Chelsea Wolfe has shared a cover of Arthur Field’s ‘Oui Oui Marie’ as part of the soundtrack to the upcoming A24 horror film X. Wolfe and Tyler Bates composed the score for the film, which is directed by Ti West and stars Kid Cudi, Mia Goth, Jenny Ortega, and Brittany Snow. Check out Wolfe’s take on ‘Oui Oui Marie’ below.
According to the movie’s official synopsis, X is set in 1979 and follows “a group of young filmmakers [who] set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.”
The film comes out in theaters on March 18, and the soundtrack is out on March 25.
X (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Tracklist:
1. My God
2. Maxine Meets Pearl
3. Theda
4. Pearl’s Lullaby
5. Fucking Finally
6. Pearl’s Rapture
7. Dolls
8. Pumping Gas
9. Our Secret
10. Use Your Telephone
11. We Talked About This
12. Nice Girl
13. Headlights
14. Sorry to Disturb You
15. The Cellar
16. What is it Baby?
17. I Was Young Once
18. Tell Me I’m Special
19. Maxine Grabs the Gun
20. Oui Oui Marie
21. Bring Our Daughters Home
Phoebe Bridgers has released an acoustic version of her Punisher highlight ‘Chinese Satellite’ as part of Secretly Canadian’s 25th anniversary singles series SC25. Bridgers recorded the new rendition in Los Angeles at Sound City Studios, and you can listen to it below.
Bridgers is set to kick off a world tour next month, which will keep her on the road throughout 2022. Last week, she shared a cover of Billie Eilish’s ‘When the Party’s Over’ , which premiered during the first episode of her new SiriusXM radio show named for her Saddest Factory label imprint.
Moderat – the electronic project of Modeselektor’s Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary and Apparat’s Sascha Ring – have shared a new song called ‘Easy Prey’. It’s set to appear on their forthcoming record MORE D4TA, the trio’s first album in six years, alongside lead single ‘Fast Land’. Give it a listen below.
MORE D4TA is set for release on May 13 via Monkeytown Records.
Sigrid has announced the details of her second album: How to Let Go is set to arrive on May 6. To accompany the announcement, the Norwegian pop artist has shared a video for her recent single ‘It Gets Dark’, which was created with ‘Mirror’ director Femke Huurdeman and CANADA. and sees Sigrid escaping into space. Check it out below, and scroll down for the album’s cover art and tracklist.
Commenting on the song and video, Sigrid said in a statement:
I believe you need to feel the lows in life to feel the highs, and you have to know what sucks to then properly appreciate the good stuff. It Gets Dark is an ode to that. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a single release before. It’s the first song that was written for my upcoming album, and I remember the joy and relief when we figured out the soundscape. I was like FINALLY I know how this second record is gonna sound! The music video is the weirdest I’ve gone visually and I absolutely love it. We’re playing with planets, UFO’s and rooms all made by hand, as well as perspective, time and space. It’s the second time working with the brilliant Femke Huurdeman and Canada, and I’d literally do anything for that team; hence me being reborn out of a planet egg, flying in space with wind blowing in my face, punching a planet and wearing the Saturn ring on my head. It’s as ridiculously fun as it was making it: enjoy!
According to a press release, the follow-up to 2019’s Sucker Punch was written at a time when Sigrid was contemplating her life in Norway and her life outside of Norway. “They’re two different things,” she said. “The chill girl who loves to ski and hike and cook versus the other part of me that’s like ‘let’s go out’, or let’s play massive shows, go on stage and not be scared of anything. I used to be so shy as a kid but then when I’m on stage at Glastonbury for example I love losing myself in it.”
How to Let Go Cover Artwork:
How to Let Go Tracklist:
1. It Gets Dark
2. Burning Bridges
3. Risk Of Getting Hurt
4. Thank Me Later
5. Mirror
6. Last To Know
7. Dancer
8. A Driver Saved My Night
9. Mistake Like You
10. Bad life
11. Grow
12. High Note
Alanis Morissette has announced new dates for her world tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill, marking the news with the release of a new single called ‘Olive Brach’. She’ll embark on a UK and European tour in June, with support from Beth Orton, before heading to North America in July and August, where she’ll be joined by Garbage. Listen to ‘Olive Branch’ and check out the list of dates below.
