What do you consider to be the darkest piece of music you’ve ever heard?
This is a hard question for me to answer because I’m immediately trying to think of the saddest songs. But actually, the saddest I’ve ever felt from listening to music wasn’t because the songs were particularly gut wrenching themselves, but rather I had an emotional reaction to a lyric or I associate a song with something that happened in my day, and now that song is hard to revisit because it takes me back. If I had to pick one, I’d go with Beach House’s “Girl Of The Year”. There’s a lyric in it that says “one goes and the other one knows”. Lyrics aren’t the first thing I listen to in songs so I wasn’t particularly paying attention to the narrative, but that line poked out to me, and by itself it single handedly ripped my heart out the hardest any song has ever done. I’m not even sure that line is actually about what I think it’s about. But to me, it’s just so devastatingly matter-of-fact and viscerally nonchalant. I’ve never recovered from it, I’m still in the same grave it put me in.
How would you characterize your own music?
I used to say my music was existential, in a morbid kind of way, but now it’s becoming more about specific moments in my life instead of the big picture. I’m still reflecting on these moments and internalizing their significance in an existential way, but it’s not particularly as morbid. It can be angry, disgusted, frustrated, but it can be happy, yearning, and self deprecating too. So I’d say right now my music is more expressive. And sonically immersive as fuck of course.
What are your musical aspirations?
I just want to make all the music I can and see all the worlds I can make in my head. I want to keep stretching myself, and figure out how to actualize these worlds and emotions onto paper and with more fluency too. I’m fascinated with songwriting as a craft and that’s where my fire burns from. I’m not one to put too much thought into career goals, because that’s the whole journey vs destination shit. To me, it has to be the journey. And the songs will go where they go, but they have to be made first.
What are your main musical inspirations?
I’m inspired by so many artists. Recently I’ve been inspired by Wet Leg, 100 Gecs, Magdalena Bay, Amy Winehouse, Faye Webster, Sleater-Kinney. I’m all over the place.
What are your main goals in life?
I want to die knowing I did my best and it’s okay if I didn’t.
What motivates you to create?
Creating is my purpose. It happens, and it’s going to keep happening, just like life. I’m always excited to hear what I make next. Because those worlds I was talking about, I don’t know what they are until I make them. I’m constantly surprising myself and it’s addicting.
Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?
I’m absolutely a night owl. It’s pretty bad. I started taking melatonin to force myself to go to sleep recently and it kinda works. It’s crazy how much I crave structure in my life but I constantly have no structure in the sleep department.
Besides music, what other art forms would you like to explore?
I’m really into certain types of fashion. Particularly anything badass and tomboy. I could see myself exploring a clothing line one day.
Which is the very first record that had a big impact on you?
Paramore’s “Brand New Eyes” was the record that taught me drums. I attribute that record, and that whole band, to how I became the type of writer I am today. I learned so much drumming vocabulary, and how drums can speak with other instruments from that record. Rhythm is so important, and rhythm is a group effort. So much interesting shit can happen from how other instruments can weave in and out of another instrument’s rhythm. Music is so much about tension and release, push and pull, establishing symmetry and breaking it. I’m obsessed with achieving these feelings with rhythm and drums, and it all started because of that record.
What is the best decade for music?
I’m fascinated with what music is now. The current decade and what people are doing that’s new. I love being surprised. I think sonic trends can be applied to any piece of music, no matter what decade it was discovered in. And it’s cool when different decades’ trends are used within the same song. I want music to keep blowing my mind and whatever is happening now is theoretically people pulling their favorite trends from all previous decades and making a big trendy soup out of it. That can be really inspiring because that in itself can tear down walls and break expectations and make art you’ve never heard before.
What do your future plans include?
I will release my next album and I will not adopt anymore cats.
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Bathe Alone
Artist photography by Lindsay Thomaston
All questions answered by Bailey Crone
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