BUZZ – On Matters of Searching

By starrymag | June 30, 2023

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) Spiritually bent avant-electronic

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow (Ex Machina, Annihilation), Eric Whitacre, Hanz Zimmer, Sigur Ros, Lorn.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Tears.”

 

A) I was getting ready in my bathroom, and I heard my neighbors hammering followed by what sounded like a saw and the way the sound was caught in the small space between our walls had something that instantly inspired me. I grabbed my phone and recorded it for a while hoping they would hammer harder, saw longer but they stopped shortly after I began recording. Nonetheless, I dropped it into a new session, pulled up a pad I liked and just started singing. It was done in an hour. The rest of the day I stacked vocals into choirs, added harmonies, decided how bold I wanted the bass at the end and took the deepest breaths while stacking the long note at the end. The song has no tempo just like Liberation so there’s no copying and pasting. In the first few minutes of writing it, I sang “with every eye I hide from you” and I knew what the song wanted to be about… I knew I had to talk about my pain, as much as I want to be bigger than it.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) A lot of my music brings about the awareness of us being more than human, more than this reality… but “Tears” is a stark contrast from this message. “Tears” is fragility. We all have pain we don’t want everyone to see but we wish everyone understood.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) The dirt marked white walls, the blurry effects, the chain bodysuit, it feels like everything is desperately saying – “I’m perfect,” “I’m strong,” “Nothing is wrong!” Everything is clearly flawed at the same time having this internal surrender that oozes outwards.

 

Q) What is your songwriting process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) Yes, very rarely do I start with lyrics. I’ll have my mind entertaining a variety of concepts at once swirling around in almost essay form in my brain sometimes for months at a time. The concepts that really transfix me will keep coming up and I’ll draw more conclusions as the days go on. So, when I sit down and play an inspiring progression, lyrics usually fall out because it’s like a purge of whatever’s been in my head.

 

Q) Please tell us the themes you’re exploring on your EP On Matters of Searching.

 

A) Time, death, birth, expansion, nature, astrophysics.

 

Q) Your EP is self-produced — what made you decide to tackle this all on your own?

 

A) As an artist who’s a woman in music, when you collaborate with even one person the industry assumes you did the least work. It’s highly disrespectful. I wanted to do a trust fall onto myself. I wanted to create in the safe place where there’s no one else in the room egging you on to finish, saying what they think is catchy, what will sell. All that to say, the final track “Subconscious” was an absolutely delightful collaboration from start to finish with Lance Shipp who created “Nothing Is Real” with me. I’ll never be against collaborating, but it felt very comfortable to make these songs alone.

 

Q) Which track(s) hold a special significance for you and what makes them hold a place in your heart?

 

A) Honestly every single song has a purpose and an equal special significance to me. Like a painting, each song is the color, the line, the space or the form, all creating a world you can get lost in.

 

Q) What song(s) on the EP challenged you the most creatively?

 

A) “Different Sun” and “Reality” both stayed in a 90% state for the longest time, and it got a bit daunting to take them to the finish line after so many listens where I would envision more of an impact but try a lot of different things and remain unsatisfied for a while.

 

Q) What do you hope lingers with listeners who explore On Matters of Searching as a whole?

 

A) A sense of expansion. A real feeling that as a species we can be bigger than monetary gain, bigger than destruction… that us as a species are from the stars, one of many species in this universe, and are infinitely powerful depending on our mindset.

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) Caroline Polachek!

 

Q) What artist/musician are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) Man, so many! Jamie xx, Pearly Drops, So Below and ARTBAT, just to name a few. I actually have a playlist on my Spotify called “particles” that’s everything I’m jamming.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) It kind of feels like the only way to connect with my fans on a daily basis. They really help me feel like this is all for something bigger than right now.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) Thank you for being one of the deep ones. I know it’s hard to want to connect in a genuine way to your surroundings and witness unhealed or scared people push back on that at times or be unhealed and scared yourself and feel that inner tug. You’re not alone, even when it feels really hard. You’re like nature, you are connected without trying. You are not your thoughts. You are something bigger; we all are. If your happiness feels far, I’ve been there. It won’t last forever. Try with all your might to feel gratitude for the moment again. If your life isn’t what you thought it would be, know it’s never too late for anything and if you’ve seen someone else do what you want to do, you possess that same power. Nature is bigger than what we observe and know, let it help us.