Jun 9 Copenhagen, Denmark – Royal Arena*
Jun 12 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome*
Jun 14 Hamburg, Germany – Barclaycard Arena*
Jun 16 Paris, France – AccorHotels Arena*
Jun 19 Glasgow, UK – OVO HYDRO*
Jun 21 Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena*
Jun 23 Birmingham, UK – United Arena*
Jun 24 Leeds, UK – First Direct Arena*
Jun 25 Manchester, UK – Manchester Arena*
Jun 28 London, UK – The 02*
Jun 29 London, UK – The 02*
Jul 10 Ottawa, ON – Ottawa Bluesfest
Jul 12 Montreal, QC – Bell Centre^
Jul 13 London, ON – Rock The Park Fest
Jul 17 Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage^
Jul 19 Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts^
Jul 21 Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
Jul 23 Milwaukee, WI – American Family Insurance Amphitheater^
Jul 24 St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center^
Jul 27 Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome^
Jul 28 Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place^
Jul 31 Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena^
Aug 2 Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater^
Aug 4 Wheatland, CA – Toyota Amphitheatre^
Aug 6 Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
Jenny Hval has released Classic Objects, her first album for 4AD. The follow-up to 2019’s The Practice of Love was preceded by the singles ‘Jupiter’, ‘Year of Love’, and ‘Freedom’. Elaborating on the process of making the record in press materials, the Oslo-based artist wrote: “At the time, I was listening to devotional music, like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwali recordings and Alice Coltrane’s ashram tapes. I think somehow this listening made me permeable, like I could find ways in and out of places. Past places, like the old empty Melbourne pubs my band used to play in. Places I missed, like public spaces. And imagined, future places, impossible places. Places only dreams, hallucinations, death or art can take you. Classic Objects is a map of those places. It is interested in combining heavenly things and plain things.”
Maia Friedman, known for her work with Dirty Projectors and Coco, has issued her debut solo album, Under the New Light, via Last Gang Records. The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist began working on the album four years ago, collaborating with Tom Deis and Peter Lalish, while Coco bandmate Dan Molad handled production. “I’m someone who has struggled with depression for as long as I can remember,” Friedman said in our Artist Spotlight interview. “There are peaks and valleys and waves, and I think a lot of the record is sort of me talking to myself, to reassure myself that it’ll all come out the other end and that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s me searching for that. My hope is that it will be comforting and grounding and calming and that it will provide a space of respite and almost – not escape, but sort of like a suspension from everything going around.”
Alex Cameron is back with a new LP. It’s called Oxy Music, and it’s out now via Secretly Canadian. Spanning nine songs, the follow-up to 2019’s Miami Memory features guest appearances from Lloyd Vines and Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson and was previewed with the tracks ‘Best Life’ and ‘Sara Jo’. “The album is a story, a work of fiction, mostly from the perspective of a man,” Cameron explained in a statement. “Starved of meaningful purpose, confused about the state of the world, and in dire need of a reason to live. This is one of those people.”
Drug Church have put out their fourth album, Hygiene, via Pure Noise Records. Following the 2018 LP Cheer and 2021’s Tawny EP, the Albany and Los Angeles-based band’s latest was recorded with producer/engineer Jon Markson. “I’m sure that my bandmates felt the upward momentum of Cheer and wanted to stick with that, but it’s hard to say what elements from Cheer resonated with people,” vocalist Patrick Kindlon told Stereogum. “This is a thing that happens to a lot of bands: they have some success, and then they misjudge on the next record what made that previous record a success. And honestly, you don’t know until you fail miserably. I would think that, and I haven’t discussed this with them, but I would think they wanted to write something that continued that upward lift while still being personally fulfilling enough to play every night.”
Richmond, Virginia rapper Fly Anakin has dropped his debut full-length, Frank, via Lex. The 17-track effort features guest appearances from Pink Siifu, Henny L.O., and Big Kahuna OG as well as production by Jay Versace, Madlib, Evidence, and others. Anakin previewed the LP with the tracks ‘Ghost’, ‘Sean Price’, ‘No Dough’, and ‘Black Be the Source’. Frank follows Anakin’s self-produced 2021 EP Pixotes as well as his recent collaborations with Pink Siifu: 2020’s FlySiifu’s and 2021’s Smokebreak EP. “I used to give myself 30 days to make a project and, if it was good, just put that shit out,” Anakin told Pitchfork. “That’s how I got my chops up. But Frank needed to be respected.”
