On its surface, Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales might seem like a lesser project than any of the R&B artist’s previous outings. The first reason is kind of obvious: clocking in at just 32 minutes, her fourth full-length effort is short enough to be categorized as an EP, even if it feels more substantive and insightful than dozens of albums in the same vein that somehow deliver a lot less in double the time. But beyond that, it also relies on a considerably (and deceptively) simpler palette than her previous albums, particularly her incredible 2015 LP Reality Show, where the songwriting was as dynamic as the hooks were immediate. On its long-awaited follow-up, Sullivan doesn’t narrow her scope as much as renew her focus, alternately zooming out of and zeroing in on the complicated frameworks of love and sex that have defined her music in the past; the result is her most fully-realized and nuanced work to date.
Sullivan has always been an incisive songwriter as well as an impassioned singer, but Heaux Tales highlights another one of her gifts as a storyteller: here, she hones in on her ability to stitch together different narratives and identify a common thematic through-line while acknowledging their messy contradictions. Centered around spoken word vignettes from different women that were reportedly inspired by real events, the album serves as a deft exploration of the relationship between sex and power; Sullivan uses each story as a prompt which she then amplifies in song form, allowing each individual perspective to shine before infusing them with her own voice and personality. In the first interlude, a woman named Antoinette Henry asserts her own agency over her body, and follow-up ‘Pick Up Your Feelings’ finds the narrator – here identified as the Other Woman – reaffirming her worth in a romantic relationship. The track also boasts one of the album’s most infectious performances as Sullivan delivers the titular line, throwing an extra “oh” before “feelings” that punctuates all the implications of the word with invigorating precision.
There’s a clear sense of narrative progression throughout the album, with each ‘tale’ uncovering new layers that contribute to a greater sense of cohesion while playing up their unique specificities. Sullivan’s aim might be to shed light on the sexual politics nestled inside these personal truths, but her reflections here are more than just intellectual: songs like ‘Put it Down’ and ‘On It’ openly lean into the physical side of carnal desire without ignoring its dynamic contexts, instead tracing the journey of demanding fairer treatment from the other party. At times reining in and flaunting her powerful voice, Sullivan makes lines that may have come off as silly in the hands of a less talented singer sound delightfully funny: “But he’s so big, call him King Kong/ When he call me up, he like, “Ding dong”,” she raps on ‘Put it Down’.
Heaux Tales may lack a certain vitality or commercial appeal that has characterized Sullivan’s previous efforts, but it’s a testament to her storytelling ability that the experiences she relays feel both lived-in and communal despite its relatively short runtime. The album also contains some of her most poignant songs yet: standout single ‘Lost Ones’ opens with a spare guitar melody whose liquid tone sets the stage for Sullivan’s grief-stricken lyrics, each vocal harmony oozing with a sense of loss before arriving at that all-too-familiar plea: “Don’t have too much, don’t have too much fun/ Please don’t forget about me.” Collaborative cuts like ‘On It’ and the Anderson .Paak-featuring ‘Pricetags’ are among the album’s most vibrant moments, but the project’s relatively minimalist sonic backdrop often makes even her lone yet agile vocals feel like she’s in conversation with her own self; on the textured opener ‘Bodies – Intro’, they sound more like a delicate dance.
Rather than leaving you wanting more, Heaux Tales has you marveling at how Sullivan manages to distill these narratives in a way that reveals their core without diminishing their impact. If the album’s thematic tread feels incomplete by the end, it’s because there are no easy answers to the questions she poses; Sullivan has described the album as being about “today’s women standing in their power and owning who they are,” but the project is as concerned with channeling sexual empowerment as it is with underscoring the bleak realities that may come with it. “I ain’t wanna be/ But you gon’ make a hoe out of me,” she sings with a kind of painful resignation on the H.E.R.-assisted ‘Girl Like Me’. It’s a strikingly somber note to end the album on, but at this point, it should come as no surprise.
Herman Cohen’s Target Earthis an underrated ‘50s invader film. While far from the heights of Earth vs. The Flying Saucersor Invasion of the Body Snatchers(both 1956), Target Earth nonetheless deserves a renewed consideration. Its character studies are striking, and the ideas it plays with are often poignant.
