mgk, formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly, has announced a new album called Lost Americana. The trailer is narrated by none other than Bob Dylan, who recently posted an old video of Machine Gun Kelly rapping in a record store.
“lost americana is a personal excavation of the American dream, a journey to find what’s been lost,” Dylan says in the teaser. “This album is a love letter to those who seek to rediscover—the dreamers, the drifters, the defiant. It’s a sonic map of forgotten places, a tribute to the spirit of reinvention and a quest to reclaim the authentic essence of American freedom. From the glow of neon diners to the rumble of the motorcycles, this is music that celebrates the beauty found in the in-between spaces where the past is reimagined and the future is forged on your own terms.”
Though mgk has yet to publicly confirm that it is the real Dylan narrating the video, he shared a black and white photo of him in his Instagram Stories. Sources also confirmed to Variety that it is in fact Dylan. Other collaborators on lost americana, which is due August 8, include SlimXX, BazeXX, and Nick Long.
Many people have said goodbye to cable TV and welcomed streaming into their lives. Likewise, users found Soap2Day one of the best choices for streaming. Sadly, it left people frustrated when it was shut down — until SoapGate arrived. SoapGate is a popular directory website that offers mirror links to Soap2Day. But dealing with a bunch of links can also be frustrating. To make things easier, users are looking for actual streaming websites.
This article lists the best streaming options and discusses mirror sites and Reddit updates.
Five SoapGate Alternatives
FlixRave
FlixRave banks on the strengths of traditional sites to deliver better streaming. Also, it features thousands of high-definition films and TV shows for free. Simultaneously, it has a clean interface and a large content library.
M4UFree
M4UFree is one of the best streaming sites to view motion pictures. Anyone can watch tons of movies without paying any fees. Similarly, it has multiple streaming links to ensure non-stop watching.
FreeFlix
FreeFlix requires no sign-ups or registrations to access endless entertainment. At the same time, users can enjoy high-quality streaming even on their phones and tablets.
Two Movies
Two Movies is an online platform that provides streaming services. Likewise, you can find a huge collection of movies and TV shows from various genres. Users can even access numerous titles, ranging from classics to modern blockbusters.
Onion Play
Onion Play focuses on simplicity. It gives direct streaming links without too many ads. Also, it allows users to watch the latest movies and famous TV shows. It’s an all-you-can-watch platform without charging a single buck.
Mirror Sites for SoapGate
To clarify, there are no mirrors for SoapGate because it already is a website that provides proxy sites for Soap2Day. If you are interested in Soap2Day mirrors, check out this list:
http://soap2day.to/
http://soap2day.ac/
http://soap2day.sh/
Keep in mind that mirror sites can bring risks to your device. From malware to scams, digital threats are often found on mirrors.
Reddit Insights and Updates
Reddit communities such as r/Piracy discuss the truth about streaming websites. While there is no specific info about SoapGate, there have been conversations about Soap2Gate. Specifically, users say it stopped working and frequently changes its domain.
Legal Considerations
Watching from illegal websites is against the law. Similarly, this activity can bring several consequences. For safer streaming, try licensed websites.
The Takeaway
SoapGate may give a list of Soap2Day mirrors. But the alternatives saves you from clicking on multiple links. They let you watch right away. Also, don’t forget the legal and safety side of things.
With streaming, everyone can press play on endless entertainment. From classics to new ones, you can get them in the comfort of your home. Similarly, fans of streaming love SFlix. It’s a great platform that offers movies and TV shows across genres. But they can’t rely on it that much. Its illegal nature makes it prone to takedowns and lawful problems. So, finding backup websites is now the objective.
This article discusses five noteworthy platforms, mirrors, and Reddit streaming info.
Five SFlix Alternatives
Flixflare
Flixflare boosts your streaming experience. Also, it’s a top destination for quick access to the latest movies and TV shows. It promises that every user will find perfect content—quality entertainment for free!
Movie Crumbs
Movie Crumbs has a large volume of trending titles in high-definition quality. Likewise, watching movies and TV series on the site needs no subscriptions. It caters to people who want efficient streaming.
XMovies8
XMovies8 offers a big library of films that are readily available for instant watching. If you want real entertainment without spending anything, this one’s for you. At the same time, it has a collection of classic and recent titles.
HiMovies
HiMovies seeks to deliver high-quality films and TV series to its users. Aside from letting them stream, they can also download for later viewing. Plus, it contains a bunch of titles that feature user ratings.
Filmzie
Filmzie promises free legal streaming. It’s true, as it is an ad-supported platform. This means that you can watch movies without committing piracy. However, its offerings are not as many as the others. Filmzie is more niche.
Mirror Sites for SFlix
Due to copyright enforcement, there are not many existing mirrors for SFlix. Moreover, these replicas come with dangers like malware and intrusive ads. So, proceed with caution.
Here are the readily available domains for SFlix:
https://sflix.to/
https://asianflix.co/
Reddit Insights and Updates
The most recent discussion about SFlix on the r/Piracy thread was six months ago. It was users complaining about the ads and multiple redirects. However, these issues are normal, especially for free streaming websites. So, having an ad blocker is essential. To stay informed, follow the community thread on Reddit.
