The sacred has always been a part of art history, taking us back to before the Renaissance and potentially to the Ice Age, with the Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel sculpture, which may have been one of the earliest references to greater powers and deities.
While in Western art history, this often takes the form of the Gods of Ancient Rome and Greece, followed by representations of Christianity, the art of Pareshkumar Kakadiya offers a different perspective we don’t often see in the UK – that of the spiritual side of Hinduism.
When we see a swan, we think of the myth of Leda and the Swan, Zeus’ seduction of the Spartan Queen, depicted by many Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. However, in Kakadiya’s hands, he paints the Hindu mother goddess, Brahmani Maa, floating on a swan, blessing those below her with her divine light. Much as we might see in a 15th- or 16th-century depiction of the Virgin. While we can see similarities with Western art, the narrative is completely different. A narrative many UK audiences won’t be familiar with.
The artist also demonstrates technical skill in painting in relief, as seen in his depiction of Radha and Krishna, the great love story at the centre of Hinduism.
Radha and Krishna. Copyright Pareshkumar Kakadiya
Beyond the spiritual, I’m also drawn to his scenes of India painted on murals and wood. Whether that be capturing the hubbub of Mumbai with an auto-rickshaw speeding between market stalls, or children engaging in an impromptu game of street cricket. Both are part of the authentic experience of visiting India, and should be on the list of any visitor to witness. Just as LS Lowry captured people walking to work in factories under grey skies, Kakadiya captures the dynamism and vibrancy of India.
His portraits capture the emotions of his sitters, whether through paintings or drawings. The coloured pencil drawings of spiritual leaders have a strong smokiness, similar to the sfumato effect made famous by Leonardo, and they also reminded me of the work of British artist Curtis Holder and the recognition that pencil artists are now receiving after being sidelined for decades.
He’s equally skilled at capturing a likeness in oil painting, and a sepia-toned self-portrait of his younger self shows a faraway look in his eyes, as if he’s daydreaming or recalling a moment from his past.
There’s no shortage of ambition in Kakadiya’s practice, and he’s always up for a challenge, as demonstrated by his awards across different mediums, and a world record for the largest bubble wrap painting.
The sesame seed portrait of Yogiji Maharaj. Copyright Pareshkumar Kakadiya
His ambition is evident in his portrait of Yogiji Maharaj, in which individual sesame seeds were painstakingly affixed to the surface to create a richly textured work. It makes you want to run your fingers across the surface, the way we feel when we look at the impasto painting of the likes of Vincent Van Gogh or Frank Auerbach. The sesame seeds also hold significance in Hinduism, symbolising immortality, purification, and ancestral connection. Displayed at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, North London, it demonstrated both his commitments to creating unique artworks and imbuing them with spiritual reverence.
His strength lies in drawing on his Indian heritage and painting in both historical and contemporary styles. It allows him to incorporate Western techniques while remaining true to the spiritual and personal roots that tether him to his home country and to develop as an artist in the UK.
International gaming companies are increasingly opting for Canada for simple reasons. Here, the rules are set by the provinces, not by a single center. This makes it clear how to enter the market and what is required for this. Ontario showed how it works when it launched a regulated online system in 2022. Foreign companies were able to apply openly, without complicated schemes. This reduced risks and helped to better plan work.
Canada also has a good internet connection, and almost everyone has a smartphone. This is important for online platforms, because people easily access sites from their phones. Companies often study the market not at random. They read open data and see what users write. To do this, they use gaming platforms such as Spinbara, where you can read guides and news without playing or spending money.
Key factors driving expansion
Canada is a convenient place for business. Everything here works according to clear rules. They don’t change suddenly. Each province is responsible for its own decisions. This makes it easy for companies to think ahead and plan what to do next.
Look at Alberta. When the authorities there clearly said how to work with sports betting and what reports need to be submitted, business immediately picked up. Companies understood the rules, entered the market and began to work legally. Without confusion and unnecessary problems. That is why other regions often look to Alberta and take its approach as a basis.
The same story is with online casinos in Alberta. From the very beginning, it was said directly: you can work, but the rules must be followed. Everything is honest and clear. The state controls the process, and people have access to services. This is very important for companies, because they know what to expect and can calmly make plans.
Canadians are already used to online payments and digital services. Over 27 million people play various games. The state, together with colleges, even trains future specialists for this industry. This shows that the development of this direction is taken seriously and for the long term.