Nora King (Kathleen Crowley) wakes up to an empty Chicago. Wandering the streets, she finds herself alone until Frank Brooks (Richard Denning) bumps into her. The pair join together and find Jim Wilson (Richard Reeves) and Vicki Harris (Virginia Grey), who are just as confused as they are. The group realises they’ve all been left behind after an apparent mass evacuation of the city. As they come across dead bodies in the streets, the culprits reveal themselves: gigantic, cycloptic robots. Is this an invasion? Is it already too late for humanity? The questions mount as the group struggles for survival…
Producer Herman Cohen, who would go on to produce I Was a Teenage Werewolfand I Was a Teenage Frankenstein(both 1957) for American International Pictures, estimated that Target Earth cost just $85,000. Indeed, the film’s low budget somewhat hinders its depiction of the apocalyptic premise. For example, all-too-obvious stock footage is used to represent a bomber attack on the invading robots. However, Target Earth is not really about the spectacle of invasion (as much as its marvellous poster may say otherwise) and is more concerned with character.
A fabulous quad poster for Target Earth.
The film opens with an extended shot of Nora’s bedroom. We pass over her ticking clock and her reflection in the mirror, before reaching a bottle of sleeping pills just beyond her reach. She wakes, and the camera lingers over her eyes as they flicker about in confusion. This marvellous opening sets up a firm foundation on which mature ideas are explored. Once Nora and Frank have warmed to one another, she reveals that she slept through the evacuation because of a failed suicide attempt. She speaks of how she thought she had no reason to live, and how that’s changed in light of their new reality.
While this may seem bleak, the film balances it with an optimism from Jim and Vicki. While the couple bicker and nip at each other, the rising tension prompts not breakdown, but love. The pair come together and put aside petty squabbles. As sentimental as it is, their love is a glimmer of hope in a situation that seems without it, a genuine surprise after the hopelessness of later apocalypse films like The Last Man on Earth (1964),or novels like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road(2006).
To its detriment, the film eventually resolves its robot invasion with certainty, which perhaps lessens the significance of character developments stirred by hardship. Indeed, a more ambiguous ending – a la Terence Fisher’s The Earth Dies Screaming(1964) – may have benefitted the narrative.
Finally, a review for Target Earth would be incomplete without mention of its gigantic robots. While they may appear clunky, their glowing eyes and sheer height give them an imposing power. In an interview with Tom Weaver, Herman Cohen explained that they only had one robot suit for the production, and that it was built in his garage. Moreover, Cohen stated that scenes depicting a deserted Chicago were shot during early mornings in L.A. over four or five weekends – often without location permits. In an amusing anecdote, Cohen explained how shooting in front of a church gave the crew an issue when, “all of a sudden the church doors swung open and the people came piling out [laughs]! ‘Oh God! Stop the cameras!’ We forgot they were all in there.” This conjures up a fantastic image of churchgoers suddenly confronted by a giant robot on an early Sunday morning!
Unholy robots aside, Target Earth deserves a renewed interest and evaluation. Its characters communicate fascinating ideas about humanity in times of crisis. And while the budget may have hindered its scope, the narrative is still one of poignancy. With a healthy dose of robots for sci-fi wonder, Target Earth is a worthwhile watch.
500 Days of Summer is an award-winning 2009 romantic comedy from Marc Webb. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Tom, a hopeless romantic who writes greeting cards for a living. He falls in love with Summer, who works in the same building as him, and doesn’t quite believe in love yet.
Tom believes Summer is the one for him, while she’s just looking for a casual relationship. This results in a lot of conflict, both internal and external, as Tom tries to convince Summer that they are meant to be while he projects a glorified image of his ideal woman onto her.
The film’s structure is non-linear, as Tom looks back on his time with Summer from the future. His half-sister Rachel (Chloë Grace Moretz), a precocious young girl, is present in both timelines to offer him advice and consolation, as is Tom’s friend Paul (Matthew Gray Gubler). The vibrant characters have a lot to say about love and heartbreak. Some of their words are wise and should be heeded, while others’ flawed ways of thinking shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Here are thirteen of the best quotes from 500 Days of Summer.
Rachel: “Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn’t mean she’s your soulmate.”
Tom: “You’re ridiculous – your favourite Beatle is Ringo.”
