In 2015, Perry Blackshear took the festival circuit by storm with his multiple award-winning debut feature They Look Like People, a slow-burning, lo-fi exercise in psychological horror propelled by an astonishing central performance from MacLeod Andrews. While Blackshear’s follow-up The Siren (2019) was not quite so well-received, When I Consume You marks a welcome return to form – a grubby and disquieting metropolitan nightmare in which two siblings are relentlessly pursued by someone (or something) determined to make their lives a misery. Our Culture reviews the film here as part of its selection from the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Daphne Shaw (Libby Ewing) is a nurse who is hoping to adopt a child, though her history of addiction is proving something of a stumbling block. Her brother Wilson (Evan Dumouchel) is a janitor looking to find work as a teacher, but his resume leaves a great deal to be desired. Struggling emotionally and financially, both siblings are living in sparse and cramped New York City apartments while trying to advance in life and let go of their traumatic past. Daphne is particularly troubled; she has long been menaced by a shadowy figure who seems to find her wherever she goes, leaving her bruised and beaten in the streets until their paths cross again. As the enigmatic stalker closes in on Daphne and resolves to make Wilson its next victim, the siblings try to find a way to rid themselves of it for good.
The great triumph ofThey Look Like Peopleis its central metaphor. The tale of a single man who sincerely believes that everyone around him is slowly being replaced by otherworldly doppelgängers, it has a great deal to say about the paranoia bred by urban alienation; its pervading theme is that we can be surrounded by people and still feel utterly, dreadfully alone. In many ways, When I Consume You uses its monster to serve a similar allegorical function. Even in a city home to nearly nine million people, Daphne and Wilson have no one but each other – and even if they have a chance of defeating the malevolent entity that blights their lives, they will have to do so without external help.
The acute isolation of the film’s central characters is captured perfectly in its cinematography (by Blackshear himself, who also serves as writer, director, editor and producer). The New York of When I Consume Youis a dark and desolate concrete labyrinth, an endless maze of empty sidewalks lit only by the fiery orange glare of streetlights. It’s a terrifyingly vacant and entirely unromantic vision of the city that would make William Lustig proud. The film’s internal scenes are closely shot to create a palpable sense of claustrophobia, as if the walls are forever closing in on Daphne and Wilson. The combined result is an unbearably hopeless atmosphere – one that is greatly aided by Mitch Bain’s dissonant, foreboding score.
Perry Blackshear’s desolate New York City
But this is not just a story about the essential loneliness of the urban existence; it is also one about the struggle to survive in a capitalist society. It is implied that Daphne and Wilson have always been disadvantaged, lacking in education and financial resources. Much of the first act is dedicated to establishing their hopes and dreams (to start a family, to find a good job, to live a happy and stable life) before grinding them into dust. Every attempt to move forward, to “succeed,” is met with seemingly insurmountable resistance. With this in mind, the film’s monster – a creature determined to literally and figuratively beat its victims into submission until they finally give up hope – is the perfect metaphor for the systemic forces that ensure those at the bottom of the ladder stay there and suffer.
And that suffering is perfectly captured in the film’s two central performances. Dumouchel (making his third appearance in a Blackshear film) gives a heart-wrenching turn as Wilson, a grown man with the sensibility of a little boy lost in a world that wants to eat him alive. Meanwhile, Ewing imbues the downtrodden Daphne with a fierce and quiet defiance as she tries to keep her brother safe. The ever-excellent MacLeod Andrews – who starred in both of Blackshear’s previous pictures – takes a much reduced role here, and the less said about that role the better. Suffice it to say, though, that he steals every scene he appears in after making his entrance.
Leaving behind the rural setting of The Siren, When I Consume You ultimately feels very much like a thematic sequel to They Look Like People: an unnerving, cerebral horror film about what it means to feel alone amongst the urban masses. But, importantly, it does not simply repeat those themes – it deftly extends them. Daphne and Wilson feel alienated from society because society has failed them; they are two of life’s “losers,” but only because the game is rigged. Their battle against Daphne’s “stalker,” then, represents a steadfast refusal to give up – even if the odds are stacked against them.