Why international operators are moving into Canada
Canada has become visible to international gaming companies because it is clear here how demand is moving into the permitted framework. Ontario was the first to show this. When the province opened a regulated iGaming market in 2022, people quickly started using it. Activity increased, and the system was able to track everything according to the rules.
What exactly attracts companies to Canada:
Clear rules. The provinces openly explain what is allowed and how the system works.
The example of Ontario. The regulated market has shown that licenses and control can work without chaos.
The growth of sports betting. After the change in the law, people received more permitted options.
Games with live dealers. They work only according to technical requirements and under supervision.
Real control. Regulators fine companies if they break the rules.
Canada is interesting not because of order. There is demand here, but it is directed in a permitted direction. It gives companies an understanding of how to work today and plan for the future.
Future Trends in the Industry
Technology continues to shape the development of gaming in Canada. Companies are testing virtual and augmented reality to understand how access to games and their format are changing. Interest in these solutions is growing, so many are starting with small tests.
Mobile phones remain the main way to play. Most users choose smartphones, so developers are focusing on simple designs, fast startup, and stable operation. As mobile networks develop, this trend will continue.
Esports is also gradually growing. In Canada, local tournaments and competitions are held that gather spectators and support from sponsors not related to gambling.
Particular attention is paid to the environment. Companies are reviewing energy consumption and server operations to reduce costs.
Rules also change, and provinces update them regularly. Those who follow these changes can more easily adapt to new conditions.
New technologies
These tools allow companies to test new types of interaction, such as immersive game spaces and different ways users move through platforms
Mobile gaming
Mobile-first development influences how games are built, with shorter sessions, clearer navigation, and features designed for one-hand use
Esports growth
Esports creates opportunities outside traditional gaming revenue, such as media rights, merchandise, and event partnerships
Environmental focus
Efficient infrastructure helps companies lower long-term operating costs and meet investor expectations related to sustainability
Canada draws international platforms because the system is easy to understand. Responsibilities are divided, and the requirements are defined. Provincial oversight allows room to adapt. The experience of Ontario and Alberta proves that regulation can work in a reliable way.
If you work in healthcare, you’ve probably noticed the not-so-subtle change in recent years. Conversations that once centered only on productivity, staffing gaps, or patient throughput now leave space for accountability, documentation, ethics, and data stewardship (if you haven’t noticed… well, it’s safe to say you’re working in the wrong place).
That change hasn’t happened because your superiors had a change of heart and decided to treat everyone better. It also hasn’t happened by pure happenstance. Regulation—often blamed for friction and paperwork—is what is helping reshape healthcare workplace culture in ways that are healthier, more transparent, and more sustainable.
This may sound counterintuitive. Regulation doesn’t exactly scream inspiration. But in practice, it has nudged healthcare organizations toward clearer expectations, safer decision-making, and cultures where trust actually has room to grow.
Regulation as Culture, Not Just Compliance
For a long time, regulation lived in a separate mental box. Legal teams handled it and leadership worried about audits. Everyone else tried not to trip over it. That model no longer holds up.
Today, regulation shapes nearly everything in a workplace, from how teams communicate to how they escalate concerns and handle patient data, as well as how they assess risk. Done well, it’s a shared operating system that makes everyone work and feel better.
You see it in how incident reporting gets normalized instead of punished. You hear it when leadership speaks plainly about mistakes instead of burying them. And you also feel it when policies actually align with how work happens on the floor.
And that’s culture.
Accountability Builds Trust
All healthcare professionals operate in stressful, often high-stakes environments. So trust between colleagues and leadership (as well as patients) is essential; it’s what keeps systems from breaking under pressure. Regulation reinforces that trust when leaders treat accountability as a collective responsibility rather than a disciplinary threat.
Organizations that embrace regulatory expectations tend to clarify roles and decision rights earlier. That clarity is important. According to a report from The Joint Commission, communication failures are a leading contributor to sentinel events. Strong compliance frameworks force organizations to confront those gaps head-on, not after harm occurs.
So yes, regulation introduces oversight. But it also reduces ambiguity. And ambiguity is where burnout and moral injury love to hide.
Leadership Sets the Tone (Always)
Culture follows leadership behavior, not mission statements. When leaders frame compliance as “legal stuff,” teams respond with minimal effort and quiet workarounds. When leaders treat it as a foundation for patient safety and ethical care, people lean in.
