070 Shake represents a duality between inner darkness and light, between nature and urban sprawl, lucid thought and hazy dream state, vulnerability and self-assuredness. As an artist and innovator, she represents the deconstruction of harsh binaries and the forging of a new liminal space where expression and acceptance roam free. With her first two albums Modus Vivendi (2020) and You Can’t Kill Me (2022), 070 Shake established herself as one of the world’s rare popular innovators in music, following in the footsteps of genre bending artists before her. Since the release of these two albums, she has collaborated with artists such as Fred Again on Danielle (2022) and on RAYE’s hit single Escapism. (2023) as well as collaborations with Christine and the Queens album on Paranoïa, Angels, True Love (2023). Amongst this output, her singles Black Dress and Natural Habitat started to weave a new thread of creativity for 070 Shake, hinting at an emerging personal project.
Interview taken from METAL Magazine issue 50. Adapted for the online version. Order your copy here.
It’s interesting to find an artist who has broken through onto the scene in such an expansive way, yet has remained deeply introspective and personal in her writing. With her new music, she has doubled down on the reason why she creates music to begin with: to make sense of her own thoughts and emotions. The new album reveals how much music allows you to express the indescribable or what is often tricky to voice in any other way. Music is often like a portal through which our feelings can be communicated, when simple words do not suffice.
In this digital age, we often find ourselves searching for meaning, attention, or validation online, forgetting to focus on the tangible and real things right in front of us. 070 Shake doesn’t seem to have that problem, having decided to become more off-grid in terms of her approach to technology and re-focusing on what she holds important: family, a deep and meaningful connection with nature, an open and loving spirituality, an embracing of the loving relationships around her, and a rejection of the pitfalls of modernity and technology. This approach to life undoubtedly feeds into her style of relationship with musical collaborators, as well as her recording and song writing process. No wonder 070 Shake stated that “rather than say it’s the most hopeful, it’s the most personal album that I’ve created”.
The day before the interview commenced, a few demos dropped into my inbox, many with unconfirmed titles which could change at any moment. As the sun streamed around me, I sat and soaked in this goldmine of new sounds. Field recordings of nature swirled, a more instrumental approach to music had developed with heavier use of piano. It is the sound of someone falling honestly in love. Any idea of rose tinted pretence is stripped away, making room for a rawness and beauty in imperfection in sound itself. Often as you fall into someone, internal conflicts don’t just disappear, and tending to yourself is still paramount. 070 Shake doesn’t flinch away from the emotional darkness inside of her, for everyone has that. What is important to note is that this doesn’t mean there is an absence of light in this darkness. She accepts rawness and imperfection in her music just as she does in her life.
I chatted to 070 Shake in the midst of her creative process, where new sounds were being forged and visual ideas were sparking around her head. We discussed her refreshing understanding of the responsibility of an artist putting out music and how this can influence people, without shying away from being honest about feelings of inner turmoil. She spoke to me about her idea of music as an artefact left behind, something palpable that can be felt even after you are gone, and how this informs her belief in staying true to herself and the music. Although romantic love is at the forefront as inspiration for the album, 070 Shake holds her musical relationships, such as mutual mentorship with her collaborators, as key to helping her grow and realise her musical vision. For an artist who is often shrouded in popular misconceptions and ideas of purposeful opaque abstraction, we find 070 Shake tuned into herself, her art, and focused more than ever on delivering something which feels true to herself. The message is clear, you just need to listen to it all the way through.
I heard you are living quite an off-grid lifestyle at the moment.
All the time, you know (laughs).
Is that in terms of keeping a distance from technology or where you are based?
I wouldn’t really say that I’m off the grid because in my personal life, I’m very much present with the people that are in my life. When it comes to everybody else knowing what I’m doing, then yes. I’m not in a cave somewhere, I’m right here.
When you approach your social media, do you imagine it as a different person or as a different version of yourself?
I think it’s me whenever I do interact with it, that’s why I’m mostly quiet on it.
Are you still in the middle of the recording process for the new album?
Yes, I am.
I really enjoyed the tracks that I got sent over.
