Abyss X

Thank you for your kind words. I think I could summarise the concept of the album as an ode to allowing oneself to rebel against self projected notions of what freedom of being and loving should feel like according to current delusionary mainstream standards. Can you really liberate yourself especially as a woman from societal pressures in your everyday life and when making important decisions and how do you navigate womxnhood alongside your biological clock? This album is definitely directed towards a more grown audience.
We live in precarious and spiralling times where individuality, radical approaches towards creative expression and bold opinions are pretty much obliterated, creatives are playing it safe and there’s a veil of irony over everything to avoid getting political. But the beauty of speaking one’s truth lies in its raw, unfiltered and free nature, so do you feel like you can express yourself in line with your moral compass and your idiosyncrasies? Can you actually navigate deep love and true commitment freely? How can we experience high vibrational states of being as individuals and women when feminism slash female empowerment in the current visual realm inherently serve as facades for male-gaze-pleasing campaigns? Freedom Doll is ultimately a piece of raw, no-fucks-given collection of ideas around pleasure, fulfilment, hope, love, aspirations, heartbreak, loneliness, etc.

I have a constant itch for creative challenges and I like to research different subcultures and dig out elements that resonate with me. Then I give this melange of ideas meaning by injecting my personal creative touch. I’m not compartmentalising, I’m actually throwing everything in one pandora’s box and when it’s time to share with the world I open it. I love contradiction and I love punk, again it’s about freedom of expression and finding pleasure in taking risks. I like to keep it volcanic, like lava turns to glass or rock, transformation is an essential ingredient for earnest creative expression.

I think again, it’s the recurring theme of contradiction. The change of landscape (urban or natural) shows you what exists out there, like a bittersweet metaphor of how you can live your life if you choose to keep moving. That knowledge ultimately translates in my craft. I like to have a routine wherever I go even if it’s a short stay and that instantly brings me at ease with the change of my surroundings. So I think there’s a common denominator between all the different styles of music or disciplines I choose to explore and it comes from building a solid, grounding relationship with my emotional and mental core, my essence as a woman, my psyche. I feel like this solid base is actually a coping mechanism for excess physical mobility.

I think confronting one’s worries about the future is a valid act of vulnerability. We are all somewhat conditioned to be suspicious towards discourse around the longevity of love, commitment, compromise, ego taming, we are all in survival mode. Which means there isn’t much freedom in expression to begin with - I had some very traumatising yet eye opening experiences while I was writing this album and I needed to channel all the angst in a way that would be healing and constructive. The biological clock for a woman, can be set off in different stages in her life and confronting it can bring you to a very vulnerable state.

I was on psychedelics in the Mayan jungle, near where I was residing during an artist residency. I was going through a very emotional time and when I saw the tree its formation immediately resonated with me. There was something dark and chaotic about its build but at the same time it felt inviting. It looked like a breathing alien body ready to shelter me and so I did go inside its natural hut and immediately I felt its tenderness. After that encounter I named the track Banyana after that tree as it represented transforming my internal chaos into healing energy.

Again it goes back to the recurring theme of contradiction in my work and the idea of taking risks in order to reach a high vibrational state, a state of freedom. It’s about finding the courage within order to overcome temptations of [a] self-destructive nature, separating the bullshit from the truth, delving deep below the surface of mainstream culture.

It’s not easy but it’s not supposed to be either - I think it’s important to stay involved in matters of universal significance and to incorporate messages of more profound nature in one’s work when there’s an opportunity to do so. As much as I am political in my art I’m also in personal life. Confronting the mishandling of one’s integrity and certain acts of disrespect within interpersonal relationships as well as in the workplace is a way to make the world a more vibrant place, where you feel free to exist and to breathe. I can’t just sit around wearing a clown wig all day and pretend like everything is ok. I’d rather put myself out there as a quote unquote radical, life is more joyous and fulfilling that way.

It’s definitely giving hellscape in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier, everyone is too scared to be honest about how jarring life feels within the capitalist-fuelled race we’re all thrown into and I think it’s become more and more a coping mechanism for the people and the artists. In ancient Greece theatre and comedy were there to shed light and comment on the social ills of their times. And that ‘s what also music did until the early 2000s. Somehow the music industry has since turned into a lukewarm soup of cliches and safe options and it’s quite misleading for the younger generations that have no fab role models to draw inspiration from.

I love working with people that come from very different worlds artistically to mine - different sonic references and music genre passions, it’s an eye opening experience and when your vibrations are in sync it feels like pure magic, it’s quite liberating and transcendental.

I invited Juliana to come to the studio for a session one day and she brought a number of poems she had written over the past few years - many of which were love poems. We sat down and read all of them and made a selection that became the vocals for those two tracks. We recorded everything on that very day. I’m so blissed that Juliana trusted me with such personal material, I think the emotion and vulnerability radiate through her vocal performance, especially on Never Apart.
I feel like our idiosyncrasies are somehow in sync and we share similar views towards life, love, freedom of being etc. You know when we first met we spent nein hours conversing from 10 pm into the morning after –that’s how we knew we were sisters. I’m grateful that since day one she has been very supportive of my festival and my artistic endeavours and our sisterhood has definitely been the backbone for the communal vibe of the festival.

There was something in the melody of the chorus that brought a very soul driven chant like energy and as I love to harmonise, I built these canons for the vocals that gave the track a bright and explosive twist. I wanted the album to have a soul nourishing, cathartic essence and a hopeful nuance, where there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I believe that even in times of grief and heavy emotional unloading, overcoming one’s fear of failure and disappointment will later catapult them into greater reaches of spiritual awakening and contentment.

Bull leaping was an inherently male act in the ancient Minoan times, an exhibitory play of mastery on Nature. In my world, The Minoan Woman, also Gaia, takes the seat of the bull leaper and rides the bull into a voluptuous new world, where the descendant man dominated past turns into a femme fuelled buoyant future. I wanted the visual content to fully manifest the lush properties of the music and the vocals radiating throughout the album and to communicate vibrant ideas of self-love and emotional vigorousness.

I will be bringing the radical ideas behind Freedom Doll to the stage with a global tour.