You see the difference in how issues get reported. In psychologically safe environments, often reinforced by clear regulatory processes, staff report concerns earlier and more often. That aligns with what AHRQ has found repeatedly: organizations with strong safety cultures experience fewer adverse events over time, even when reporting initially increases.
Data Responsibility Is a Cultural Skill Now
Healthcare runs on data. Patient records, device data, AI-supported diagnostics, workforce analytics, it’s all connected. Regulation has forced organizations to take data responsibility seriously, not just from a security standpoint, but from an ethical one.
HIPAA compliance may be table stakes, but expectations now stretch further. Patients expect transparency. Staff expect guardrails. And regulators expect governance that keeps pace with innovation.
This is why healthcare compliance and regulatory support is less about reacting to rules and more about designing systems that allow innovation without cutting corners. In practice, this kind of work often requires outside support that’s deeply familiar with healthcare operations;. Axiom is a good example of such support: not as abstract legal advisors, but as partners who understand how healthcare actually operates (and how fragile trust can be when systems fail).
Risk Awareness Without Fear
Risk-aware cultures don’t freeze. They adapt. Regulation, when embedded properly, helps teams identify risk earlier and respond faster without panic. That’s a cultural advantage.
Instead of treating audits as threats, resilient organizations use them as diagnostics. Instead of hiding near-misses, they analyze patterns. And instead of assuming “we’ve always done it this way,” they ask whether legacy processes still meet ethical and regulatory expectations.
That mindset matters as healthcare faces staffing shortages, digital transformation, and increased public scrutiny.
Why This Change Isn’t Reversible
Healthcare culture won’t return to a pre-regulatory mindset. Patients demand accountability. Employees expect ethical leadership. Regulators respond to real harm with real consequences. According to IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report, healthcare remains the most expensive industry for breaches, averaging over $10 million. That’s per one incident. Numbers like that don’t just affect balance sheets; they affect everything and, as a result, reshape internal priorities.
So regulation becomes part of how teams train, collaborate, and innovate. Not because they love rules. Because the cost of ignoring them, both culturally and operationally, is too high.
A. G. Cook created the score for Charli XCX‘s BRAT mockumentary The Moment, which just premiered at Sundance Film Festival. (It currently holds a 53 on Metacritic.) He’s been rolling outsingles from the soundtrack, and today he’s shared ‘Residue’, which comes with a video from director Aidan Zamiri featuring Charli and fellow cast member Kylie Jenner. Check it out below.
Miss Grit has announced a new album, Under My Umbrella, arriving April 24 via Mute. The follow-up to 2023’s Follow the Cyborg is led by the ethereal new single ‘Stranger’, which was co-produced with their their longtime engineer, Aron Kobayashi Ritch of Momma. Check it out and find the LP’s cover art and tracklist below.
Under My Umbrella includes the previously unveiled track ‘Tourist Mind’. It took shape after Margaret Sohn returned from an intense touring schedule, working on it mostly in their Queens apartment. “I tried not to edit too much or force a moment to happen,” they explained. “It feels truer to myself, and more of a representation of what is actually coming out of me.”
Collaborators on the record include Sae Heum Han (mmph), bassist Margaux Bouchegnies (Margaux), singer Eva Liu (Mui Zyu), producer Luciano Rossi (Mui Zyu), drummer Preston Fulks (Momma), and violinist Zachary Mezzo (Catcher). “Usually collaboration is a little bit hard for me – there has to be a deeper connection there,” Sohn said. “But really trusting the people I was working with to put their fingerprint on the music, and them also being close friends, was liberating.”
Apple TV+ original series Pluribus had the entire internet in a chokehold for a hot minute. The show, coming from the same creator behind Breaking Bad, premiered in late 2025 and was met with acclaim from critics and viewers alike.
The fact that Pluribus relied on weekly releases worked in its favour, keeping it in the collective conversation for longer. For a couple of months, it was the “it show” everyone wanted to chat about. But with season 1 in the rearview mirror, do we have a follow-up to look forward to?
Pluribus Season 2 Release Date
Let’s get the good news out of the way first: Pluribus season 2 is definitely happening. Unfortunately, it seems like fans will have to wait a while to tune in.