Oh, did they send you some songs?
I’ve got five tracks.
Oh, shit. Okay, cool. That’s awesome. Are you fucking with it? Are you liking the sound?
For sure! I was having a really beautiful walk in the sun to Into Your Garden, that was really nice. There are a lot of spring blossoms at the moment in London.
Oh, thank you, man. I’m glad you said you were walking around and listening to it because I think a big part of the music is how it exists in the world and how it feels when you’re out in the world. That’s my favourite way to listen to music, putting the headphones on and just walking around.
Do you ever do that with your own songs when making them?
I do it sometimes. I try to do it in doses because a lot of the time I’m not much of a consumer of my own work because I spend so much time working on it. I’ll spend so much time even just on one song, so I can’t really listen to it in the same way as everybody else. But there will be a time when I’ve taken a break from the studio, for example, when I was in Paris and I wasn’t really working on music. I put headphones on and listened to the songs, and it felt really good.
That must be such a rewarding feeling. It’s interesting how when you’re creating a track or an album that you come to appreciate silence more. How do you make sure you have purposeful time away from music?
It just happens organically. I’m very much like a let the wind take me kind of person. For example, if I’m travelling then I know that I’m meant to just be away from the studio for a while and I adapt to that but I don’t really plan on things like that.
I was interested in hearing the tracks and how you’re continuing to meld different genres together. It made me wonder, do you think genre has a place in society anymore?
I think that we’re coming to a place in music where it’s almost like basketball or just everything really. Obviously, we’re evolving as human beings and when I watch basketball, the players are doing so many different things these days. Back then, there weren’t seven foot players that were shooting from the three point line or doing drills to get better at shooting three point lines. The big players, back in the day, would just be in the paint and doing layups and that’s all they could do. Now people are realising, oh, I could be seven feet, and I could shoot from the three point line. I think the same thing is happening in music where we’re realising, wait why are we so attached to genre? let’s just do exactly what we feel. I think people have had success with that over the years and I think it’s now becoming more free as human beings in general are, although in the same vein not everything’s gonna be like that because you have duality. As far as the arts, everybody’s kind of being like, wait, why do I have to dress like a girl? Or why do I have to dress like a boy? In general, we’re waking up and being like, Oh, actually, I don’t have to belong to anything, and I can just be completely free.
Did you have to unlearn the binaries to be able to get to that level in your work or was it something that just came naturally?
I never had anything to lose coming into making music because I didn’t even know I was going to succeed. I was just doing it for fun. I never would have imagined that I would actually succeed. So, because of not having that fear of failing, because I wasn’t even aware of the possibility of success, from the jump I was not really giving a fuck and being completely myself.
How do you feel now in comparison?
I think I’ve even gone so much deeper into myself and exploring all the possibilities and having such a fun time experimenting. I’ve just become more weird throughout the years is what I’m trying to say.
Going back to the album, do you have preconceived notions of theme or narrative or is it something you find out later?
Well, yes and no. This album process in particular has been a passion project for me. It’s a concept that I’ve been developing for a couple years. As you know, the album is called Petrichor and it’s something that I’ve been developing since even before my last album. There’s a theme to it as far as the colours, visuals and character in this phase but I’ve never been premeditative as far as the music itself. There’s not a direction as far as the music, it’s just what I want things to feel like. I allow myself to be completely free in that space. If I have a theme and I’m very specific about what I want the music to sound like, then it’s only going to be that. Whereas if I’m more open minded, and allow it to take its course, I can make anything, even things that I didn’t even think of.
Have you made tracks that feel like they just don’t fit in the album but you still want to use them in other projects?
Absolutely, there’s hundreds of songs that I’ve made that I find to be beautiful but they’ll just never see the light of day. Some music is just not meant to. This project is what I’m putting out for the world and I really have to build it and it has to be perfect in my eyes. The songs have to go into one another and if one song feels out of place then it almost feels like my whole life is out of place. I’m very much like an album maker. I’m not really in the business of singles. One of the most important parts of this process is not the structure of the songs within themselves but how they fit into each other as a whole. There’s a lot of songs that don’t make it not because they’re not good enough, but they just don’t fit the story.