Brooklyn’s Geese have announced their debut album: Projector arrives digitally October 20 via Partisan/Play It Again Sam, with a physical release to follow on December 3. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘Low Era’, which follows previous single ‘Disco’ and comes with a music video directed by Fons Schiedon. Check it out and find the LP’s cover art and tracklist below.
Projector was written, produced, and recorded by Geese while they were still in high school and was mixed by Dan Carey. The band said of the new single in a statement:
We had been trying to get everything to sound super heavy, creepy crawly, and complicated, really because that’s all we knew how to do. Four-on-the-floor songs like ‘Low Era’ had felt a little like poison to us for a while, until we consciously tried to challenge ourselves to write something more danceable. Once we stopped enforcing certain boundaries, it ended up working out without us expecting it to, and even ushered in this psychedelic 3-D element that ends up appearing throughout the album.
We like the idea of confusing the listener a little, and trying to make every song a counteraction to the last, pinballing between catchy and complicated, fast and slow. ‘Low Era’ is one end of that spectrum, and ultimately broadened the scope of songs we thought we could make.
Projector Cover Artwork:
Projector Tracklist:
1. Rain Dance
2. Low Era
3. Fantasies / Survival
4. First World Warrior
5. Disco
6. Projector
7. Exploding House
8. Bottle
9. Opportunity is Knocking
My Morning Jacket have announced a new self-titled album. My Morning Jacket arrives October 22 via ATO. It includes the newly unveiled track ‘Regularly Scheduled Programming’, which comes with an accompanying video co-directed by Jim James and George Mays. Check it out below and scroll down for the LP’s cover artwork (by Robert Beatty) and tracklist.
“This song really hits home for me after what we’ve gone through with the pandemic,” James said of the new single in a statement. “But even before then, it felt like so many of us were trading real life for social media, trading our own stories for the storylines on TV, trading our consciousness for drugs. We need to help each other wake up to real love before it’s too late.”
Last year, My Morning Jacket issued The Waterfall II, their first full-length record in five years following 2015’s The Waterfall.
My Morning Jacket Cover Artwork:
My Morning Jacket Tracklist:
1. Regularly Scheduled Programming
2. Love Love Love
3. In Color
4. Least Expected
5. Never in the Real World
6. The Devil’s in the Details
7. Lucky to Be Alive
8. Complex
9. Out of Range, Pt. 2
10. Penny for Your Thoughts
11. I Never Could Get Enough
Caribou has shared a surprise new track called ‘You Can Do It’. The song, out now via Merge, is accompanied by a dog-filled music video directed by Richard Kenworthy of Shynola. Check it out below.
Last year, Caribou released Suddenly, his first album in six years, which landed on our 50 Best Albums of 2020 list. A reimagined version of the LP, featuring remixes from Four Tet, Floating Points, Morgan Geist, India Jordan, and more, arrived this past March.
Self Esteem has shared a new track, ‘How Can I Help You’, from her upcoming sophomore album Prioritise Pleasure. The song is accompanied by a self-directed video, which you can check out below.
“‘How Can I Help You’ is one of the first songs I wrote for the second album,” Rebecca Taylor said of the new song and video in a press release. “After touring the first record and most weeks being told that I am underrated or intimidating I just felt very fed up. I guess I’ll be eternally angry for the way as a woman unless you’re sweet, nice, settled and quiet, you’re considered ‘different’ and ‘difficult’. I wanted to play the drums in the video to reclaim how often I used to feel self conscious playing them. The physical act of a woman playing a drum means your tits move – all I ever wanted to do was play but it always came with this fear of being looked at in that way. Now my tits move for me, my song, my video. I’m also aware it’s probs a nice watch if you’re that way inclined, but I’m afraid if you wanna watch it you have to hear what I’ve got to say. Click for the tits, stay for the feminism!”
Prioritise Pleasure lands on October 22 via Fiction Records. Taylor previously shared the album’s title track.