Crease is the debut LP by Kee Avil, the project of Montréal producer and guitarist Vicky Mettler. The album, which draws influence from the likes of Scott Walker, Fionna Apple, early PJ Harvey, and Pan Daijing, was produced over a period of three years, without any particular narrative in mind. “Each [song] represents a certain moment in time, an emotion, exercise or spontaneous idea that creates its own world,” Mettler explained in press materials. “Each of these worlds was built without consideration for the other. It felt impossible to me, once I would enter the atmosphere of a song, to try to start another until that idea was finished. Once assembled, the album presents a narrative as the songs want it told.”
Widowspeak have returned with their sixth studio album, The Jacket. The follow-up to 2020’s Plum is out now via Captured Tracks and includes the previously shared singles ‘While You Wait’, ‘Everything Is Simple’, and the title track. “One big theme of this album is that people, and their motivations, are complex: there’s no one side of the story, no singular way to be, and it’s hard to fully know someone,” the duo explained in a statement. “In a band, you’re intertwined with others and necessarily trusting in that shared experience, but that perspective is also sort of a foil for examining other relationships and connections, jobs and endeavors, and thinking about what it means to have dreams for the future in any context.”
The Districts have a new album out via Fat Possum titled Great American Painting. The follow-up to 2020’s You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere was produced by Joe Chiccarelli and recorded at Sunset Sound in LA. “The last album almost felt like a recording project of my own rather than a band affair, so from the start the goal was to focus on what’s always worked well with us: an element of simplicity that’s still very powerful, with a lot of visceral rock-and-roll energy to it,” vocalist and guitarist Rob Grote said in a press release. “We usually love to just keep making everything louder, but this time there was a lot more attention paid to carving out space within the songs to really showcase each instrument,”
Belle and Sebastian have released a new song and video in support of those affected by the war in Ukraine. ‘If They’re Shooting at You’, which the band co-produced with Shawn Everett and Brian McNeill, features a visual collaboration with photographers covering the conflict in Ukraine. All artist income from the song will be directed to the Red Cross, and donations made via Bandcamp until March 18 will be matched by the UK government as part of the joint appeal with the Disasters Emergency Committee. Watch and listen below.
Frontman Stuart Murdoch said in a statement:
When the situation in Ukraine first started to happen it became clear that the lives of the people there, and probably “ours” too, were never going to be the same. The band had just started rolling out tracks for our new album, and it all felt a bit silly to be honest.
We had one track called “If They’re Shooting At You,” it’s a song about being lost, broken and under threat of violence. The key line is “if they’re shooting at you kid you must be doing something right.”
We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and hope that their pain and suffering can be brought to a halt as soon as possible.
We got in touch with various photographers and creatives in Ukraine and they generously said that we could put their pictures to music. In creating this we aspire to show a hopeful, defiant side, as well as bringing an awareness to the plight of the people there.
We think any way in which we can get behind Ukraine – politically, culturally, practically, spiritually – it must all add up in the end. Together we have to do what it takes to help Ukraine beat this tyranny.
Please consider giving to the Disasters Emergency Committee, The Red Cross, or any other humanitarian charity involved in the crisis.
If you choose to donate to the Red Cross, please visit here. They are part of the joint appeal with the DEC until March 18th, and money donated before then will be matched by the UK government.
Bobbie Nelson, Willie Nelson’s sister and a longtime pianist in his band, has died. “Her elegance, grace, beauty and talent made this world a better place,” a statement from the Nelson family reads. “She was the first member of Willie’s band, as his pianist and singer. Our hearts are broken and she will be deeply missed. But we are so lucky to have had her in our lives. Please keep her family in your thoughts and give them the privacy they need at this time.” She was 91.