Paul: “Misery, sadness, loss of faith, no reason to live – this is perfect for you.”
Paul: “I’m running out of ways to say ‘congratulations’. So far, I’ve got, ‘congrats’, ‘good job’, and ‘well done’.”
Summer: “You weren’t wrong, Tom. You were just wrong about me.”
Rachel: “I know you think she was the one, but … I think you’re just remembering the good stuff. Next time you look back, I really think you should look again.”
Tom: “Author’s note: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you, Jenny Beckman. B**ch.”
Tom: “I liked this girl … What did she do? She took a giant s**t on my face.”
Alison: “Literally?”
Tom: “Not literally. That’s disgusting. Jesus, what’s the matter with you?”
Tom: “Why do people buy cards? It’s not because they want to say how they feel. People buy cards because they can’t say how they feel or are afraid to. And we provide the service that lets them off the hook.”
McKenzie: “Arthur Miller said, ‘If you want to understand a woman, you have to turn her into a piece of literature.'”
Tom: “The best way to get over a woman is to turn her into literature.”
Tom: “Things are going well; you start putting labels on it – that’s like the kiss of death. It’s like saying, ‘I love you’.”
Rachel: “Yeah, I know what you mean. That’s what happened between me and John.”
Pelé is a documentary that tells the story of the legendary footballer and his quest for perfection. The narrative explores how Pelé, the only man to win three World Cup titles, went from a superstar in 1958 to inspiration in 1970 — during a dramatic period in Brazilian history.
In addition to the unprecedented access to Pelé, the film features stunning archive footage and interviews with legendary ex-teammates such as Zagallo, Jairzinho and Rivellino.
Pelé is directed by Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn.
Pelé will be available on Netflix from the 23rd of February, 2021.
Irish queer quartet Pillow Queens have been doing things differently since their formation in 2016. Having grown tired of playing for kicks, the foursome – composed of Sarah Corcoran and Pamela Connolly on lead vocals, Cathy McGuinness on lead guitar, and drummer Rachel Lyons – decided to come together to give their music career a real chance. They made their mark with their debut EP Calm Girls, which featured the scrappy fan favourite ‘Rats’, a track that emits a “give a fuck” attitude while maintaining an overarching sense of sincerity. Their sophomore outing, 2018’s State of the State, boasted the searing track ‘Gay Girls’; anchored in moody guitar riffs and haunting wails, the song is a masterclass in build-up and control, switching tempo, key and tone throughout the song’s verses, chorus, and a surprisingly airy bridge. Featuring the aforementioned tracks as well as ‘Brothers’ and ‘Handsome Wife’, their debut album In Waiting arrived late last year. Exploring themes of sexuality, religion, politics and life’s larger questions, the gripping LP ultimately hinges on positivity and vitality; a vitality that comes through living life vivaciously.
We caught up with Pillow Queen’s Pamela Connolly for this edition of our Artist Spotlight Q&A series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
It’s the question that’s difficult to avoid… but how has life been since March? What’s been the most positive thing that’s happened to you all, a ray of hope in all the madness?
Well, releasing the album has been such a source of joy for us over 2020. During the initial lockdowns it kept us busy organising, and distracted us from the doom of the outside world. When we were finally able to share it in September it was another hit of much needed serotonin for us despite it having to be done in a less than normal way.
You’ve flourished a lot as a band since Calm Girls (‘Rats’still hits different though). Yet what’s the biggest difference that you all notice about the way you go about making music? Was the experience of making In Waiting noticeably different?
I think our sound is a lot bigger since our first releases as a band. We’re so much more in tune to the minutia of the overall sound. We know ourselves and each other so much more than when making In Waiting, while it felt superorganic and flowed in a way that it hadn’t before, we also had the patience to nitpick at every detail till we felt it sounded the way we all collectively wanted it to.
Do you all have a personal favourite track you’ve ever created or is that like choosing your favourite child?
It is quite like choosing a favourite child. I think we all love the closing track ‘Donaghmede’ as the majority of it was formed in the studio and feels like it embodies what it was like the entire record.
Your debut album In Waiting truly feels like a staggeringly accomplished encapsulation of what makes Pillow Queens, Pillow Queens. Before you started recording, did you have a specific vision or direction you wanted to go in or was it more of an exploration as you went along?