Broadway’s musical is one trend that never fades, but instead, it keeps gaining more ground and becoming more popular. The name Broadway originated from the longest street in New York, named Broadway. So far, there are 41 Broadway theatres in New York that have collectively produced historical musicals. Some Broadway musicals have been in the limelight for years and have sold out tickets each time they have a performance.
The First-Ever Broadway Musical That Conforms To Modern Musical Is The Black Crook
The Black Crook is an 1866 musical that premiered September 12, 1866, in New York. The musical performed 474 times, despite its length of 5 hours and a half. People were probably not bothered about the length of the musical because it was intriguing to see a different pattern of music with dancing and singing in it. The Black Crook paved the way for Modern-day musicals.
The Longest Running Broadway Musical Is Phantom Of The Opera.
The Phantom of the opera musical premiered in Her Majesty Theatre London, October 9, 1986, joined Broadway 1988. Phantom of the Opera has been on Broadway for more than 30 years and still counting. They have been consistently having Broadway performances, and 15 different actors have played the role of Phantom.
The Play With The Most Tony Awards Is The Coast Of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia, written by Tom Stoppard, is a 2002 trilogy of plays, namely Voyage, Shipwreck, and the last of them Salvage. This play has received the most Tony Awards so far. Hamilton musical by Miranda, on the other hand, is the most nominated musical for Tony awards.
Tony is only a nickname and not the full name of the award. The full title is Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre. As the name implies, they present awards to musicals with excellent performances. Brock Pemberton founded Tony Award and was named after an actress, producer, and theatre director, Antoinette Perry. She was a co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing.
Hamilton Brought A New Perception Of Broadway Musical
Although Broadway musicals have stood the test of time and continued to break its box office records, there was a notion that musicals were only attended by the advanced in age and not for the younger generation. The younger ones preferred going to cinemas than theatres. Hamilton broke that notion when it came into the limelight and got so much Attention due. Both the young and the old trooped into theatres to watch the performance on Broadway. Broadway musicals became a trend for both the younger and older generation.
Chicago The Second Longest Running Broadway Musical
As earlier mentioned, in case you missed it, Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running musical on Broadway, the second longest running in Chicago. Chicago started running on Broadway in 1975, took a break in 1977, and got revived on Broadway in 1996. Since then, it has been consistent on Broadway, with more than 8,000 performances and still counting. Chicago musical is based on a real-life story but was transformed into a Broadway comedy play by reporter Maurine Watkins.
Ten highest-grossing Broadway Original Production shows
Usually, only the number 1 highest-grossing Broadway show is mentioned, so we decided to list nine others with their debut years and grossing revenue.
The Lion King debuted in 1997 is the highest-grossing Broadway show with gross revenue of $1,657,407,012.
Wicked debuted in 2003 is the 2nd with gross revenue of $1,345,482.298.
The Phantom of the Opera debuted in 1988 is the 3rd, with gross revenue of $1,241,017,579.
Chicago debuted in 1975 is the 4th with gross revenue of $656,495,931.
The Book of Mormon debuted in 2011 ranks as the 5th, and its gross revenue is $644,811,371.
Mamma Mia! Debuted in 2001 is the 6th, and its gross revenue is 624,391,693.
Hamilton debuted in 2015 ranks as 7th, with gross revenue of $612,820,842.
Jersey Boys debuted in 2005 is number 8 with a gross venue of $558,416,092.
Les Miserables debuted in 1987 is the 9th, with gross revenue of $514,794,489.
Last but not least is Cats, which debuted in 1982 ranks 10th, with gross revenue of $453,624,091.
The First Nude Broadway Production is Hair
Hair is a musical that opened on Broadway in 1968. It is a production of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s. Far back in the 1960s, when the world was not as advanced as it is now, Hair raised a lot of controversies for having a brief nude scene. Despite its controversial nature, Hair ran up to 1,750 performances on Broadway. After Hair, some other musicals have had nude scenes, but Hair made history by daring to be the first to do it.