According to creator Vince Gilligan, the next episodes are in the works, but there’s no definite timeline for when they’ll hit streaming. “We’re working on it. It takes us a while. I would love to go faster if I could,” he said.
Without much else to rely on, it’s hard to estimate when the second season will arrive. While we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a late 2026 premiere, 2027 looks more likely.
Pluribus Cast
Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka
Karolina Wydra as Zosia
Carlos-Manuel Vesga as Manousos Oviedo
Miriam Shor as Helen L. Umstead
Samba Schutte as Koumba Diabaté
Menik Gooneratne as Laxmi
Darinka Arones as Kusimayu
What Could Happen in Pluribus Season 2?
If you haven’t seen Pluribus yet, we recommend going into the show completely blind for maximum enjoyment. Light spoilers follow, so consider yourself warned.
The science-fiction drama imagines a world radically transformed by an alien-origin virus. It triggers a global outbreak that turns nearly all of humanity into a hive mind called the “Others.” While the Others are seemingly benevolent, they absorb individual will and replace it with a collective consciousness.
At the centre of the story is Carol, one of only a handful of people who are immune to the Joining and retain their individuality. As the Others spread, she refuses to give up her autonomy. By the end of the first season, she even procures a weapon that might help her hold on to what makes her unique, though using it would come with huge downsides.
Pluribus season 2 will likely continue to follow Carol’s journey. With a powerful weapon at her disposal, there are many moral dilemmas to contemplate. Additionally, the Others will keep pushing for her to give in. It will be interesting to what strategies they might employ to sway her.
Are There Other Shows Like Pluribus?
Given the concept of the series, it’s tricky to find something that scratches the same itch. Thankfully, not impossible. If you’re into intriguing sci-fi concepts, we recommend checking out Black Mirror, Severance, Fringe, Orphan Black, and Westworld.
Modern muralism emerged from New York City’s graffiti boom of the 1960s and 70s, though its roots as a powerful political communication tool stretch back to 1920s Mexico. What began as underground street art, often unsanctioned and rebellious, has gradually transformed into something cities around the world actively celebrate and commission. Once confined to abandoned buildings, murals now proudly dominate skylines from Berlin to Buenos Aires and are recognised as vital contributions to the urban landscape. Today, Our Culture highlights three mural artists whose large-scale works are certainly worth your attention.
Patrícia Mariano
Portuguese fine arts painter and muralist Patrícia Mariano took an unconventional path to her practice. With a background in architecture and journalism, she’s a self-taught artist who didn’t discover her true calling until age 30, when she realised her dream was to have her own studio and paint full-time. Working in what she calls “imagined realism,” Mariano creates intriguing murals that blend surrealist style with metaphorical imagery, often centering portraits of women. Her striking mural “Calypso,” created for Galeria de Arte Urbana’s Festival MURO 2025, has been nominated for Best Mural in the World by Street Art Cities.
Sydney-based muralist Fintan Magee creates large-scale social realist paintings that tackle themes of migration, the environmental crisis and inequality. Born in 1985 to an architect mother and sculptor father, Magee was exposed early to the political murals of his father’s native Northern Ireland. This influence shaped his belief in the power of public art to communicate viewpoints and unite communities. His figurative work, which carries a surprising softness influenced by children’s books and the Low Brow art movement, now appears on walls across the globe from London to Buenos Aires to Kyiv.
Taking his name from the Incan sun god, Chilean artist INTI creates murals that feel like fever dreams of South American culture. His work frequently blends Chilean symbolism into strange, dizzying characters rendered in bright colours and executed with meticulous technical control. Active since 1996, INTI uses street art to express political statements, celebrating Latin culture while acknowledging Chile’s turbulent recent past. His massive murals now appear across continents, from his native Valparaíso to Belgium, India and beyond. Aside from murals, INTI has recently been exploring bronze sculpture.
Apple TV+ thriller Hijack is back with season 2, following Idris Elba’s character in another tense situation. One could argue that having a business negotiator caught in a high-stakes scenario is unlikely to happen twice. While that’s valid, it doesn’t make the series any less enjoyable.
In fact, Hijack is just as entertaining as ever. Plus, if you tune in for one episode, we can almost guarantee you’ll be seated for all. Before long, you’ll also ask yourself whether a third installment might be possible. Here’s what we know so far.
Hijack Season 3 Release Date
At the time of writing, there’s no news about a potential Hijack season 3. That doesn’t mean it’s not happening. The second season premiered in mid-January, so an announcement could come somewhere down the line.