Recording was very exploratory, and certain things came out of it that we hadn’t expected going in. What we did want to accomplish was a sound that mimicked the grandness of our live show, and to make an album that would only make our live show grander. We’d hoped to create an album that would become a touchstone for people. We don’t know if we’ve accomplished that yet but here’s hoping!
What do each of you cite as the most seminal album for you in terms of the development of your music taste?
We all have very varied music tastes, though when it comes to Pillow Queens we all reference very similar artists. Early on, and still, we cite the likes of Weezer and the Pixies. For this album we would listen to Manchester Orchestra, particularly their Mean Everything to Nothing or Simple Math album. Mostly for their ability to create a sound so big and then pull back to something tender so effortlessly.
It seems ridiculous that this even needs to be commented upon, but singing in your accents… it’s something that’s remarkably lacking in the mainstream music industry, particularly in the UK and Ireland. Was this something that was ever discussed amongst yourselves or was it just a given that you would sing in your accent?
It’s certainly something we’re conscious of. Growing up listening to a lot of music from outside Ireland you tend to just end up singing in a fairly neutral accent. We want people to have an instant recognition of where we’re from when they listen to our music as we think it gives a little more context to who we are. We love the way we sing, and we like that people enjoy it but it’s just our preference. If when you sing your accent doesn’t come out, more power to you. Music is escapism and the way someone chooses to express their art is completely up to them.
What’s your favourite collective memory as a band, a moment that you each remember and sticks out for whatever reason?
We played a festival last year called All Together Now. We had a moment where the crowd in the tent were singing along to ‘Rats’. While this is usually a song that gets accompanied with a crowd, it was the sheer amount of people. The wall of sound permeating back at us. It was completely overwhelming to all of us. In excitement, Rachel decided to throw one of her sticks but didn’t it just wallop me in the head and then the moment was over.
Would you like to relax? Then you can play at the live casino online Canada, watch a movie or a TV show. Moreover, it’s possible to play a PC game. Would you like something unusual? Then these games are for you.
The Long Dark
A geomagnetic catastrophe strikes Earth, dropping the main character’s plane onto the uninhabited snow-covered land of Canada. Unrelenting polar night, bone-chilling cold, predators, lack of provisions, and many other dangers are what players will have to face in this unique survival game.
Frostpunk
An ingenious city-building and survival simulator set in an oppressive world of ice and snow. A sudden natural cataclysm has destroyed almost all life on the planet, lowering the temperature to a deathly low level. Only a small group of people rallied around a giant steam generator, which became the heart of the new city, managed to survive. The player is given the role of community leader, setting up the city and making important decisions.
Distrust
An isometric horror, whose plot and atmosphere were partially borrowed from the famous horror film The Thing. Two main characters find themselves on an isolated Arctic station, where they try to escape from a nightmarish creature, sucking the life out of sleeping people. So, the heroes have to fight not only the cold but also fatigue and sleep.
Fade to Silence
A once-blooming fairy-tale world has been engulfed by cold and darkness, along with which came hordes of hideous demons. A hero tries to survive in the new and unpleasant conditions, rebuilding his small camp, making forays for supplies and resources, improving and creating new equipment. And, of course, not without the intense battles in the spirit of Dark Souls, unfolding in the snowy mountains, forests, and other atmospheric landscapes of icy apocalypse.
Kona
It’s Northern Quebec, 1970. You are a private detective who arrives to investigate in a remote village. And you find yourself trapped there because of a sudden snow storm. Now it is necessary to solve puzzles and delve into a tangled story in a virtually surreal snowy world.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
In search of fairytale Kitezh, brave Lara will have to learn all the severity of the Siberian north, hidden by endless forests and snow, whose borders are guarded by fierce predatory beasts. Rise of the Tomb Raider is an enthralling action game that solves puzzles, battles with aggressive mercenaries, and fights with nature for your life.
Fahrenheit
An interactive mystery detective movie whose unpredictable and shocking plot unfolds in wintertime North America. Although the game is old, the season is beautifully recreated.
Never Alone
A beautiful and interesting tale in the format of a 2D platformer with gorgeous drawn graphics. The main character is an Inupiat girl and her faithful dog. They travel through the snowy wastelands and glacial ridges of northern Alaska to save her tribe from evil spirits.