Born in Abbott, Texas, in 1931, Bobbie Nelson learned to play piano when she was five years old. After performing at a gospel convention as a child, her grandfather brought her a piano, and she began playing in functions at her high school and in church with her younger brother. At age sixteen, Bobbie married Bud Fletcher, who formed the band Bud Fletcher and the Texans with Bobbie on piano and Willie on vocals and guitar. Following Fletcher’s death in a car accident, Bobbie worked for the Hammond Organ Company before she eventually returned to music, performing in local venues in Nashville. In 1973, her brother Willie, who had just signed a record deal with Atlantic Records, invited her to join his band. She remained a member of the original lineup for decades, appearing on albums such as The Troublemaker, Shotgun Willie, Stardust, and To Lefty From Willie.
In 2008, Bobbie released her debut solo album, Audiobiography. In the past two years, she and Willie published two books that they wrote together, a memoir called Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of The Family Band in 2020 and the children’s book Sister, Brother, Family: An American Childhood in Music in 2021.
“If I was the sky, Sister Bobbie was the Earth. She grounded me,” Willie wrote in Me and Sister Bobbie. “There is no longer or stronger or steadier relationship in my life.”
Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa have teamed up for the new song ‘Sweetest Pie’, which they announced last week. The collaboration arrives with an accompanying video directed by Dave Meyers and conceptualized by Megan. Check it out below.
According to Megan Thee Stallion’s label, ‘Sweetest Pie’ serves as the first preview of her forthcoming album. The rapper released the freestyle compilation Something for Thee Hotties last fall. Dua Lipa is currently on a tour of the US, with Megan set to open three upcoming dates: Denver, Colorado on March 15, Tulsa, Oklahoma on March 17, and Phoenix, Arizona on March 20.
Maia Friedman was already an experienced songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist before embarking on a solo career. Growing up in the Sierra National Forest region of central California with a film editor father and Jungian psychoanalyst mother, Friedman started playing music at an early age and went on to perform in groups like Bobby, Toebow, and Uni Ika Ai. She began working on her debut solo album, Under the New Light (out tomorrow), over four years ago, while teaching music in New York City and being a part of several projects. In 2018, she was asked to join Dirty Projectors, singing and co-writing the lyrics for the first of their 5EPs released last year and heavily touring with the band. She also formed Coco with Oliver Hill and Dan Molad, releasing music anonymously until they announced their striking self-titled debut, which came out in October 2021.
As its title suggests, Under the New Light represents a kind of creative renewal for Friedman, who made the album with Tom Deis and Peter Lalish across the US, in Omaha, New York, and Los Angeles, while Dan Molad handled the production. But on a personal level, these soothing and intricate songs also bear witness to the constant search for a place of comfort and healing, a sense of groundedness within one’s self. Friedman’s vision remains intact as she reflects on moments of light and darkness, intimacy and growth, inspiring empathy in the listener as much as herself: “Peel away/ Keeping me up through the night,” she sings on ‘First to Love’, “Escape/ Be whatever you like.”
We caught up with Maia Friedman for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her earliest musical memories, collaborating with Dirty Projectors and Coco, the journey to her debut album, and more.
I read that you grew up in a creative household and that your father gifted you a jazz album on every birthday. Do you mind sharing some early musical memories that have stayed with you?
My dad is an amazing singer. He’s not a professional musician, but we used to sing a lot together. When I was little, probably in elementary school, there was like a schtick that we would do. We would have class camping trips and class get-togethers with the students and the parents, and on the camping trips, we would have – not talent shows, but like sharing art. He used to sing and play the Elvis Presley song called ‘Hound Dog’. And my thing – this is like fourth grade – I would lip-sync and act out like I was performing the song. So that was a part of our home experience.
My dad really loves Creedence Clearwater Revival and Blind Faith, Rolling Stones. We had a huge CD collection, so all of these albums that my dad collected over the years, I then kind of stole and took into my room and started listening to. And then I really gravitated toward jazz vocalists, so he started giving me CDs as gifts, like Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Dinah Washington, of course Billie Holiday. I just loved them so much. I lived in this sort of jazz world for a little while – I studied music in college and I did a lot of jazz music stuff in college. But I think that that had a huge influence on the way that I think about the voice. They’re all masters of singing.
Was there a moment early on that made you realize you wanted to try that as well?