When asked about the show’s future, creator Jim Field Smith didn’t provide any information about what’s to come, but seemed open to the idea.
“Could Sam Nelson find himself having another of the worst days of his life? I’m sure he could. He seems to be a guy that stumbles into bad luck, and I love working with Idris, and whether it was more of this show or something else, I’m sure the collaboration will lead to more,” he said.
As long as the stars align, a third installment could arrive in late 2027 or early 2028.
Hijack Cast
Idris Elba as Sam Nelson
Christine Adams as Marsha Smith-Nelson
Max Beesley as DI Daniel O’Farrel
Archie Panjabi as DCI Zahra Gahfoor
Clare-Hope Ashitey as Olivia Thatcher
Jasmine Bayes as Mei Tan
Albrecht Schuch as Freddie
Christian Näthe as Otto Weber
What Could Happen in Hijack Season 3?
Hijack revolves around Sam Nelson, a corporate business negotiator who becomes embroiled in hostage crises. Each season unfolds over the course of a tense journey, where Sam must use his skills to protect innocent lives. It delivers action, drama, and mounting pressure, as the events basically unravel in real time.
Season 1 takes place aboard an airplane during a seven-hour journey from Dubai to London. Shortly after takeoff, a group of armed hijackers threaten the passengers and crew to seize control of the aircraft. Nelson, one of the passengers, is thrust into the role of de-facto negotiator. Since a follow-up is currently airing, it’s safe to say he survives the ordeal.
The second season shifts the setting to the Berlin underground transit system. Once again, a crisis unfolds, and Nelson is at the centre of the action. We won’t spoil anything, especially as only two episodes are out so far, but there’s a twist that will make you question everyone’s motives.
If Hijack season 3 becomes reality, we’re guessing it will follow Nelson in another dangerous situation. Until then, the second season rolls out weekly, with the finale scheduled for early March.
As you start moving into higher-tier craftingin Hytale, Cindercloth Scraps begin to matter pretty quickly. Cindercloth Scraps are a type of crafting material in Hytale used for higher-tier gear and upgrades, including adamantite weapons and armour, along with a few progression-related upgrades. However, Cindercloth Scraps don’t come from regular enemies or early biomes; instead dropping from a specific type of enemy found in volcanic environments that aren’t accessible from the starting zones. So before you spend too much time farming the wrong areas, here’s how to get Cindercloth Scraps in Hytale.
Hytale: How to Get Cindercloth Scraps for Adamantite Gear
Cindercloth Scraps drop from fire-based skeletal enemies like Incandescent Skeleton Fighters, which wield black bones and flaming swords, and Incandescent Skeleton Mages found in volcanic regions of the map. To get Cindercloth Scraps in Hytale, you’ll need to travel to volcanic biomes, where these enemies spawn. The most reliable place to farm Cindercloth Scraps is the Devastated Lands and you can reach this area by travelling far north through snowy and tundra areas, or by heading south through desert regions.
Once you’re there, simply start killing Incandescent Skeleton Fighters, as these are the ones that drop Cindercloth Scraps. They tend to spawn in groups and combat can get messy fast. That said, you can kill them easily with thorium or cobalt gear and use a shield to deal with groups without taking too much damage.
You’ll need several Cindercloth Scraps for crafting various Adamantite gear, so it’s worth stocking up on food and repair kits before you head out. Additionally, you can find Cindercloth Scraps early in the underground areas of the starting zone. If you haven’t been to this area yet, work your way through deep underground caves or follow natural chasms downward until you start seeing embers in the air, volcanic rock, and large pools of lava. The regular skeletons down here are replaced by incandescent variants, which drop Cindercloth Scraps instead of linen.
Sassy 009 is the project of Oslo-born artist Sunniva Lindgård, who grew up taking lessons in violin, cello, piano, and flute. Though she ended up quitting those instruments, a high school music production course, which she picked almost at random, convinced her to pursue music. After uploading tracks to SoundCloud, she enlisted two of her friends for the project’s first live performance and made plenty more music with them before returning Sassy 009 to its solo origins. Following a series of mixtapes, including 2019’s KILL SASSY 009 and 2021’s Heart Ego, she toiled away at her debut proper for years, struggling to funnel a fantastical narrative in which intrusive thoughts become reality into a digestible record; in essence, squaring the nightmarish with the catchy. But with notable assists from Blood Orange, yunè pinku, and BEA1991, Lindgård – playing a character described, better than by the album’s namesake, on the title track as an “in-betweener” – embodies the blurry, fluid qualities of Dreamer+ with undeniable kineticism. It’s the kind of dream more likely to haunt you down than fade from memory.