Legal Considerations
Streaming copyrighted material is illegal. More so when you have no permission from the credited owners. If possible, choose the legal platforms. Or, if you have no choice, prepare to face penalties and security threats.
The Takeaway
With the alternatives on the list, you must keep your snacks ready because the streaming marathon awaits. More importantly, be mindful of legal implications to ensure a safer and smoother viewing experience.
There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Tuesday, June 10, 2025.
David Byrne – ‘Everybody Laughs’
‘Everybody Laughs’ is the lead single from David Byrne’s just-announced album Who Is the Sky?, which features St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, the Smile drummer Tom Skinner, and others. “Someone I know said, ‘David, you use the word ‘everybody’ a lot,'” he explained. “I suppose I do that to give an anthropological view of life in New York as we know it. Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling. Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done. I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody, especially at the end, when St. Vincent and I are doing a lot of hollering and singing together. Music can do that—hold opposites simultaneously.”
La Dispute – ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’
La Dispute’s astounding nine-minute track ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’ serves as the second act of their new album No One Was Driving the Car, according to frontman Jordan Dreyer. “more or less the thematic center of the record — is a single song split into three parts. it begins with a boy beside a creek-bed in a wooded area near home, holding a snapping turtle above the flowing water, before tracing its winding path to the river around which the city was first built, and through a brief history of the city itself — its settlement, the creation of the christian reformed church, and the furniture industry that dominated its early economic growth.”
“from there we return to the boy beside the creek,” Dreyer continued. “he sees his own lack of control in the flailing creature he holds, then again at church, listening to a sermon delivered on the calvinist doctrines of predestination, man’s innate and total depravity, and the irresistible grace of his family’s god. at the end of it, he returns for the first time in adulthood to that same church, at the funeral of an old friend dead by suicide, from which the conversation shifts back to the creek as metaphor for life and time, and to what we ultimately maintain the least control over in life: that we can change neither the fact it moves nor the direction it ceaselessly does.”
Dreyer concluded: “in the final section, the city’s history of the furniture manufacturing returns as additional metaphor, presenting us as un-hewn wood, locked within the lathe of time and against its blade turned, to carve away with each rotation fragments of self en route to new forms — perhaps useful, perhaps beautiful, perhaps not. and as the layers shaved away fall to ground, they are swept up at day’s end and thrown inside the furnace: to burn and be breathed in as smoke, felt as heat, and to return one day as rain from the atmosphere in which they’ve dissipated. what’s left on the lathe is given purpose—placed as slats in chair backs or as table legs — and from this image the focus narrows again: to life with another—where, ultimately, the narrator finds his own comfort against the tumult — via the furniture moved and used by them from one shared home to another, and the person with whom he’s shared them.”
Margo Price – ‘Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down’
Margo Price has announced a new LP, Hard Headed Woman, arriving August 29 on Loma Vista. It’s led by the empowering track ‘Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down’, of which Price said: “I always hope to do like Johnny Cash did, which is speak up for the common man and woman. But there have been so many threats and anger and vitriol over the years, when I am only coming from a place of love. So I made the decision to rebuild everything from the ground up. I hope this album inspires people to be fearless and take chances and just be unabashedly themselves, in a culture that tries as hard as it can to beat us into all being the same.”
Japanese Breakfast – ‘My Baby (Got Nothing at All)’
Japanese Breakfast has shared her dreamy, airy contribution to the soundtrack of Celine Song’s new A24 movie Materialists. ‘My Baby (Got Nothing at All)’ set to to appear on the soundtrack, out June 13, alongside a pair of Baby Rose tracks.
Field Medic – ‘MELANCHOLY’
Field Medic has announced a new album called surrender instead, out August 8, with the mellifluous new song ‘MELANCHOLY’. “After getting sober, years in therapy, and for the first time taking an antidepressant, I would still sometimes suffer from days or weeks of stifling depression,” Kevin Patrick Sullivan explained. “Experiencing that unique and dreadful feeling comes as quite a shock when you’ve been ‘doing the work’ and ‘healing’ in the ways that I had been, and still am. I had just read William Styron’s Darkness Visible, which is his memoir about his time in the throes of a depressive episode. Having also recently written a doo-wop song for a pitch for sync, the ’50s chord progression was fresh in my mind, as well as the examination of melancholy as a lifelong disease that waxes and wanes, but may never go away entirely.”
Iron & Wine – ‘Robin’s Egg’ [feat. I’m With Her]
Iron & Wine has teamed up with I’m With Her, with whom he’s about to embark on a co-headlining tour, for an endearing new single called ‘Robin’s Egg’. “I had the start of ‘Robin’s Egg’ kicking around and began finishing the tune earlier this year with I’m With Her in mind,” Sam Beam explained. “We had already started to plan our summer tour together; I passed it to them with the hope they were up for adding their voices to it and lucky for me they were! I’m looking forward to performing it, and a few other surprises, with them this summer.”