There are 41 Broadway Theatres in New York but only four on Broadway Street.
Forty-one theatres in New York are known as Broadway theatres, but only 4 Broadway are actually located on Broadway Street. The 37 other Broadway theatres are within a close range, though. There are certain criteria for becoming a Broadway theatre. Firstly the theatre must have 500 seats, and secondly, they must be located at the 40th to 54th streets and from West of 6th Avenue to East of Eight Avenue, including Times Square. Theatres not located in these selected areas are known as off broadways.
Hamilton Received a Record-Breaking 16 Nominations and Won 11 at the 70th Tony Award.
Hamilton Broadway Musical broke the record of having 16 Tony Award nominations, from just play and going ahead to win 11 of those awards. Hamilton, a musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, received so many awards and recognition right from when it premiered in 2015. It has gained so much sport light in different countries and still have sold out tickets for all its performance.
The cannabis industry is booming with all different types of new products, thanks to the numerous ways CBD and THC can enter the body. Cannabis itself is becoming more legal; however, its marketing efforts are still inconvenient, as leading search engines such as Google continue to take down most websites’ marijuana product advertisements. Even if a manufacturer’s state legalizes advertising for marijuana, the company would still need to find other ways to promote and sell its products online. Yet, hundreds of new cannabis products are on the rise, with some becoming more prominent than others. While we’re not endorsing the use of any of these products, let’s take a look at the different cannabis products you may not have heard of before.
Cannabis Drinks
Drinking weed may be in its infant stages of popularity. However, it is expected to expand rapidly as a trend as more states legalize the use of marijuana. Right now, cocktails that are infused with cannabis are only popular in the few bars that serve this drink in Los Angeles, and in other places where marijuana consumption is decriminalized or totally legalized. There are also a few dispensaries in Colorado, a state that legalized recreational marijuana, that sell cannabis fruit punch and cannabis cola. In addition, many New York coffee shops sell coffee infused with cannabis, a perfect combination if a regular cup of coffee is too strong for your anxiety.
Out of all those drinks, beer gets the most attention in terms of CBD experimentation. Cannabinoids offer different effects. However, so many new tastes and aromas can be produced from the terpenes in cannabis. This is what makes CBD very good to mix with beer. Yet, the endless possibilities are limited by the federal rulings concerning what is and isn’t considered a Schedule 1 drug. Some breweries and brewers in states with legalized weed, however, have been able to find workarounds for this problem.
Cannabis Oil
Cannabis oils refer to a large category of cannabis products that can be taken in many different forms. While there are certain products that contain CBD or cannabidiol oil, cannabis oil itself can be taken in more than one form. This is why this product in particular gains the most popularity among legal users. CBD oils are known to have very low levels of THC, which is why they don’t give the same high sensation that is usually associated with marijuana. This makes these oils perfect for people looking for anxiety relief, pain relief, or nausea relief without experiencing the psychoactive reactions of THC.
Cannabis oil use for Epilepsy is highly supported on a federal level and receives the most consistent approval. However, these oils have also been proven to be useful for the treatment of cancer, pain, depression, anxiety, and sleep problems. Larger companies that produce CBD oils offer many options for their products. For example, you can find E-liquid bottles, which are the most common form of cannabis oils, that are sold to be used in vape pens. There are also CBD tinctures, which are drops made from the extract of concentrated CBD, and are consumed by dropping them under the tongue and absorbing them in the mouth. Cannabis oils also give us CBD capsules that can be swallowed with water, just like any average pill. If you’re legally shopping for cannabis oil and don’t want to deal with a middleman, you can easily buy CBD hemp oil from many dispensaries and consume it by dropping it under your tongue.