Yeah, I don’t think specifically jazz or jazz singing, but I think I always wanted to be a musician. I don’t really know what that meant concretely, but it was just something that I always gravitated towards. I sang in a children’s choir when I was a kid and would perform in their summer opera programs. I was always playing piano, and in junior high, I always took all of the music class electives. And then I think in high school was when I first started writing my own songs, which I would never want to share because they’re cringeworthy, very emo. And I tried to have some bands when I was younger, which never actually turned into anything. It was sort of going to band practice and everyone’s playing their instrument at the same time, but not together. It wasn’t until I got to college that I was around other people that I connected musically with. I don’t think that there was a conscious moment where I decided that I wanted to try it, it was just natural gravitation.
It’s almost been a decade since you went on your first tour with the band Bobby, which was formed by friends from college. How do you look back on that time? Are you nostalgic about it?
Oh, yeah. I was two years out of college and I was so excited. It was so fun to be playing music with people that I really liked and respected and admired. Tom Greenberg, who was sort of the founding member of Bobby, is such an incredible musician. He’s so creative and I love his musical mind. And Martin Zimmerman, who played the drums and Bobby – after Bobby broke up, him and I actually went on to play in another band together called Toebow, which there are some records but that I was a part of, but Toebow is a band that’s very active in New York. And Paolo Menuez played keys in Bobby. We all just got along so well, it was very goofy and silly, and we were all like, extremely poor. I remember I had to do laundry and I didn’t have any money to do laundry, it was like a slot laundry machine, and I actually went searching on the ground for quarters. But I think being so young, it didn’t matter. It was just so fun and exciting. The early days of touring, there’s something really magical about them. You’re kind of naive to the way the industry works, and it’s all just for fun.
Is that something you try to tap into more now?
Yes, definitely. It’s funny when you get older and you have bills to pay and other kinds of responsibilities, it does shift a little bit in your mind, at least for me. But I definitely try to constantly remind myself that music should be should be fun. I definitely felt that way touring with Dirty Projectors, also – it was sort of this similar free suspension a little bit.
During the four years that you were making this new record, Under the New Light, you’ve been a member of bands like Dirty Projectors and Coco. How did being in those collaborative spaces feed into the process of this album? Especially since there was a collaborative element to it as well, although it was more your project.
Well, this record was started before I joined Dirty Projectors. I love collaborating – I think I much prefer writing music with other people than on my own. It’s so fun to bounce off of other people. This is true with Coco – when Oliver, Danny, and I are in the room together, it feels like we have these different offerings, and when it’s all blended together it feels really natural and easy to finish songs. And it’s so democratic, we’re all pitching in ideas, there’s not much struggle or push and pull there. And with my record, it was written very collaboratively with Tom Deis and Peter Lalishm, who are two musicians I had a band with called Uni Ika Ai. It started around 2013, 2014, we put a record out in 2016. So it was a little ambiguous if the record would come out as Uni Ika Ai or as me. A lot of the songs were brought to the table from me and many were full collaborations.
Part of the reason why it’s taken so long to get this record out is because Dave asked me if I’d be interested in joining the band, and that sort of took took over completely and the record was put on the shelf while I was focusing on Dirty Projectors. It takes so much time and energy – you’re learning these parts and it’s like learning another language, and the touring was quite intensive. And then, on a break from Dirty Projectors, I was in LA actually, I was supposed to be recording with Dave for the 5EPs record. I had some days free and Danny and I got together at a studio. We’ve been friends for a very, very long time. Danny and I met when I first moved to New York, I worked in a cafe and he lived down the street so he would come in every single day to the cafe, and that’s how we met. He’s been sort of a fundamental person over the years. In LA, having some days off during the recording of the 5EPs, Danny asked if I wanted to come over and maybe try and work on some song ideas that he had, and that’s when we ended up recording ‘Empty Beach’ and ‘One Time Villain’, which were the first Coco songs. We were having a hard time finishing them, and so we called Oliver to see if he would want to help.
With Dirty Projectors, the songs are Dave’s. They’re really his songs, he lines out all of the parts, it’s all very organised. And with 5EPs, for Windows Open, which is the first EP to come out and was the one that I was featured on, that was really the first time that we collaborated, because we worked on the lyrics together. And yeah, I just love it. I love writing with people. And it’s terrifying, especially if it’s someone that you’ve never been with before. It’s scary, it’s very vulnerable. You’re sort of baring your soul, but I think that’s part of what draws me, is that vulnerability. You have to just set your ego aside, kind of make a fool of yourself in the process of coming up with ideas. I feel lucky that that is something that I enjoy.