Moving Mountains – ‘Ghosts’
Moving Mountains have detailed their first album in 12 years, Pruning of the Lower Limbs. The Westchester County quartet’s follow-up to their 2013 self-titled record is out June 26, and it’s led by the ethereal ‘Ghosts’.
Mavis Staples – ‘Godspeed’ (Frank Ocean Cover)
Mavis Staples has offered her take on Frank Ocean’s ‘Godspeed’. The cover was produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee) and features spoken word vocals by Kara Jackson. “Channel Orange was my first introduction to Frank Ocean and I was just amazed at the writing and soulfulness coming from his voice,” the singer shared. “And I loved Blonde when that record came out. That first line in ‘Godspeed’ of ‘I will always love you’ just crushes me every time I hear it…or sing it. It’s just such a beautiful song and he sounds amazing on it so I was a little nervous if we could pull it off. I was honored to sing his words.”
Daphni – ‘Sad Piano House’
Dan Snaith has shared a new single under the Daphni name, ‘Sad Piano House’. The title might point in the direction of Snaith’s Caribou project, but he puts a uniquely dancey spin on the melancholy, so it makes sense under this moniker too. “i dj’ed a lot last year in the lead up to the caribou album and inevitably ended up making a bunch of new music to play out in those sets,” he explained. “i’d made this one but knew that i wasn’t sure about it or when it would ever get a release so i sent it over to ben ufo and he started playing it and people started asking me about it. now i’ve finally got a chance to finish it off and release it. i’d given it the temporary title ‘sad piano house’ when i sent it because it’s piano house… but, you know, not that kind of piano house… i didn’t really intend for that to be the final track title but once it appeared in a couple of tracklists for radio shows and people started asking about it, the title stuck.”
Rocket – ‘Crossing Fingers’
Following ‘Take Your Aim’ and ‘One Million’, Rocket have come through with another exciting track called ‘Crossing Fingers’. It’s “the story of falling so deep into a partnership with someone and bearing the weight of the fear of messing it all up,” according to vocalist and bassist Alithea Tuttle Knowing that changing for them would mean sacrificing yourself, but not being able to help the feeling of wanting to change for them. Hoping that the two of you can grow together over years and years, but not knowing if that is even in the cards for you. Knowing that only time will tell.”
Nick León – ‘Crush’ and ‘Millennium Freak’
Nick León has teased his upcoming album A Tropical Entropy with two enchanting new songs, ‘Crush’ and ‘Millennium Freak’.
Nuovo Testamento – ‘Picture Perfect’
Nuovo Testamento have shared a dizzying new song called ‘Picture Perfect’, which opens their upcoming EP Trouble. The five-track project arrives July 25 on Discoteca Italia.
Lisa/Liza – ‘Summer’s Dust’
Portland, Maine singer-songwriter Lisa Victoria has announced a new EP, Ocean Path, which compiles her early home recordings. Lead single ‘Summer’s Dust’ is totally mesmerizing. “Ocean Path is a look back at the first songs I made in my teens and early twenties, including some of my very first recordings, such as ‘Gamble’,” Victoria shared. “For me, it is a letter from my younger self. This cassette leads down paths of memory, reminding me we are always becoming and growing into who we are and what will be. There is a peace and sense of pride in holding these songs now in the form of a curated cassette, giving them a place to be. I wanted to be a musician, I wanted to share my inner world with others. And now I see where that lead me and feel gratitude for the path set out before me
“Each song holds time between it, at least a year between each, love and memory, and different worlds of view, threads between them,” she added. “As much as I hope this cassette shares a small piece of me with others, it is also a little sign on the road that says ‘keep going’. Knowing all there is that encourages the path to roll forward, friends, different lives, and loves met along the way, encouraging me to hit record and to sing a little louder. It feels hopeful and is a feeling of being held.”
Stay Inside – ‘Super Sonic’
Recent Tiny Engines signees Stay Inside have shared a propulsive new song called ‘Super Sonic’. According to singer Chris Johns, it’s “quite literally about me doing drugs on my sofa with someone in an attempt to manufacture some sort of emotional connection for myself.”
Cardinals – ‘Big Empty Heart’
Cardinals have shared a ghostly track called ‘Big Empty Heart’, “a love song written from beyond the grave,” per frontman Euan Manning. “It is a waltz, as waltzes are the most romantic kinds of songs. Oskar wrote the main melody on a Korg synthesiser when he was 12, and the song is built around that.”
Equipment – ‘espresso lemonade’
Equipment have dropped a new song called ‘espresso lemonade’ which is catchy and endearing. “Well, I, for one/ I think it’s really punk/ Of you to get a real job,” Josh Zander sings. “We’ve had our fun/ Should probably be done/ Getting wasted every day.”
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin – ‘Yek’
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin have announced Ghosted III, their third album together, releasing on August 29. They’ve previewed it today with the hypnotic opening track, ‘Yek’, alongside a music video by Maximilien Luc Proctor.