So, is the ideal for someone to listen to it all the way through?
Absolutely because that’s the story. If you don’t listen to it all the way through, then it’s a little confusing. It’s almost like watching scenes of a movie like, oh, watch this scene. I love this scene, or watch this other scene, but you’re not watching the movie fully. Even though the scene is beautiful, you are not seeing the big picture.
Are you quite a vinyl head because that is a format in which you usually listen to the whole album?
Right now, me and my girl just moved in together and we haven’t got the vinyl setup yet. Once we do get the vinyl setup, I love to just put on a vinyl and listen to an album the whole way through.
It’s interesting when you listen to a record because halfway through you have to turn it and there’s that break in the listening to flip it over. Is that something that you think about when you’re creating an album?
I actually never really think about that, actually that’s a good point, really interesting. I never really saw my music as something that’s on a record even though I do have records and I do have vinyl. I never, I just never even realised that people listen to my music on records, you know?
You were saying some things previously that I really wanted to dig into about there being different colours associated with the project. What kind of colours are coming up for you?
Burgundy is the main colour of this album and best represents this phase. There’s other colours, maybe blue and yellow but burgundy is the main colour.
Is there a reason why?
I think I have a form of synaesthesia where I’ll hear a word or a song and it’ll be matched with a colour. When I heard Petrichor, I thought of the colour burgundy.
How did you come across that word?
Since I was young, every single time that it rained, my mum would bring me outside and be like: “Smell that”. Growing up in DR (Dominican Republic), it always smelled like petrichor because it rains so much there. There would be periods of time where it’s dry, and then it would rain, so you really smell it. The smell is produced when the rain hits the dirt and the ground. One day I was just wondering if there’s a name for this and then I looked it up and I saw petrichor and I fell in love with the word, it’s such a beautiful word.
It seems like nature often comes up thematically in your music and visuals. Do you feel like you convey emotions through using natural elements?
I think so, because there’s nothing more beautiful in the world. I think that when I’m in nature, it also reminds me of my personal beliefs. When I see mountains, I’m like, wow this is God. Everything else that we see throughout the day is man-made, we see the houses, we see the cars, we see the stores, the light poles, and electricity wires and shit. But then, when I’m in nature, I think this is not man-made, this is bigger than us, like whatever created this is the greatest artist.
Is it quite comforting?
It’s so comforting. It just feels so beautiful. It just makes me really appreciate life in a way. You get trapped in this matrix. There’s a thing about the way that humanity creates things like little boxes. You see all this geometry. I bet in the room that you’re in now, there’s squares everywhere, like in the architecture; there’s windows that are either squares or rectangles and then the chair that you’re sitting on it’s a square. The room I’m in right now, I’m on this rug that’s like a big rectangle and under the rug it’s these tiles that are big squares. It’s just these shapes that are just everywhere. I don’t like that.
It sounds quite claustrophobic in a way.
It just makes me feel weird. It makes me uncomfortable if I think about it too much. That’s why when I’m in nature, I feel completely free from whatever kind of matrix that has been created for me to live in.
When you’re out in nature do you ever sing to yourself or does music come naturally when you’re in those scenarios?
In those moments, I tend to really appreciate silence, not just silence but whatever the sound is that the world is bringing. Whether it is the wind or the birds, I kind of just tend to appreciate that.
Do you ever want to bring those sounds into your project?
Absolutely and I do. In Into Your Garden, at the end of it, it starts raining and I just incorporate stuff like that. Like you said, there’s nature in the music.
You also reference different elements in your lyrics in that song, for example, with the “burning flowers”.
And then even in Sin there’s a lyric: “If wood could turn to paper, we could turn to lovers.” So there are all these kinds of references with nature.
I think they’re really beautiful. So what is Into Your Garden about?