As one of the core members of Efterklang, Casper Clausen has been instrumental in retaining an air of grandiosity to the Danish art-rock outfit’s music no matter what direction they’ve decided to steer their sound into. After a series of lauded albums in the 2000s, the band became known for splitting the difference between the ethereal splendor of Sigur Rós and the neighboring pomposity and ambitious song structures of indie favorites like Arcade Fire or Sufjan Stevens. Clausen’s debut solo effort, co-produced by Peter Kember a.k.a. Spaceman 3’s Sonic Boom and recorded at Clausen’s riverside Lisbon studio, skews closer to the group’s later work, which featured more elements of pop and electronic music orbiting around his warm if sometimes indistinct voice, as well as the late-night synth-pop of his more recent project Liima. Conceptually, he says, it’s about “finding a better way, loving stronger, falling harder,” “being far away” and “being myself”. While none of these seemingly disparate themes manage to really stand out in any meaningful way on the 8-track-project, there’s also a more intriguing bit about how he “wanted something from my time in this city to last”, and that impulse is not only echoed throughout Better Way but also acts as the primary force behind it.
Opener ‘Used to Think’ whisks you into the album’s kaleidoscopic soundworld, blending elements of krautrock with the propulsive indietronica of LCD Soundsystem and a distinct pop sensibility that’s evident despite the absence of any direct hooks. As the track settles into its slowly-percolating rhythm, it’s both captivating and delightful to hear it stretch out to almost nine minutes without being bogged down by the weight of a searing but predictable crescendo. Rather than coming off as directionless experiments, the simmering nature of these instrumentals serves a clear purpose: “If we could be extended for a while,” Clausen sings beside the ghostly echo of his own voice on the spare ‘Feel it Coming’, fixating on that desire to hold onto something that seems to be falling out of grasp. Instead of filling these songs with unnecessary bombast, Clausen and Peter Kember afford their dreamy compositions the necessary space to breathe and take on a life of their own, showcasing the kind of patient maturity that’s characterized Clausen’s best work and infusing them with rich textures and subtle sonic shifts to render them wholly satisfying.
At times, though, it feels like we’re missing the attention to detail that would not only heighten the album’s emotional subtext but also allow it to resonate on a deeper level. The more abstract the songwriting gets, the more the record’s conceptual vagueness becomes a detriment rather than one of its enchanting qualities. ‘Dark Heart’ elicits a state of looped hypnosis, but the lyrics are too faint against the shadowy blur of the swirling strings to have a gripping effect; ‘Snow White’ wades through equally nebulous territory, but there’s something haunting about the way Clausen’s falsetto slices through the psychedelic pull of the instrumental. By contrast, ‘Falling Apart Like You’ anchors in a simple guitar melody but captures an elusive kind of intimacy, like freezing a moment in time before it inevitably dissipates: “In the wake before you’re gone, my love/ I’ll keep falling apart,” he croons.
The album’s penultimate track, ‘8 Bit Human’, conjures the same driving, pop-inflected rhythms the album kicks off with, injecting it with a certain amount of grit and quirkiness. It’s somehow the most danceable track on the 8-song project as well as its most experimental, a testament to Clausen’s ability to combine his varying artistic inclinations in a way that’s both adventurous and seamless. You just wish more of that creative energy showed up throughout the rest of the album, which feels more like the beginning of an attempt to map out Clausen’s musical identity as a solo artist. But in the journey of getting there, he’s created an album whose moods wash over more than they merely brush up against you, and whose world is wonderfully realized even if the project is smaller in scope than we’ve come to expect from him. “I can’t believe we saw the ocean,” he intones on the mesmeric closing track ‘Ocean Wave’. It’s unclear what exactly he’s singing about, but if you close your eyes, you might just be able to see it, too.
Being a professional gamer or simply starting a career in gaming is one significant move for most people. If you love playing video games, then you’ve thought of becoming a professional gamer at some point. Whether you are looking forward to joining a gaming community, winning your first tournament, or making money out of pro gaming, there is always a way out.
This guide makes it hassle-free for you to start a career in professional gaming and win your first bet at a Vegas casino. Here are the steps you should follow to kick-start a career in professional gaming this year.