Japanese Breakfast has released a breezy, gentle new song, ‘My Baby (Got Nothing At All)’, as part of the soundtrack for A24’s upcoming romance film Materialists. Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, the film is written and directed by Celine Song. Check out the new track below.
The Materialists soundtrack comes out June 13, along with the film’s theatrical release. In addition to Japanese Breakfast’s contribution, the album features a 16-track score by composer Daniel Pemberton.
Dan Snaith is back with a new Daphni single, ‘Sad Piano House’. The dizzying, infectious track marks his first new music since his latest Caribou album, Honey. Check it out below.
“i dj’ed a lot last year in the lead up to the caribou album and inevitably ended up making a bunch of new music to play out in those sets,” Snaith explained. “i’d made this one but knew that i wasn’t sure about it or when it would ever get a release so i sent it over to ben ufo and he started playing it and people started asking me about it. now i’ve finally got a chance to finish it off and release it. i’d given it the temporary title ‘sad piano house’ when i sent it because it’s piano house… but, you know, not that kind of piano house… i didn’t really intend for that to be the final track title but once it appeared in a couple of tracklists for radio shows and people started asking about it, the title stuck.”
In the realm of contemporary art, the boundary between creation and education is increasingly porous. Artists today are not only makers but also mentors, researchers, and facilitators of experience. For Yanan He, the roles of artist and educator are not parallel identities but interconnected practices. Her work in jewellery and her approach to early art education form a feedback loop: creation informs teaching, and teaching reshapes creation. As both a practitioner and pedagogue, she reframes education not as a one-way transmission of skills but as a space for mutual discovery.
Crafted Foundations: Jewellery as Cultural Translation
From 2009 to 2012, Yanan He studied in the Silversmithing and Jewellery department at the Glasgow School of Art, known for its rigorous craft-based training and progressive artistic inquiry. This experience provided her with a strong technical foundation while encouraging conceptual exploration. Her award-winning series *Traces of Time*, recipient of the Richard Hubbard Arroll Memorial Prize, draws inspiration from traditional Chinese architecture. Through recomposed decorative motifs and rhythmic structural elements, Yanan creates oxidised silver vessels inlaid with gold leaf. These works embody a dynamic interplay between heritage and innovation, inviting viewers to perceive ornament not as static symbol but as a living rhythm of visual expansion.
The contrast between materials—the darkened silver and the luminous gold leaf—further enhances the narrative of time and transformation. Each piece speaks to the temporality embedded in built environments and how craft can echo cultural memory while proposing new formal vocabularies.
To Teach as an Artist: Reframing Early Art Education
After returning to Beijing, Yanan established her own studio where she began integrating artistic creation with educational practice. Eschewing rigid curricula, she chose to teach children as an artist rather than a conventional art instructor. In her studio, lessons became shared explorations. Children sketched, patterned, built, and observed—not to replicate predetermined forms, but to develop personal visual languages.
For students aged 4 to 12, Yanan emphasised the ludic nature of art: making as both idea and play. This approach encouraged sensitivity, curiosity, and embodied thinking. Rather than positioning herself as the arbiter of knowledge, she became a co-explorer, guiding children to find value in process and perception.
Her educational methods reflect her own creative process: iterative, intuitive, and responsive. In return, her interactions with young learners have continually influenced her studio practice, revealing new emotional registers and alternative ways of seeing.
Bridging Educational Cultures: China and the UK
‘Dun Huang Murals’ Chinese culture art project at Harrow Beijing, 2018
Educated in both Chinese and British systems, Yanan is acutely aware of the contrasts between them. Chinese art education, grounded in Confucian values, privileges discipline, technique, and respect for tradition. British art education, shaped by progressive pedagogies, encourages independent thinking, conceptual development, and cross-disciplinary experimentation.
Rather than seeing these models as oppositional, Yanan works to synthesise their strengths. She introduces structured craftsmanship alongside critical inquiry, helping students navigate both form and meaning. During annual study trips to the UK, her Chinese students visit institutions like the British Museum, the V&A, and the National Gallery, experiencing firsthand the diversity of Western art history and museum culture. Conversely, her studio in China incorporates hands-on research of Chinese heritage sites, such as the mural paintings of Dunhuang and Yongle Palace.
‘History of Western art’ – Art story telling activities at the National Gallery in London, 2023
This cultural exchange expands the boundaries of art education. Students come to understand both their local traditions and global contexts, learning to ask not only how to make, but why to make.
A Two-Way Nourishment: Pedagogy as Practice
Yanan’s philosophy echoes wider conversations in the art world on the reciprocal nature of teaching and making. In a panel titled *Why Artists Should Teach* (Freelands Foundation, 2023), artists discussed how education forces them to articulate tacit knowledge, reconsider assumptions, and remain intellectually agile. Yanan’s experience affirms these ideas: her students’ questions often disrupt artistic habits and open up uncharted creative possibilities.
She also sees a particular value in artists teaching children. Artists, attuned to nuance and expression, can recognise the latent creativity in each child and protect it from premature standardisation. By treating each child’s response as meaningful, Yanan nurtures a sense of agency and originality from the earliest stages.