How do you make distinctions between what song belongs to which project? And what made you decide you were going to release these songs under you own name?
I think for a long time, I didn’t have the confidence to stand on my own. I think that I gravitated towards being in bands because I felt more comfortable being surrounded by other people. And I think that being a part of Dirty Projectors and working so hard on the music, it was sort of like a master class a little bit. I felt like I went to grad school, kind of, when I joined Dirty Projectors. And it gave me the confidence to finally be able to stand on my own a little bit and feel like I was capable to do something on my own. And that’s something I’ve always wanted, I’ve always wanted to put out music under my own name. I just think it’s taken me a little bit longer to believe that that was something that I was capable of. And I know that I am now. I mean, I definitely have moments, still – self-doubt is always in my mind and I have very strong voices that try and talk me out of doing anything. It’s definitely a daily process of reassuring myself that this is something that I can do.
I have a bunch of new songs that I’ve written for the next record, which these ones are fully me, written by myself. And it’s sort of the first body of music that I challenged myself to do on my own. I know that we’re focusing on this record, but I’m excited for what’s coming next because I think it’s like a self-actualized experience to have songs that are just by myself.
As far as choosing – I mean, Dirty Projectors is Dave’s music, so that’s pretty easy to separate. I think for Coco, it’s pretty clear what are Coco songs and what are my songs. But there are some times when I have a song and I don’t know if I should put it in the Coco box or in mine. And that’s actually the case with ‘Elevate Us’, which is on Under the New Light. That’s a song that I’ve had floating around for a long time. That was one of my songs that I brought to Coco and I have recorded it many times and it just has never felt right. The sound just never came together. And so, I decided that that should be a Coco song and we recorded it in May in Richmond at Montrose Recording, which is my friend Adrian [Olsen]’s studio. [laughs] I feel bad – no, it’s okay, me and Danny and Oliver have agreed that it’s fine, they’re okay that I took the song. But we recorded it as Coco and then I was like, “I feel like this has to be on this record.” And I talked to them about it and they signed off. That was sort of the hiccup in one of my songs being brought into Coco world and then peering back into my world.
Did you feel like you had to sort of make a case for it? What did you have in mind musically or thematically for this record that ultimately led you in that direction?
I think that I had nine songs on the record, and all of them were recorded mostly in 2017. So they’ve been around for a while, and I think in order to breathe some new life into the record for me personally – I know that it’s new for the world, but for me, I felt like it was really meaningful to have something newer on the record. It’s an older song, but reimagined, and that was sort of a little bit of a grounding for me to have something more contemporary in my musical catalogue.
What you said about gaining confidence, I feel like it relates to the content of the record in terms of this almost calming voice that it has. One of my favourite tracks is ‘Happiness’, and I think the line “I’ll take everything in stride” encapsulates a lot of what the album is about. It’s almost as if happiness is less of a state that you find yourself in and more something that you cultivate with kindness and patience. It seems like you have a similar approach to building a song as well.
Yeah, I think that’s probably true. I guess a lot of the record, it’s from the point of view of myself – there’s a lot of, “I will take everything in stride,” “I will find my place.” But I think that a lot of the voice in the music is sort of like the higher voice that’s comforting me. I think a lot of it is the voice that I aspire to have in my mind. I’m someone who has struggled with depression for as long as I can remember. There are peaks and valleys and waves, and I think a lot of the record is sort of me talking to myself, to reassure myself that it’ll all come out the other end and that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s me searching for that. My hope is that it will be comforting and grounding and calming and that it will provide a space of respite and almost – not escape, but sort of like a suspension from everything going around, so that maybe people can connect with themselves and see themselves a little bit more clearly.
When you sing of a certain place on songs like ‘Happiness’ and ‘Sunny Room’, is it purely metaphorical or do you sort of envision a specific place?