Cannabis Gummies
One of the most popular cannabis products in the legal marijuana industry is cannabis gummies or CBD-specific gummies. These products are becoming so prolific that it’s now a regular thing to buy a bag of CBD gummy worms from a local gas station. However, it’s still not easy to accurately find out how much the percentage of CBD is in the gummies you’re buying. This is acceptable in most states with the legal use of marijuana. Some gummies may even contain delta 8 THC or delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is an isomer that is extremely similar to delta 9 THC, the main psychoactive compound that gets you high. The delta-8-THC compound is used commonly in cannabis gummies due to its milder psychoactive effects that are preferred by many cannabis users. Now, the majority of local dispensaries in states with legal recreational marijuana sell cannabis gummies and worms, whether they only contain CBD or percentages of both CBD and THC. All you need is a medical marijuana card and to be of legal age so that you can buy all sorts of cannabis gummies from the nearest dispensary. Gummies are one of the most dominant cannabis products if you’re looking for a treat instead of capsules or oils.
Cannabis Skincare Products
The idea of marketing CBD or weed products to suburban women are new to the cannabis industry, however, it seems to be very effective. This is one of the leading reasons why CBD beauty and skincare products are gaining more success every year. In addition to its known benefits, CBD can offer many anti-inflammatory properties that are absorbed by the cannabinoid receptors in our skin. This is why it is claimed by many researchers to reduce acne and promote pain relief. It is also advertised in the skincare and beauty industry as helping with hydration problems in the skin and inducing a nice euphoric feeling. These types of products are becoming more and more popular every day that they are being sold and featured on some of the major makeup and skincare websites, such as Sephora.
Both THC and CBD can be used and consumed in so many ways that it’s difficult to not find your favorite form of cannabis product. Whether it’s drops, oils, body lotions, or worms and gummies, this industry is certainly on the rise. However, some products seem to receive more attention than others. While many would think that cannabis beers are the most preferable to cannabis users, gummies tend to be more prominent and receive greater attention from users looking for a sweet treat that’s not as sweet as chocolate.
Beautiful, ugly, striking, disgusting, powerful. This is Phil Tippett’s Mad God.
Fans of stop-motion animation, genre cinema, or perhaps just the original Star Wars trilogy will no doubt have heard of Phil Tippett. A master special-effects artist, Tippett’s work spans the mighty AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) to the imposing ED-209 of Robocop (1987). Initially shelved after he was called to work on Jurassic Park (1993), Tippett has been working on Mad God since 1987. Finally seeing the light of day, this stop-motion opus is astonishing. Our Culture reviews the film for its selection from the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival.
The world of Mad God is one ravaged by an unknown war. A heavily-armoured soldier is placed inside a diving bell and lowered into the planet’s underworld. The soldier meets a slew of weird creatures, machines, and horrors. A worn-out map in hand, the soldier presses on with their enigmatic mission.
When watching this film, you’re immediately struck by its visual splendour. The stop-motion animation, puppetry, and miniatures are sublime on their own, but the design of the world is as disturbing as it is amazing. Twisted shapes dominate the foreground, framing awful atrocities to which the soldier bears witness. Straw men are produced to operate mechanical terrors of unknown purpose, only to die in the process; grotesque monsters kill each other without hesitation; skulls form a near-permanent part of the set design. The word “hellish” is an understatement.
Strange straw men, built to serve an unknown war.
This is a film with no dialogue, carried solely by its visual prowess. So much is communicated in the horrors we see unfold, from the cruelty that transpires under the cover of war, to the madness of those who wage it. Mad God certainly has an anti-war ring to it. In its abstract madness it presents the nightmare of what war does. Nobody is human. Only monsters exist. Even the soldier, the ostensible lead, never shows us their face. All we see is an imposing set of goggles beneath a helmet. Maybe it’s better that we don’t see what’s behind them.
But don’t let my interpretation get in the way of what you take from this film. In Tippett’s own words, “the final form of Mad God is the memory after you watch it, like waking up and exploring the memory of a dream you just had.” That really is how Mad God feels: like a dream. Bits and pieces of inexplicable madness that form a narrative coherent only to yourself.