For Yanan He, education is not a fixed system but an evolving practice. She believes it should be driven not by efficiency or formality but by vision, empathy, and flexibility. Her dual role as artist-educator enables her to reimagine the classroom as a site of artistic experimentation and the studio as a pedagogical space. Whether through her vessels or her teaching, she offers a sustained inquiry into how tradition can remain fluid, how children can be creators, and how art—at any age—can be both personal and shared.
The Missed series is a rather sentimental body of work by Chinese-born and London-based artist Xinan Yang that wrestles with themes of memory, identity, belongings, and cultural displacement. Her solo exhibition From Home, on view from September 11 to October 7 at Lauderdale House, coinciding with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrates family togetherness. Yang’s paintings hold tension in their visceral realities and undeniable vulnerabilities.
As I entered the Lauderdale house, at the turning of the staircase, a vibrant yellow wall display with Yang’s Missed series – oil paintings of blurred, anonymous figures frozen in the timelessness of family life. The salon-style display mimics the photo arrangements often seen in living rooms, almost déjà vu-like sense of home. Though modest in scale, the work is conceptually dense. Further enquiry, artists capture these fleeting moments of remembrance through collected family photos found in flea markets, delving into the themes of collective memory, loss and grief.
What should be comforting is also uncanny – the familiar becomes unfamiliar.
‘These fragile photographs are the sole physical evidence of these once present individuals that existed in the world, challenging fundamental binary oppositions such as “past/ present,”“alive/dead,” and “presence/absence.” The presence of their past surrounds me now reduced to a common commodity.’ — Xinan Yang
The use of second-hand photographs is Yang’s practice, not only an aesthetic choice but also a critical strategy – one that first emerged in her early family portrait painting I Still Care, exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery during London Grads Now 2020. Yet, in the Missed series, Yang engages the politics of photography itself — using painting to meditate on the time, reframe the family narrative and reclaim both its truth and gap.
It requires massive care and resists the immediacy of the snapshot. Her approach is grounded in Max Weber’s concept of verstehen — “understanding through feeling.” Painting, for her, is a form of sociological inquiry; she examines the identity and formative experience of the family dynamic and reinterprets through the paintbrush. Does not seek to reconstruct the lost identities but honors their unknowability. The softness of facial features is not a concealment, but an invitation – a gentle ambiguity where the collective family can unfold without being bound by identity.
Entering the corridor, the second half of the exhibition shifts from archival recovery to internal myth-making. These images feel both personal and archetypal, rendered in soft yet layered tones, they drift between magical realism and reality. The symbol emerges from Xinan’s own diasporic experience, forming a visual grammar of distance, care and return.
“ I transitioned from critiquing family album to expressing my sense of displacement from my homeland and family, through symbolic visual language. Bird, for me, represents cyclical migration and desire for spiritual return. Our family dog stands in emotional substitution and as a symbol of family ties. The moon, as a recurring motif in this part of the exhibition, embodies longing. rhythm and reunion.” — Xinan Yang
Through the contrast between the dense arrangement of archival works and the openness of her symbolic paintings, Yang creates a visual rhythm of contraction and release. Viewers are invited to step in close, examine intimate details, and then step back into the border compositions. This careful pacing echoes the emotional texture of diasporic memory, fragmented and nonlinear. From Home does not seek to resolve – they resonate the ambiguity of identity, home, and emotional distance.
A distinctive aspect of Yang’s practice is her ability to maintain contradictory/ambiguous stances without resorting to cliches. As an Asian woman artist working in the UK her work contributes meaningfully to the ongoing and evolving definition of British visual culture – a culture shaped by a multiplicity of cultural layerings and transnational intimacies. Rather than offering a definitive narrative of migration or memory, Yang proposes a visual and emotional space where such narratives remain open, non-prescriptive and deeply human.
When Vic Greener, former aspiring Hollywood actor, buys a foreclosed home in the Hudson Valley with money he got from a toothpaste commercial, it sets a series of actions into his life that will, eventually, result in his death. He moves into the first one with his wife Heather, but when a 7-foot-tall garbageman moves into the duplex, encroaching on their lives as Heather pulls freakishly large produce from her garden, things get eerie. Same as when their mute toddler opens his mouth only to ask about an unearthed necklace. As Vic falls deeper into the foreclosure business, and as Junior grows up and works with his father before heading off with some dreams of his own, it’s clear the houses are a distraction from his abandoned dreams.
OurCulture sat down with Harris Lahti to talk about Foreclosure Gothic, the uncanniest book of the year so far, unsettling children, and family legacy.
Congratulations on your debut novel! I know portions of it were published before, but how does it feel so close to release?
My life’s kinda organized in this way where I have two kids, I work full time, I’m pulling my house together, and I’m just really hoping it’s received well. I’m just looking for validation to continue doing this thing! [Laughs]
I liked that the chapters were vignettes, connected stories within a larger story. Was this what you had in mind for the novel?
