Social Club on January 20 and Sugar Mountain on January 21.