The radicalism of the finished film is matched only by its own production. In an interview for The Guardian, Tippett explained how he’d become disillusioned with Hollywood. In fact, he considers Starship Troopers (1997) to be the last film he was proud to have worked on. For Mad God, his crew were largely artists who had grown up on his earlier work, and Tippett even pooled talent from students. Not bothering with studio backing, Tippett funded the project’s completion through Kickstarter.
Though Tippett faced personal battles of his own during production, a stop-motion film of this calibre, made without studio backing, and partially crafted by young artists points toward a more hopeful way of making movies – even if the look and feel of Mad God are anything but.
After teasing some new music, Kacey Musgraves has today officially announced her new album star-crossed. The follow-up to 2018’s Grammy-winning Golden Hour arrives September 10 via Interscope Records/Polydor/UMG Nashville. Along with the album, Musgraves will be releasing star-crossed: the film, directed by Bardia Zeinali and starring Musgraves, the same day on Paramount+. Check out the album’s title track, co-written by Musgraves, Daniel Tashian, and Ian Fitchuk, as well as the film’s trailer below.
Talking about the album in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Musgraves said: “I feel this record couldn’t be more literal in some ways. But I also feel it’s got this theatrical kind of almost fantasy take on … I wanted there to be that, just kind of that classical story. That classical vibe, kind of woven through all these other modern sounds. I always love when something classic or something traditional, something futuristic kind of meet.”
Katy Morley, a singer-songwriter and visual artist who records under the moniker Morly, grew up in the twin towns of Minneapolis and St Paul’s in Minnesota. She got her start in music as part of the 22-member Minnesota-based project Gayngs alongside the likes of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Phil Cook of Megafaun before releasing a string of solo singles and EPs, including 2015’s In Defense of My Museand 2016’s Something More Holy. Now, after putting her career on hold to deal with a chronic illness and recently moving to London from L.A. to be with her partner, she returns with her debut full-length album, ‘Til I Start Speaking. Co-produced with her frequent collaborator Christopher Stracey, the record reflects on creative fulfillment, heartbreak, and newfound love while both distilling and refining her musical palette, anchoring in minimalist, textured arrangements and subdued yet emotive vocals. It’s an enchanting, rich collection of songs that are animated by Morly’s ability to colour in her elegant compositions with lived-in details (“At home/ Dinner cooking on the stove/ And Nina singing to my soul”) and subtle touches of poetry (“Moon in the trees/ Shows you so enthralled with me”). Most of all, she makes sure her voice comes through: confident, sensitive, always resonant.
We caught up with Morly for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her earliest musical memories, the journey to her debut album, the importance of silence, and more.
What are some of your earliest memories of music?
My mom said I was always a compulsive singer, as kids tend to be. But throughout my high school and college, I was just compulsively singing. I actually have a problem in meditation every once in a while, I just start compulsively singing [laughs].
I had an extraordinary saxophone teacher when I was 10, was when I started. He just made music come so alive and made me feel like music was absolutely my own. He taught me to improvise, and it was the most enthralling thing. I didn’t want to do anything else other than play music. I’d credit him for a lot.
How do you look back on yourself as a teenager?
I was very, very quiet. Very sensitive. And I think felt outside all the time, like I was an alien or something. I definitely felt like a misfit, and I found a lot of solace in music and in art.
You studied neuroscience in college before switching to painting as your major. Do you feel that you were drawn to neuroscience for similar reasons that you were attracted to art and music?
That’s very interesting, I’ve never thought about it that way. Υeah, I guess so, because what I found interesting about neuroscience was the exploration of consciousness, which is this next frontier that we don’t understand that all humans throughout time have been trying to understand – is it a soul, is it just an illusion, do animals have it? And so, with neuroscience, you could study it very scientifically, but then I think I found it almost too clinical. Whereas doing art and music, you could be a conduit of consciousness and feel like you’re in touch with it in a different way. I remember that was a very difficult decision, deciding which path to pursue, but I think ultimately I just felt like I got to experience it more directly making music and making art than I did necessarily in a lab.
When you first started writing songs, was there something that you felt like you wanted to be more in touch with or explore that you couldn’t otherwise?