I don’t think I was writing with a goal in mind. The second chapter, “Sugar Bath,” I wrote in one sitting, the one with graves in the basement. And I was reading certain books at the time that influenced the style and it came out as this fully formed one from the ether. Then I wrote the last chapter, trusting this voice and riding in the same way. The way I wrote it was trying to piece these stories together to make them make sense. As you populate the timeline with different stories by pulling ideas out of each of those, it allows this organic, intuitive structure to establish itself.
I think you use time so interesting in the novel — why did you want it to be a family saga between the Greeners instead of a more isolated period?
Man, it’s so horrible that time gives things meaning. I heard that in The White Lotus, and I was like, ‘Crap, that’s what books do!’ Anyone going to live long enough is clearly going to face the decision whether or not to have children based on their socioeconomic predicament, their character. The episodic nature of it is a good way of cutting out the fat and avoiding the more pedestrian and domestic normalcy that could establish itself and turn a story like this into a slog. I like the idea of getting in late and getting out early. The leaping structure allows each chapter to reinvent itself and build its own world and feel more lived-in. I’m a big believer in discovery being more important than inventing — so mining the synapses between the stories to create other stories is more exciting when there’s more to work with.
You renovate houses in the Hudson Valley — is it as eerie as you depict it in the book?
[Laughs] The photos are real, and a lot of the stranger elements in each story are true. If ghosts exist, I would have seen one. I might be the wrong person to ask that question just because maybe you think it’s eerie, but I remember being 4 or 5 and driving up to one of the houses my dad just bought on this gravel road. He’s pulling out junk and laying it in the road, like, ‘These toy model cars are gonna get me $500.’
But there are darker aspects to it. For example, the house behind me was the first house I renovated with my own money. There’s just layers of things you get through where you learn the whole family story. You walk into the living room and there’s a TV, and armchair, some pills on a table, and you can kind of see this person was sleeping here, taking pills, that was their life. But below all the garbage accumulated around the area, there’s signs of a more organized domestic life. You realize that as you go through the papers and read all the receipts, what has more or less dust on it, you understand that the woman’s parents died, she was a junkie, just lived in the house until it was foreclosed on. It’s a terrible story, but underneath you see that this was an actual life; there was happiness, there were garden beds beneath the brush.
Tell me a little about the unsettling photos interspersed in the book — most were taken by you or family members, right?
Yeah, that raccoon picture — a photographer was living at my parents’ house and set up a camera. She was into death, she’d take pictures of dead birds and dead animals. She knew there were coyotes, bears in the woods, so she put this raccoon out and set-dressed it, thinking an animal would come and eat it, but that’s not what happened. So I put that in the book and wrote a story around that image, just because it was so strange and weird. It was saying something about nature I was interested in. And [after that], I realized I had the grave one story was based on, because my father pulled it out of a basement. So I posed it in the basement and used it the same way. I kept thinking about the different stories and things started to calcify.
Talk to me a little bit about how you crafted the more chilling aspects of the book: I’m thinking about the tall garbageman, the toddler who speaks only to explain the history of an unearthed necklace.
I think with fiction, there’s this phrase, to ‘dilate the attractor.’ In that garbageman story, the most tension being created was the bodily threat. So, why not make him enormous, which would make him more threatening? A lot of the time, you’re playing on those evolutionary impulses and fears. Especially inside of this world, where realism and surrealism are blending, which I think is an interesting aspect of the gothic genre. The kid thing — I think kids were always mysterious to me. The book was finished before I had children, and kids had this wisdom and simplicity that made me uneasy. Not to mention, watch any horror movie and there’s always a kid doodling one of their relatives covered in blood or something.
Vip flipping all of these foreclosures felt like a virus, or an addiction; he says only one more, then he gets invested and finds another project. Is that how you pictured it?
Yeah, it’s a warning for me, it’s a warning for my dad. My dad was an actor, and he ran the same kind of arc I did, then around this age, you have kids and realize you have to provide for them. It’s nice to have a house, it’s nice to have nice things. There are certain comforts to having money, which I think cut against what it means to be an artist. I had a lot of anxiety and fear about that being my life, my dad’s life. There’s an impulse that you have to submerge or validate success, however minor, as something you should be doing.
So you’re Junior!
Yeah! Well, the way I’ve been thinking about it — Stanislavski was the pioneer of method acting, and one thing he talks about is emotional authenticity and putting your lived experiences into another character, to make that representation realer. As a writer, it’s not very interesting to watch someone write — it’s very heady, cerebral. By grafting it onto my dad’s story, it provides a more concrete and uncanny device to play with that I think is much more compelling on the page. Action is what drives drama. My dad will be the first person to tell you — he refers to himself as the main character of the book. I keep reminding him, ‘No! This is what my life is and could be!’
When Vic and the garbageman start building the treehouse, Heather thinks of it as “a literal shantytown overhead growing to resemble the madness contained within his mind.” But to me, Vic seems content with this random pivot in his life. Is this just her overthinking his involvement?