Do you have a passion for gaming?
What motivates you when you think about gaming? Do you play video games for leisure, or you have an in-depth passion for playing virtual games? Just like having a goal in life, you should also play e-sports for a good reason.
The desire to join a gaming community in your region, contribute to a team, and satisfy your dreams to become a guru gamer are all possible reasons for starting a career in pro gaming. With positive motivation, you can easily build your career in pro gaming. When you have selfish and materialistic goals like quick success and making money, you will not enjoy gaming.
Select your favorite game
Once you have a passion for becoming a pro gamer, you should move one step ahead. Choose a game that you like most to start your journey in gaming. You can either pick a game that is currently upcoming or go with one that has been in existence for a long.
A well-established game is the best option if you are willing to take your time to learn the basics of the game. These types of games have all the resources and infrastructure you need for professional gaming. Some established games you can opt for include Dota 2, League of Legend, and CS: GO.
Network with other gamers
The only way you can build a career in gaming is by learning from those ahead of you. That means you should join a gaming community and network with people that share a similar mind and vision as you.
Networking is essential for growth in almost every industry you are in. When you connect with other gamers in the industry, you can share your mind and prepare yourself to meet your gaming goals.
When choosing gamers to connect with, you should choose wisely. Don’t network with people because they are playing professional video games. Instead, look for gamers at your level and those who share the same dreams as you. This way, you will avoid being discouraged while building your career in gaming.
Join a tournament
Once you’ve networked with other gamers and sharpened your gaming skills, you can now join tournaments to test your prowess. By joining a gaming tournament, you can gauge your skills by competing with other gamers at your level both locally and internationally. Always ensure you practice and hone your skills before joining any gaming tournaments.
When you participate in tournaments, you get the experience of taking part in competitive pro gaming. You can also get useful insights about professional gaming from those you compete with. In the process, you build a network with other gamers and sharpen your skills faster. Tournaments give you the platform to play with skilled and salaried gamers.
Have the right gear
If you want to become a pro gamer, you must invest some good money in the right gear. Get a quality mechanical keyboard and a mouse.
Choose your gear based on sensitivity, size, and form factor. Most gaming gear come with different specs, and you should choose one that suits you.
Another tip; always use the same mouse and keyboard when practicing and competing with other gamers on-stage. Once you familiarize yourself with the gaming equipment, you will likely transition to a gaming tournament where the focus is vital.
Live stream your gameplay
If you’ve been thinking of making some money from your gaming, you can start by streaming your gameplay on YouTube and Twitch. By registering with these social platforms, you get an audience for your gameplay and make some money in the process. You can combine comedy, your technical skills, and commentary when you stream your gameplay.
When you feel like streaming is not meant for you, you can still make some profit by developing gaming guides and selling them online. Create an online course for pro gaming and ask viewers to subscribe to the guides. This way, you can create an audience and make some money at the same time.
Final Thoughts
Starting a career in pro gaming comes with a lot of challenges. When you want to climb your ladder to pro gaming, you should set your goal to get the right gear for gaming,
Network with other gamers, and most importantly, don’t forget to join a tournament to sharpen your skills. With these tips, you can start your gaming career and build a name for yourself in the gaming industry.
The first thing you’ll notice about Foxanne’s music is her stunningly dynamic voice, but what’s more impressive is the way she wields it. Throughout her debut album, titled It’s real (I knew it)and released last month, she pushes the limits of her voice with not just uncompromising ferocity but also a refreshing kind of playfulness. Follows her intimate 2018 EP halfling, the record opens with the sound of a rocket launch – the singer-songwriter, whose real name is Chelsea Gohd, is also a staff writer at Space.com, and her fascination with all things related to the cosmos finds a way of seeping into different corners of the album, infusing its otherwise conventional rock n’ roll backdrop with added texture and personality. ‘Opportunity’ is the most obvious example here, a cavernous ballad sung from the perspective of the lost Mars Rover that also happens to be the album’s emotional highlight.
But Foxanne doesn’t need to invoke the vastness of the void above for her musical ambition to shine through – ‘Youngest Man Alive’ builds to an explosive and ecstatic climax, while ‘I’m So Excited’ channels the kind of unbridled enthusiasm that so much of the album relishes in. Thinking about space on a daily basis does provide a much-needed sense of perspective, however: “Suddenly I’m looking down from space and I pause to breathe,” she sings on the raucous ‘Doing it All’, “A second in nothingness here is really all that I need.”