We caught up with Sassy 009 for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about her musical upbringing, self-producing Dreamer+, intrusive thoughts as a kind of daydreaming, and more.
I read that your parents were both string players who also made pop music. What are your memories of hearing them play or seeing that dynamic at work?
Such a core memory for me, in general, is to just hear a violin or a viola being played in a room with a closed door. At any time of the day, really – them rehearsing for a concert that is coming up, almost like a white noise thing while you’re home doing your own things. Especially on my dad’s side of the family, his siblings are also classical musicians, and a lot of my cousins are in jazz. In terms of gathering with the family, everyone just brought up their fucking instruments – that was our way of interacting. I feel like music has been almost like a default in my life, really. Since it’s been so normalized in my life, I didn’t really think too much of it growing up – that this is not usually what people are surrounded by.
Were you always comfortable in this kind of normality, or were there points of wanting to break away from it a little bit?
It was normal conditions, but I felt actually very uncomfortable – for example, when my family and everyone would pick up their instruments and start jamming, a very typical situation would be me just playing something on the piano by myself, and it took seriously two minutes before everyone’s like, “Let’s lock in here.” I would feel very uncomfortable, because I was classically trained, but never to the point where I was able to read sheet notes properly or just jam my way around whatever. I had my own way of playing and approach to that, so I would feel like I was, in a way, less of a musician than they were. I kept on resisting these instruments and the training that came with it. I felt like all of my cousins and my parents were able to overcome something that I wasn’t able to – they had the patience, or they dealt with the impatience I was trying to deal with.
Now, I’m looking back on it and realizing that – first of all, I might have just had the wrong teachers to begin with – and then also I was maybe more of an impatient person than they were. [laughs] I was not really singing – not really using my voice, even, until I started making my own music, which was in my late teens. So I felt like a weirdo in my musical family, yeah.
Were you also craving solitude? Did you think, I wish I could just play for two minutes without someone joining in?
Yeah, definitely. I felt like I was more meant to be in my own bubble. I was allowed to, but I didn’t fully understand, I think, what was my way. So when they would all just gather around me and try to follow my lead, I was just like, “What are you guys doing? Someone else needs to be in charge, and I can accompany whatever is happening.”
You took your first course in music production in high school, and when Sassy 009 was a trio, it was with your childhood friends. How did your relationship with music change when it became part of your social and school life?
Once I discovered music production during high school, I was still very much leaning into it in solitude and did my thing. How the trio came about was I was asked to do a gig for the first time in my life with my own music, and I was terrified. What does even live mean, in terms of having beats on SoundCloud? It was just overwhelming, really, to even imagine how I was gonna solve that. I wasn’t forced, but I felt like there was no way for me to do that by myself, and that’s how the trio came about. So I reached out to my friends who went to music school and were used to being on stage, and it just made sense to me to ask them to be a part of my live band. Then the bubble I was in opened up, obviously, because we also put out a record together, and the whole project was branded as trio at the very beginning of this career.
At that time, I was feeling like that made sense. But it was also the first time experiencing every level of being an artist or being a band. I hadn’t been in a proper studio ever until then and hadn’t really been on stage, hadn’t really sung anything. Everything was just new. When I think of it now, it’s a crazy, overwhelming experience to go from sitting, literally, in my home with headphones, to then do all of that – as if that is the most natural thing. Being a solo artist since 2018, I think I prefer the bubble, in a way. [laughs] I love collaboration, but I guess I am that kind of person who just needs to be in charge of most things.
When did you know you wanted to self-produce your debut album?
It was a decision or an ambition that I was naturally led to by having put out a few EPs, seeing myself more as, like, a competent producer. I felt like I was stepping into that role with a lot more integrity. That’s probably a thing for female producers, I can imagine: At what point do you feel qualified to call yourself something that a lot of men are calling themselves? I’ve worked with male co-producers, and I saw how I could also be having my own studio, having my own hardware, and being able to not rely on other people. And also, other things in my personal life were leading me to that ambition of, actually, I have to just rely on myself, so in order to do that, I need to prove to myself that I am myself I can almost hire for my project. To prove to myself where I’m at, or to even document it, at least – to be like, “If I do it myself, it’s gonna sound like this.”