This is so embarrassing for me, but it’s very true. I started listening to Bob Dylan in university, as a lot of people do, but it just so radically altered my mind and it made me feel like I had been born in the wrong place and I was living the wrong life. And I just knew that I should be doing that, but I didn’t think I could because I was already so far along this other path of studying neuroscience. And I didn’t know any musicians; musicians were completely foreign. So I think that experience radically made me want to live in that place.
What changed your mind or made you feel like it was a possibility?
I always wanted to actively pursue it, I was just very depressed because I didn’t think I could. I sang with this bang Gayngs; I was very very young and they were all much older and seasoned musicians. My first time recording ever was with Justin Vernon at his cabin studio in Wisconsin. And I didn’t really know who he was, I just knew that he was a really nice guy who made cool music, so I didn’t even understand that was a privilege. I just was overwhelmed to be recording music. So, meeting him and all the other people in Gayngs who had spent their lives making music and art and just did it – there was no mental hang-ups about it, they just wanted to do it and they’re good at it so they did it. That completely altered my perception.
I’ve shared this story so many times, but it did imprint on me. My first-ever show, Prince was there. I didn’t technically actually meet him, I just was like, running backstage by myself because I was so thrilled that I just performed live and I thought I did a great job, when normally I had horrible stage fright. And I was just so excited, and then, there’s this tight and narrow hallway behind the stage, and I literally ran into him. And I’m 6’1 and he was about, you know, 4’8, so it’s just this beaming tiny purple presence who just looked at me and smiled so big, and I just stepped aside and let him pass. [laughs] So many of my friends now have actually worked with Prince and made music with him that it feels like it’s not as cool, but still, like in my own personal mythos, it’s very impactful for me.
In your own musical journey, what inspired the shift from beat-driven music to a more acoustic, traditional kind of songwriting?
I think my world was shattered when I heard, like, Burial and Mount Kimbie, and I was just so inspired by these sounds that I wanted to explore them. But my initial inspiration was like, Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin and Cat Stevens, so it’s just been trying to figure out how to marry those worlds. I also think, honestly, getting sick with Lyme disease just made me want to slow down. Making dance music just didn’t feel like the natural thing to do. A big one is going on tour and playing my songs live; I hate playing the computer, I don’t like things being automated, I want things to be organic. And so I think when I went back in the studio after touring, I wanted to bring more organic instruments into it.
When did you start working on your debut album? I know some of these songs date a few years back.
I’d say about 2017. I even put out ‘Sleeping in My Own Bed’ thinking I was gonna finish the album soon, and then a few weeks after I put that song out, I got diagnosed with Lyme disease. And I was just like, “I don’t care, I’m gonna go get better. I don’t care what release schedules are. So that’s why that one came out like three years ago.
How did your vision for the album evolve since then?
I think what I wanted to do didn’t change. I had this sonic palette, I wanted to use this feeling, I knew I wanted it to be this emotional journey. But as I was doing it, I was constantly listening to Nina Simone, and I think I needed more joy in my life. And so I think actually the music became much more joyful than I thought it was for such a dark period of time, because the music itself was my joy. I remember listening to it all the way through right after we’d finished it and just being shocked that it was so much lighter than I thought it would be. [laughs] I thought it was gonna be this heavy, dark thing, and I was very surprised at how much joy came through. Which, I don’t know, playlisters maybe disagree; I was in like the “Sad Indie Girl” playlist.
Can you talk more about the emotional journey that you wanted the album to portray?
I basically just wanted to reflect the emotional journey I had been going through. I wasn’t too analytical about it, because I find when I do that it’s just not very good. I think it has to come organically from the subconscious. And actually, when I started doing album art, and I listened to the whole album through, I realized that the entire album and how I’d ordered it was this subconscious exorcism of this person from my life who had affected me and I needed to be influenced by but that I also needed to get rid of. And I had no idea until I listened to the album that I had also been doing this, like, subconscious exorcism.
The cover artwork really is stunning, both that of the album and the seriesofsinglesthatpreceded it. What was the inspiration behind them? How did conceptualize the artwork for the album in general?