We caught up with Foxanne for this edition of our Artist Spotlightinterview series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.
Throughout the album, you’re using your voice in such a commanding and powerful way. How did your relationship to your voice develop over time?
I didn’t start performing and singing in public until I was like a teenager-college age. But it’s just been kind of self-practice over the years. I wish I could say I’m formally trained, but I am not. It’s been a lot of experimenting with tones and trying to push the boundaries of what my voice can do without hurting myself. [laughs] Which has actually been interesting, because I had chronic tonsillitis for years, up until this month I got my tonsils removed after years of a really bad sore throat. So it was a lot of just pushing through that and kind of stretching my voice.
Was there a specific moment where you decided you wanted to write and record your own music? Do you have any memories of that?
Yeah, I mean, I remember wanting to record the music that I was writing pretty much as soon as I started writing music, when I was around 16 or so. I’ve always wanted to capture it, and I started recording little things kind of around then and later on I made a demo and the EP and a couple of things. But it really wasn’t until this record that I was able to make a recording that sounded like what I wanted it to sound like going into it. So I’ve always had an interest in kind of finalizing and encapsulating the music in a formal recording, but this is the first time where I’m like, “Oh wow, this is really what it’s supposed to sound like.”
There’s also a lot of references to space, and I know that you’re also a science communicator. Could you talk about also where your fascination with space and science in general comes from, and whether you feel it relates to music in any way?
Definitely – I mean, I’ve been into science for as long as I can remember. You know, people are always like, “Is music your hobby or is science your hobby?” Like you have to pick one and the other is not really as important. But to me, they’re both just huge parts of my life, and they’re equal in different ways. I don’t think I could ever give up performing and making music, but at the same time, I could never see myself not loving science. To me, I think the thing that links them is just that curiosity, that want to explore. So with music it’s like exploring new melodies, new sounds, etc. And then obviously the exploration in science is self-explanatory, but I think that they just have that natural connection.
I’ve always thought about how to incorporate space and science into my music and I never wanted to do it, like, super obviously or intentionally, or, you know, kind of cheapening it. And so I just figured as I continued to do both in bigger and greater ways that they would eventually start blending in with each other, and with this record I think that’s starting to happen – you know, with ‘Opportunity’ and with some of the more spacey themes and elements throughout the album. So I’m just kind of letting it happen organically.
I was wondering if you could talk more about ‘Opportunity’ in particular, the process of making that song and the story behind it?
Sure. Actually, I rewrote the song like five times, hating it every time until the last version. But when NASA’s opportunity rover kind of died on Mars – even though, I mean, they only expected it to last 90 days, it lasted like five thousand days. So it really exceeded expectations on every level in terms of exploration and science, but it was still just so sad to see it kind of disappearing, losing, connection to Earth, and it’s just so surreal to think that something that we made, that we almost animated into reality, is sitting on another planet, and we’ll never see it again. You know, even if we have humans on Mars, the likelihood of them running into it are pretty slim. So it was just a devastating and bizarre science moment that I really wanted to kind of capture the emotional side of. I thought it would be neat to write the song from the perspective of the Rover itself, which is kind of silly, but, you know, people were really upset when it died.
I wrote the song vocally and on guitar kind of just how it is on the record, and I toyed with the idea of kind of building it up and making it a bigger thing, but I really just liked the sound of it kind of stripped back and bare like that. So the things that I added to it were pretty minimal. Though – I don’t know if you’ve heard the audio, but other probes on Mars have actually captured what Marsquakes, like earthquakes on Mars, what those sound like. And so I tried to recreate what that sound is using a synthesizer and buried that underneath, kind of like a textural thing.
That’s a really interesting detail. Are there any other kind of Easter eggs like that on the record, like the rocket launch on the opener?
That was actually audio I took from the first rocket launch I ever attended. So it’s just kind of, you know, special to me and no one else really. Because at least for me, the sound of the rocket launch was even more impactful than watching it. I mean, the ground was shaking, it was really crazy. And so obviously, the audio isn’t the best quality but I wanted to kind of have that sentimentality in there with that.