The idea of hiring yourself as a producer makes me think of having the protagonist of Dreamer+ be a version of yourself. Do you feel like you’re creating a separation between yourself as a songwriter and a producer, in a similar way that you do between yourself and the character in your story?
It’s so strange when I think of what kind of roles I’m having in my own project, because at the very beginning, it was all just purely intuitive. I was naive, and I was like, “It’s just me making music.” I was having fun and exploring. And then the further in I got, I was kind of more aware of these different skills that there are actually names to. I’m much more aware now – whether it’s my work, or someone else’s work, or if I’m just talking about music – of what parts of me as a musician are speaking. I also enjoy categorizing things, and I find it helpful in terms of navigating this industry when it comes to collaborating with people. Being aware that I can step into this role, or I can lean back on this. Do I sit on the couch in the back, or do I sit on the front, staring at the faders? I’m really glad that I can tune into all of it together, or just be a little bit more fluid.
You spent a lot of time building the fictional world of the album. I’m curious how the shifting conceptual framework of the album affected the actual process of it.
It felt like everything. It felt like I had this idea that fell into my head, and I was just amazed. Before really working on the record, this fictional story kind of happened through conversations and trying to understand my own life at the time, and I was just immediately drawn to working on this fictional story without really knowing where or what it was gonna be separately from the music. It was such a great source of inspiration for me in terms of making music. I just made a lot of songs, and I had a very clear idea of what the music should sound like. But then the further in I got into that process, I never felt fulfilled with what the music really sounded like, or I was forcing songs together, forcing the sound to be more the same throughout all the songs. I felt like I lost something very crucial, which was just the music in itself.
I decided to work on those things separately, but using the story as a source of inspiration. Having the songs be more representations of the moods, rather than being this record that is somewhere in between being a sound book and a music record. I had to let go of some parts of what I was envisioning this record to be. And then to be now here on the other side, having a record that is based on a fictional story but doesn’t really necessarily sound like it when you’re listening to it – I’m trying to give myself the grace of: This was a method, and not necessarily the outcome. I feel like I’m on this bizarre place where, yes, it’s a conceptual record, but it’s conceptual in terms of the method I was applying to making it. The story in itself, I still have to figure out how to land that in its own way, and it’s something I’m working on.
It sounds like the blurring between reality and fantasy that’s at the core of the album ended up being reflected in the thread between the narrative and the lyrics. When you were working on lyrics specifically, was there that sense of surrender in letting them flow intuitively?
At the beginning, I was trying to write songs that were more telling of the story and the actual things in that story, and then the songs didn’t really make sense; I was finding that difficult. I then just decided to rewrite many of the songs, focus on one song at a time, and further process to make things more simple. Because I also really enjoy catchy music and simple lyrics that feel powerful in their simplest form. Speaking of letting go, I let go of many things while writing, I figured that allowed me to actually write more. I felt more free as a songwriter – I just had to free myself from my own methods.
What kind of freedom was there in playing this protagonist? What did that afford you?
On a personal level, it was so fun. When I started working on this story, I was in need of taking control over certain things in my life and myself. Working on this story, where I’m literally steering the narrative, I was just so drawn to this world I was creating for myself – which was just fantasy, but still, it gave me a certain confidence in my personal life as well. I was exploring what I was going through in a way that didn’t require me to necessarily interact with myself in reality. I just stepped into this fantasy world, where I would even catch myself – this is sounding fucking crazy, but there’s this character in this story that’s like a summary of many people I’ve had in my life, this person I’m feeling very drawn to romantically in the story. I was able to embody what that feeling was, and I was feeling almost like I was actually in love with this character, which is strange, because it was a fictional character. I would catch myself daydreaming of this person, almost stepping into that world of: there’s a possibility of a person appearing in my life that I will feel this way about. I was creating these pockets of magic for my own life.
On ‘Edges’, you sing, “It gets harder to sleep/ When minds turn the best of us into poison.” You mentioned daydreaming, but is the edge of sleep also a kind of creative space for you? I’m also thinking of the line “Can’t sleep without fear of missing out on luck” on ‘Tell Me’.