I knew I wanted it to be some sort of self-portrait, and I had this idea of relating it to this feeling of “‘til I start speaking” – of the idea of, if there’s something suffocating you, you can either gnaw through the hand that’s suffocating or you can realise it’s your own and just gently take it away, if that makes sense. But when I went to do the underpainting, just like a quick charcoal drawing to see the composition, it ended up being so much better than all of the paintings I did. I kept making ones, and nothing was better than just a really quick 30-second drawing I’d done. But I also do love oil paintings, so I wanted to flesh out the other artwork for the singles more.
You alluded to one of the central ideas on the album, which is where its title comes from as well. And I love the way you introduce your voice on the opening track; at first it’s almost inaudible, then kind of muffled, and then as you sing the refrain, there comes this clarity. Why did you want to introduce your voice in that way?
That is a great question. [laughs] I had written that mantra almost, the “I don’t know what I can say ‘til I start speaking,” and it felt like the thesis of the album lyrically. But it also wasn’t like a fully-fleshed song, and it felt like this is the intro. We buried it in all the sounds – we put sounds of skating people, which is like, I just grew up in Minnesota playing hockey for 22 years. I put my piano teacher who was this jazz piano player who just absolutely transformed how I play piano and think about music, and he’s kind of buried in there. I was just trying to plant little seeds of me in the album.
Why do you think you were so drawn to this mantra?
I think just because it has been my journey in music so far, of having to overcome so much self-doubt and having to overcome feeling like I shouldn’t be doing this, like my voice maybe isn’t worthwhile, good enough. So it just felt like this declarative thing. And that is what enabled all the other songs to come, if that makes sense. I know it’s very on the nose, but there’s something, I think, beautiful about just saying the thing.
In the context of the album, being silent doesn’t always have negative connotations. It’s not always associated with self-doubt, as you said; it can mean being attuned to your surroundings or your own self. Is that something that’s important in your life?
Silence has been very important to me in my life because I’ve always been a listener. I’ve always felt like that’s one of my superpowers, is listening and understanding. I need a lot of silence in my life. I like things quieter, slower. But I also think I can fall too much into that, and so the challenge for me is to make noise, in some ways. I also think the best songs – the default is silence, and then you only put what adds. Basically, minimalism. I think of Erik Satie and his music, and in some ways, silence is the undercurrent, and then he sprinkles in a few notes on top of the silence.
I feel like that tension between being silent and making noise relates to another conflict on the album: that of falling in love while trying to hold on to your independence. There’s this line on ‘Super Lunar’: “Don’t say you want me to swallow the sun/ Then leave me to suck in your shade.” Do you feel like working on these songs has brought you closer to your own individuality, or closer to achieving the dreams that you’re singing about?
Yeah, absolutely. It goes back to the time in college when I just had that moment of feeling like I was living the wrong life. It’s been this journey towards becoming the person that it feels like I should be, and I think writing new songs and recording them has absolutely made me feel more like myself, and releasing it into the world and is like showing that to the world. And being home now [Morley was in Minessota visiting family at the time of recording], for the first time in like a year and a half, I think it’s the most myself I’ve felt since I was a child. And I completely credit making the music for that feeling.
Could you talk more about that? How did being home make you feel more like yourself?
I think in some ways it just helps people understand you better. When I first started doing music, so many family, friends, or people I went to school with would say things like “That’s so unlike you.” I saw someone I went to high school with at a festival I was playing, and he just was drunk and he was like, “No one ever would have thought this, no one ever in a million years would expect this.” And I was just like, man, I see why I had a hard time, because it almost felt like you had to break out of this shell of expectation. But as soon as you feel okay with doing what you love, everyone else immediately accepts it. I feel like my worlds are kind of aligning – for a long time, I felt like this is family, old life; this is who I want to be as an artist. And I think they’re finally melding, which is entirely an internal shift. No one was doing anything. It’s all inside of me, but I’m finally feeling it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