Could you talk about the process of making the album as a whole? How was your approach different compared to your 2018 EP?
I think the two main things that were really unique to making this album were: one, I think I had more confidence as a musician. I knew exactly what I wanted it to sound like, I knew the songs, I knew what I wanted to do with them. And then the other part of that was that I worked with people who I really trusted with the sound and really enjoyed working with; especially as a woman in music I’ve been in situations before where, you know, I’m working with a man producing it and they kind of steamroll what they think it should sound like, and it can be challenging to work with that dynamic. But the team I worked with at AGL studios – Doug and Kelly and Elaine who mastered it, and of course my bandmate, Andrew – everyone just really got the sound, they listened. And I was really able to have the creative control that you should as a musician. It was just a great experience in general, I had a lot of fun making it.
Did lockdown affect the process at all?
I got really lucky in that we finished recording right before the pandemic. And so it was a little bit challenging doing mixing and mastering over email and over the phone, going back and forth with different mixes, but it wasn’t too challenging and everyone was really communicative. I mean, the most challenging thing was, how do you release a record in a pandemic? I was like, “Oh my god, we finished it and now all we have to do is mix and master it,” but I’m thinking to myself, record labels are struggling, musicians are struggling, I can’t play a release show, I can’t do all of the normal things that you would normally do to release a record. I couldn’t do any of it. And so it took me a number of months to kind of figure out even how to release it.
Are there any songs that you feel like have taken on a new resonance since you wrote them because of the pandemic?
I think ‘Let it Ache’ definitely hit a little bit harder in quarantine. That song is about, you know, living in New York through the winter and it’s gray, it’s depressing, you’re trapped in your apartment. And just finally seeing the first signs of spring and it’s just like this overwhelming relief, there’s sun for the first time in months. And so I think that being stuck inside for quarantine, it really kind of paralleled those same feelings in a really major way. You know, it was the middle of the summer but I was stuck inside, I couldn’t see my friends, I couldn’t enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
Actually, I had a recent experience that also paralleled that in a unique way in terms of space. In November, I actually spent two weeks living as an analog astronaut in a mock Mars simulation, on a volcano. So I lived in this tiny little dome with five other women and we lived, ate, worked as if we were on Mars. But being trapped in this little dome, couldn’t go outside, couldn’t breathe the air, it was like quarantine all over again, times 100. So it’s really interesting how that song has kind of evolved in meaning through quarantine, through this weird Mars experience.
Oh, wow. That reminds me of The Martian, which I saw ages ago. I don’t know if it’s in any way accurate.
I love The Martian. There were some similarities, I’ll say that much. We ended up eating lots of dehydrated potatoes.
Is that something you feel like you might write a song about, or have already written a song about?
I’ve been working on some stuff. We’ll see if any of the songs ever see the light of day, but I definitely have some material written about that experience.
Do you have any idea of what direction you might want to go in musically going forward?
There’s things that I would like to try in terms of styles, instrumentation, arrangement. But I also want to let it kind of organically grow, because I’m sure the next record will have a whole different sound and I’ll look back on this and be like, Oh my God, why did I ever put this out. You know, like you do with every new thing. But I just want to continue to hone my sound and really understand better what my voice can do, what I can do in terms of music. I mean, now that, you know, I have no more tonsils, the vocals might even be crazier than before. We’ll see.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a new film chronicling the life of legendary singer Billie Holiday, has received its first trailer. Directed by Lee Daniels, the biopic stars R&B singer Andra Day in the titular role and was written by Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks. Watch the trailer below.
The film “unapologetically presents the icon’s complicated, irrepressible life,” according to a press release. Lee Daniels adds: “Whether you are new to the story and legacy of Billie Holiday or know every note she ever sang, I do hope our celebration of this complex woman does justice to a great musical legend and civil rights activist whose artistry resonates as well today, as it did 80 years ago. Hulu releasing this film and giving it a platform to be seen nationwide is a blessing, because as recent events reveal, our country has much work to do in fulfilling its promise of a more perfect union.”
The film, which is out February 26 on Hulu, also stars Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Garrett Hedlund, Miss Lawrence. It marks Daniels’ first film since 2013’s The Butler.