Into Your Garden was really about when I first met my girlfriend, it’s the first song I ever wrote for her. So I say, let me burn all of your flowers. I’m saying your past, let me burn all of that and then I’ll plant a new seed for you. (Turns to speak to Lily-Rose Depp) Baby, why are you so quiet over there? She heard me talking about this and she gets all quiet trying to hear what I’m saying (laughs). So that was me being like, I’m coming into your garden, into your world, not trying to be provocative but yeah into you.
So nature is coming in sonically and lyrically but how is the album coming together visually?
That’s the phase I’m in right now. It’s coming together (laughs). It’s gonna come together!
What kind of references are coming up for you at the moment?
Oh man so many fucking references. I’ve been trying to watch some movies. Me and my girl watched this movie the other day that I really liked visually called Y tu mamá también. I’m liking more of these personal movies where it just feels like real life and I think that’s the approach I want to take for the visuals. Even me taking videos I want it to just feel very simple because the music speaks for itself.
Is the music completely focused on your life because you mentioned the idea of a character for the album?
There is a character as far as aesthetic purposes and how I want to present myself and my live shows but the music is very much reflective of my life.
So, when you’re in a live setting or in a music video do you feel like you have a different character that you’ve developed?
Not so intensely but there’s gonna be little things that I want to really go into the theatrics of. It’s me but in a more theatrical way.
I know you’ve played some of these tracks live but with these unreleased songs, have you had much of a thought about how it’s gonna come into the live setting?
I’ve been thinking about that a lot and I think that’s one of the aspects of my music that I really want to focus on the most, that live experience. I have so much room to grow in that area and that’s one of the most important things to me going into this next phase.
Why does it feel so important to you?
Because I think it’s everything. When you see all the greatest artists that I’ve strived to be like, what made them different, was that live experience. I just want to bring that back to the world. I know a lot of artists are doing that and I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of the artists of my generation that really just made a difference when you go and see them live.
You talked a little bit about a sense of spirituality. Where does this come from?
Since I could remember, my family and I used to go to church about three times a week. It wasn’t just Sunday, we would go to Bible study Tuesday and Thursday and my mum worked at the church. My sister to this day works at the church that’s her one and only job. My aunt and uncle, they’re pastors, and I was very close to them. So, I’ve just grown up in the church. Obviously, I don’t relate to all of the beliefs, but I definitely take in the spiritual aspect from that experience and I have made it my own.
There seems to be a prominent idea in your lyrics that everything and everyone is interconnected and that there is resulting alleviation of stress, similar to an ego death. Is that a correct interpretation?
Absolutely. I mean, I’ve never thought about it like that but that’s definitely what it feels like for me as well.
Is that something that you think about when you’re feeling stressed? That everything’s interconnected? Not that things are meaningless because they aren’t but that…
Like everything is laughable at a certain point nothing’s really that serious? I feel like that, but I also feel that intensely so it still feels important – even the idea that nothing is really that important, feels important to me, you know?
You’ve previously mentioned that you see your music at a frequency that connects with things already existing at that frequency. What else in the world is at that frequency? Are there certain things that you’re trying to change through your music in terms of how it connects and reaches people and the world around you?
I feel like all I can really do is be as true to myself as possible and make good decisions. I’ll go back to things and even try to higher the frequency within myself and within the music. I’m very aware of the responsibility that I have when I’m putting out music. I want people to feel it’s healing in a way, I don’t want to put out negative energy in my music. I’ve always felt that, even through the things that I’ve struggled with. It always comes from a perspective of this happened to me, and I’m healing from it, but I’m never glorifying dark things.
I think that really comes across in the music. Even though the aesthetics are quite dark, the lyrics are quite hopeful.
Type shit and I love that because there is the reality of a darkness that’s within me, that’s a real thing, or sadness or whatever it is. That’s the reality, but I don’t glorify it. That’s why I try to have a healthy balance with the music. There is something that feels dark about this, but for some reason, it’s making me feel good.
Do you feel like this coming album is your most hopeful yet?
I don’t know if hopeful is the word. Some of it is hopeful but then sometimes you get dragged back into the darkness. It’s just real, I’m not pretending to be anything. I’m not pretending to be a saviour and that’s what I love. There are moments in the album where I seem super like everything is going to be fine, and then you get dragged back into, oh, I’m having these crazy thoughts. So, it’s a real human experience.