I’ve always been a very big dreamer, and I’m realizing by talking with other people that they don’t necessarily dream or remember their dreams that much. I can catch myself trying to sleep, and then thoughts just rush, a thousand thoughts at the same time. Eventually, when I fall asleep, dreams turn out to be very bizarre and surreal, and I wake up and feel disconnected from reality, and connected to the dream, trying to adjust myself. With this record, and for the past year, I’ve been more aware of the kind of stories my mind is creating; because there are stories, and they also have sort of the same texture often. There’s the same narrative often, and it’s a source of inspiration, but also such a source of mystery to me. And I think mystery is one of my great inspirations of all time.
Intrusive thoughts, which are a key part of the album’s narrative, are a lot like recurring dreams, in that you can harness them in a similar way to tap into the subconscious.
They’re also so interesting, and that’s something I played around with in the story. We’ve all had those moments of, for example, waiting on the metro, thinking, “What if someone pushed me over in front of the train?” Intrusive thoughts are so dramatic, but we’re just dealing with them in silence – to me, it’s a very quiet drama. I think intrusive thoughts are also a way of daydreaming in a bizarre way. There’s these layers of the conscious and the subconscious mind that are happening at the same time, and when I make music, I try to step into the role of being as unaware as possible, as free as possible, to not restrict myself from making anything. Once awareness comes in, it just adds so many questions.
How did it feel to invite other people into this dreamworld?
First of all, I was feeling very drained by working on this project, and I was also feeling confused by how to present it and how to explain it. When I decided to bring others in, there was no way for me to really explain what this record was, in a way. So I was just approaching them like it was a very simple thing: “I’m making records, here’s a song I was thinking of having you on if you’re down.” I also was hoping for that to be an approach I could have myself on my next project. I was just tired of working on these layers. Also, it’s refreshing to let people do what they intuitively wanna do, instead of being like, “There’s this story.” I figured that was the best way.
Though it isn’t a collaboration in the traditional sense, the final track, ‘Ruins of a Lost Memory’, samples a melody your parents wrote for a Eurovision Song Contest entry in the ‘90s. How did the idea dawn on you?
When I first heard the song, and also some other songs that they made at the time – which, surprisingly enough my mom just had them on MP3s; they made it on the cassette back then, so it was just this moment of, “Look what I just found.” My parents are classical musicians in terms of being instrumentalists, but then hearing my mom’s voice – which I’ve heard before, but she doesn’t really sing a lot – there’s also something about that to me. There are these pockets to my parents that I’m understanding myself better, hearing this pop music from themWhen I heard that song, where I was with my record was I had still had this very hardcore ambition of it being something like a film score, and I had this idea of having a song that would set the tone of, “You have now just listened to the record, and what you’re now hearing is the aftermath of it.” This is where the credits start rolling, kind of. Although I was changing a lot of the tracks on the record itself, and the project tooka different direction later on, I was like, “There are certain things I need to hold on to still.”
Has making or releasing the record stirred conversations between you around music?
My dad was very much more into pop and rock music growing up and stuff, so I’ve had a lot more conversations with him, chatting about music in general. My mom is such a hardcore classical musician – she barely knows any artists even from her generation. I’ve had many interesting conversations with her as well, but it’s very different conversations and different ways of understanding music, so her way of hearing my music is very different from my dad’s way of listening to it. He brings more of a historical context, while my mom is purely like, “Wow, what is this?” When I said to them that I wanted to put the song on my record, they were just laughing out of, like, “What?” Along the process, they were checking in, like, “How’s it going with the record? Is the song still there?” [laughs] They were both really excited about it.
How are you thinking of translating the fantastical realm of the album into a live context?
I have two thoughts in my mind at the same time. One thing is the technical aspect of it: How do you present a record musically that is in between being electronic and acoustic? It’s been such a brain fuck, really, all my career to figure out what the live element is. But now I’m leaning very much into letting things be as live as possible, whether that means removing certain things to add other elements, so that the song actually takes a new shape. It’s also a way for me to understand how to go about making music in the future as well. I would prefer my songs to be as simple or work for musicians to just play. I want to be free from the computer, basically. But then the other thought is the conceptual part of it. Live performance is such a playing field, where the story and the narrative can also exist in a new form. I can add stuff, I can say things, I can play around it, which is what I’m now working on before going on tour in February.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