I think it’s primarily metaphorical. But when I do imagine what that means… I’ve been really bad at meditating recently, for like the past two years it’s been not a regular thing that I do, but there are places that I go or visualise when I’m in meditation. Places that I’ve been in my life where I feel really comfortable. One of them is: I love having a seat by a window. I have my desk and it’s right by the window and the seat – there’s something, I don’t know what it is, but I always want to have a chair by the window to just sit in. There’s something about a light coming through a window with a curtain kind of moving with the wind and being able to look out at the world. It’s very comforting to me, and I think it represents calmness and centeredness.
I used to live in New Mexico, and the sky is so big there. There are lots of mountains, and the elevation in New Mexico can actually be quite high, but it’s a desert landscape. And the sky is so big. And it’s quite arid. I don’t know why this particular day has been imprinted on my mind, but there was a day – I was driving somewhere to pick something up, I was driving down this road. It was just a long, straight road. It was a beautiful sunny day, the sky was really blue. And there was this expansive feeling of being in this place that I think really has stayed with me forever. That’s a place that I go again and again: I’m on this road looking up at this big open sky. It’s very free.
And then another place is the ranch. I used to live up near Yosemite in central California. It’s a place I’ve gone my whole life. My mom and I moved up there together when I was six and I lived there for a couple of years. And I think being there at that age – I was so lucky to be there. I was a really creative kid and I’m an only child, so I played a lot by myself, completely surrounded by wilderness. I would out with, I had two dogs that were like my protectors, they were Border Collies which are very protective animals, and just play in the woods. There were streams and I would make little fairy houses in the dirt, you know, very wild child vibes. And it’s my favourite place on Earth.
Do you remember feeling connected to nature growing up, or do you think it’s something that you realize now, that you had that connection?
I don’t think as a kid I was aware – I don’t think I knew what connection was. I think I knew what it felt like, but I definitely know that I much preferred to be outside than inside. I was always climbing trees, my friends and I would play would just find a bush anywhere and play on the bush and pretend that we were bunny rabbits. I grew up in California so there’s nature all around you even in cities, and I would go through the nature to get where I was going. I think that was always present, but I think my connection with this place near Yosemite really cemented that for me. That definitely inspired my comfort in nature.
Is it easier to describe what connection looks or feels like now? Connection to nature, but also connection with people – is that something that you try to grasp at, be it through music or in other ways, something that’s on your mind?
Yeah, I think about it all the time. I think for me, being in nature puts a lot of our problems into context. I think that there’s something humbling in being surrounded by nature, with the knowledge that I’m not going to be here forever. None of us are. And what – I mean, hopefully… will continue to be here is the nature that we’re surrounded by. And I think the history of the places that I visit extends beyond my existence on the planet. I feel very privileged in the life that I’ve been able to live, and despite that, I have my own issues and problems, and being in nature just reminds me of the impermanence of our existence. And I think there are times when that can feel a little bit scary, but there are also times when that feels like the ultimate truth.
I had a period recently where I was, like, obsessed with death. I was thinking about dying. Not suicidal ideation – I mean, the reality of my inevitable death was weighing very heavily on me, and I think I was focusing a lot on the… Let’s say reincarnation is not a thing, I’m taking that off the table. And I think about the – I don’t know what nothingness means. I don’t really know what nothingness means. And when I think about dying, what I imagine is nothingness. I was, like, panicking about it. It was like a month when that’s all I could think about. It was really intense. And I watched the documentary Fantastic Fungi. Have you seen it?
I haven’t. Is it worth watching?
I mean, there are moments that are a little bit silly. There are funny animations of mushrooms talking. But, and this is something that I’ve known about, the mycelium network, the network of mushrooms underneath the earth connecting trees to one another. It’s this expansive network, it’s all very connected and very intelligent. And something really clicked for me after watching this movie, which was very comforting with this imminent, future death fear. Which was: If I can die and just be placed in the earth and decomposed by mushrooms and fungi, be turned into food for the mushroom and fungi, then I will become a part of this interconnected network. That was like the ultimate comforting thought, that if I can someday join nature, then I’ll be even more connected than I am now, you know, in an energetic sense.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Jenny Hval has released 
Maia Friedman, known for her work with Dirty Projectors and Coco, has issued her debut solo album, 
Alex Cameron is back with a new LP. It’s called 
Drug Church have put out their fourth album, 
Richmond, Virginia rapper Fly Anakin has dropped his debut full-length, 
Widowspeak
The Districts have a new album out via 