Would it be fair to say that most of the album has to do with your relationship at the moment or relationships in general?
Yeah, for sure! It’s definitely based around my relationship that I have right now.
How does that feel, processing that, and the idea of putting those feelings out there?
I think it just feels good because I feel happy that I love someone this much and I’m able to express to them through music how much I feel for her. I really love the idea that even if I can’t say it in words, I’m happy that I can express it to her through music. It really is personal to me. I’m not really thinking people are going to like this because it’s personal. It’s almost like a letter that I’m writing to her, it’s not even about everybody else, it’s for her. Everyone’s gonna be able to experience it and listen to it but it’s more personal to me. This album, rather than saying it’s the most hopeful, is the most personal album that I’ve created.
I think it’s important to block out everything else and just focus on what feels right for you. That’s how things end up being timeless and you at least feel happy with the outcome.
It’s about the intention. We’ve been here for long enough to know that nothing is forever so let’s just do things for the right reasons. Not for money, fame, or these worldly things. I want to express to this person how much I love them and that’s what is going to keep me alive. I can’t do it for any other reason. I can’t even imagine creating music for money. I just don’t know what that looks like for me. What moves me is to express my love to this person and that’s just gonna live forever, because you know one day I’m not gonna be here anymore. My love will still exist because it’s almost how you liquidise money and put it into a painting. You buy it so that money’s there forever. That’s how I feel about love and music. Like I put my love into the music so that it can live forever, even when I’m gone.
In Blood on your Hands, you talked about the idea of soulmates. Do you believe in soulmates?
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Do you believe in just one soulmate? Or is it something that you see as more universal?
I don’t know, everybody’s experience is different. But I feel that I have one soulmate. If somebody else wants to have a couple of different soulmates that’s cool for them, but not for me.
Does it feel quite reassuring knowing that?
It’s just beautiful. I’m more focused on what it is rather than what it’s not. I don’t really see it as a reassuring thing, I just see it as this is beautiful.
I wanted to chat about the other partnerships you have, such as your creative partnerships on the album. You’ve worked a lot with Dave Hamelin, is he continuing on this album?
Absolutely. Hopefully I never have to make music without him.
How do you find it? Are you working with one producer or do you work with multiple?
It’s me and him for the most part but we work with different composers. So, throughout the album, there’s three different composers, Teodor Kobakov, Jacob Mühlrad, and Johan Lenox. He’s the main composer that I work with.
How do you find these creative relationships? Do they change as things move on?
I really seek it out and work with classical musicians, people that really understand music theory, because I think that works for the type of music that I strive to make. When people are looking out for people that do great drums or 808s, sure, they’re bound to find them. I met Jacob when I was in Stockholm through one of my buddies, Alex, who’s a director. I was just like, who does the music here? And then Alex put me in touch with him. I really do appreciate the classical element. I think it really does help a lot with the music.
Is there any new instrumentation that you’ve played around with on the record?
Yeah, throughout the album I’ve been incorporating piano in a very beautiful way. A lot more live drums and strings. We’ve been using pedal steel, as well. Pedal steel is such a beautiful instrument.
What is that?
It’s hard to explain, if you look it up and hear the sound you’ll recognise it.
Quickly Googles) Oh, wow this is crazy. So is it kind of like a slide guitar?
Exactly. It actually sounds like a slide guitar but different.
Beautiful. How do you find your working relationship with these people? Is it a mentorship role or do you feel like you’re equals?
I think both. For me and Dave specifically, we both mentor each other. I think we both kind of play that role.
In general, it seems that you collaborate with a huge amount of artists. Why does collaboration feel so important to you?
You can’t do anything without collaborating. Collaboration especially in the arts is like, I can’t do anything by myself or I can but it just won’t be as good. I think in every form, the more people the better.
To finish, how do you visualise your own emotions? And if you could, how would they look?
Right now?
Yeah.
Inside, I feel very invested in this project. I just immediately thought of the colour like burgundy when you said that. That’s what I feel like inside.
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