No, I don’t think so. I think Vic is high on success at that moment. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. I think he’s lying to himself for the expediency that will open up for him with his future. At that point in the story, I think he’s harboring resentment, but he’s buried it so deep that this new thing is starting to emerge as his creative outlet in a way that he’s gonna double down on; it’ll provide him with that sense of contributing and not being selfish or living up to his mother-in-law’s feelings about him.
So Heather sees it all along?
Yeah, I think she’s an interesting character because she sees things very clearly, and her love for Vic is kind of unconditional, and there’s a certain level of horror contained within someone loving you unconditionally, because there’s no check or balance on your own actions. You’re left to make decisions that are wholly on your shoulders. Operating in a vacuum is a very scary thing.
I think the chapter where Junior decides to stay in Costa Rica, abandoning his family to become a novelist is my favorite — it shows the difference in passion and goals between him and his father so well.
The best short stories are the ones that are unique but also relatable, and we all have a Costa Rica we want to escape to, to live out our dreams, that are much harder to achieve than we’d ever imagined, given time and space. Once it’s on your shoulders to do the thing you’ve always wanted to do, your abilities change and warp.
I thought the grotto chapter was so revealing — an old acting friend invites Vic to a party where they do coke, and he and Heather’s relationship takes an interesting turn in the car ride back home. What did you want to do with this section?
I think it’s another example of Heather remembering the passion of their life before their kid. Vic has this feeling of being over the hill, then stepping back into it, then feeling even more over the hill in the aftermath. Just as a reminder that some doors are better left shut. I think that’s helpful for him in his current life. I really like deploying sexuality and eroticism in their relationship because I feel it says things they’re not willing to say to each other and never will, but in the later chapters, it’s a way of forgiving and remembering what brought them here. Even if it’s too horrifying to draw those demons out any further into the opening. It’s this thing you do when you’re completely naked, but there’s another feeling of nakedness beneath it all. Psychologically, are they naked? I’m not sure.
Vic’s about repression, you know — every step of the way, he’s repressed. When it gets closer to that core, the more elevated and heightened and energetic and frenetic the stories become.
Yeah, the book ends circularly, with Vic’s passion being what causes his downfall. Was this always the plan?
No! I don’t think writing is magic, but there are moments when you’re writing where it comes to you in a way that feels outside of you, and the ending was another example of that. It was something that I felt I endured, and walked around gloomily for days afterward. I always trust that one sentence opens the next one, and so on, and then you have pages that are coherent and have an organic flow that I always try to cultivate.
Sort of like improvisation.
That part, for sure. It is kind of an Oedipal novel, in the way he had to go. I’m not against stories ending with a big bang; the more muted, cerebral stories are the more exciting. I saw a Goodreads review where someone said [Foreclosure Gothic was] “if blue balls was a book.” It’s the idea of edging you towards a climax and then not giving you one. Subconsciously, I felt like there needed to be this moment of true horror we step into. I love horror movies, and my favorite parts of them are the first half-hour. Watching people live their lives, it charges everything with this importance, because you know it’s moving toward something foreboding. Maybe I just wanted to provide that climax, but it was fun as shit to write.
Finally, what are you working on now?
The novel I’m working on is a house book — I want to write three of them, just to get the trilogy. I live by this hyperpacificist Christian community — they immigrated here during World War II. There’s 300 of them. I live in the woods. They’re back there! [Turns laptop around] It’s beautiful. There’s lakes and pathways and a school. They’re the sweetest people; the women wear skirts and the men look like farmers. Everything they do is so nice. But what’s interesting to me is how shitty they make me feel. They turn every misdemeanor I commit into a felony, by proximity, because I’m not living that lifestyle. I know they’re not judging me, but there’s this weird sense of judgement I impose on myself. The book I’m working on is about a guy who buys a foreclosed house, is fixing it up, going through problems with his wife, as these people continue to swarm and make him feel worse about himself. It’ll happen either in the house or at Lowe’s. Those are the two settings.
Purple was Prince’s color, not just because of his 1984 album, Purple Rain. The colour has become a tribute to Prince’s legacy. The artist got his own official Pantone color in 2017, capturing his unique color he called “Love Symbol #2.”
One designer who used this color, and much more, was part of creating the Prince.com website. Catherine Uhlrich was essential to capturing Prince’s digital legacy for the Prince Estate. As a digital design luminary and creative strategist with an impressive portfolio boasting collaborations with giants like Nike, H&M, and Google, Uhlrich is no stranger to consistently pushing the boundaries of digital experiences. Her tenure at prestigious agencies such as Instrument, AKQA, and Base Design has solidified her reputation as a versatile and visionary leader. Currently based in New York City, Uhlrich also dedicates her time to nurturing the next generation of design talent as a teacher at Gobelins School, further contributing to the design community as a judge at Awwwards and Gobelins School.
In this exclusive expert analysis, we delve into one of Uhlrich’s most captivating projects: her contribution, while at Base Design NY, to the redesign of Prince.com on behalf of the Prince Estate. Uhlrich offers a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges and triumphs of capturing the essence of a musical icon in the digital sphere.
Designing for a world-renowned, award-winning musician like Prince is no small feat. Where do you even begin? Uhlrich explained that the journey started with deep collaboration and extensive research on the Grammy Award-winning musician who changed pop music in the 1980s.
“We did several workshops with their team and gathered a lot of information about him and his fans. Lots of brainstorming sessions,” Uhlrich recalls on the creative process. “By then, the brand team had finalized the identity, and we – the digital team – started working on the web strategy. After establishing our mission and our pillars, we started structuring the content. The design was intentionally kept minimal to let the existing content, the images, and videos, shine.”
This approach highlights a key principle in Uhlrich’s design philosophy: letting the content speak for itself. By creating a clean and unobtrusive framework, the website allows Prince’s artistry to take center stage.
A Fragmented Universe: Reflecting Prince’s Eclecticism
One of the most striking aspects of the redesigned Prince.com is its seemingly fragmented, yet intentionally organized structure. “The website is complex and fragmented, it is chronological but not in the traditional sense. How did you want to organize it?” we asked.
Uhlrich illuminated the strategic thinking behind this unconventional approach: “Yes exactly, we came up with the idea that Prince.com should be a hub that hosts different microsites. Prince was eclectic, and we had to translate and honor his multifaceted life, career, and skills.” This concept allowed the team to capture the diverse facets of Prince’s persona, from his musical genius to his fashion-forward sensibilities.
She further elaborated on the historical context: “He was a pioneer when he released his music online in the 1090s; we had to honor his curiosity for the web as well. It’s a sort of Prince universe if you want. The users can explore in their own way as well, whether you are an existing fan or discovering the Artist for the first time. It is very immersive, but the main navigation is extremely simple and user-friendly.”
This “Prince universe” approach caters to both seasoned fans and newcomers, offering a rich and engaging experience that respects the artist’s innovative spirit. The emphasis on user-friendly navigation ensures that the complex structure remains accessible and intuitive.
“Become”: A Unique Contribution
When asked about her unique contributions to the project, Uhlrich shared her passion for the “Become” microsite.
“I had so much creative freedom. My favorite moment was when I got to imagine the microsite called ‘Become.’ The experience opposes Prince’s early life and the city he grew up in, Minneapolis. I literally created a split screen between his bio and the map of the city.”
This innovative design allows users to explore Prince’s biography in tandem with a map of Minneapolis, highlighting the key locations that shaped his early life. “You can either read the text only in a linear order, or freely explore the map that has key locations that influenced Prince’s life,” Uhlrich explains. “A third way to navigate is to keep both panels open and explore both at the same time. It is a very immersive and fascinating story.”
The “Become” microsite exemplifies Uhlrich’s ability to create engaging and interactive experiences that deepen the user’s understanding of the subject matter. By seamlessly integrating biographical information with geographic context, she provides a unique perspective on Prince’s formative years.
Capturing an “Infinite” Legacy
Prince’s legacy transcends music; he was a cultural icon, a fashion visionary, and a champion for artists’ rights. Capturing this multifaceted legacy in web design was a significant challenge.
“His legacy in terms of music and culture is infinite. He was a fashion icon, a music genius, a performer, and an amazing producer,” Uhlrich said. “He paved the way in terms of music rights, breaking free from his label and releasing music online, etc. Overall, I’d say that the main idea was to start opening the vault and commemorate his legacy, celebrate his fans, and show what a visionary he was. Creating narratives, immersive experiences, and showing how relevant he still is.”
The website serves as a digital archive, a celebration of Prince’s unparalleled creativity and enduring influence. Uhlrich emphasizes that the website is “only the translation of his Creativity.” She adds, “We can all be inspired by Prince, and we tried to be as experimental and creative as approachable as his music was.”
Honoring the Fanbase: Prince2me
Beyond his artistic achievements, Prince’s connection with his fanbase was a crucial aspect of his legacy. Uhlrich and her team recognized the importance of capturing this relationship on Prince.com.
“I’d say that it is his fanbase. People who knew him, who followed his career, who worked with him,” Uhlrich reflects when asked about often overlooked aspects of Prince’s legacy. “We tried to encapsulate this aspect in the microsite called Prince2me. We invited the visitors to leave a message for him. We were inspired by the messages left at Paisley Park when he passed away. It was so moving. We were so grateful for how the site got received; we could really feel how loved Prince was.”
The Prince2me microsite provided a space for fans to express their love and appreciation for the artist, creating a digital memorial that echoed the heartfelt tributes at Paisley Park. This feature underscores the website’s role as a community hub, fostering a sense of connection among Prince’s devoted followers.
A Lasting Impact of Prince’s Music Legacy
Catherine Uhlrich’s work on Prince.com stands as a testament to her skill in translating complex ideas into engaging digital experiences. By embracing the artist’s eclecticism, respecting his innovative spirit, and honoring his connection with his fans, she and her team created a website that truly captures the essence of Prince’s legacy. The project serves as an inspiration to digital designers and a fitting tribute to a musical icon whose influence continues to resonate across the globe.
