Wild Things!! Album 3 has crawled out of my mind and into your ears.
After completing Sisterhood of Darkness and A Villain's Take on Love, I wanted to continue the story with a “Battle of Helms Deep” kind of energy (shout out to my Lord of the Rings fans, you get me.)
In the first song, Viper, I wanted to inspire visions of riding into battle. While in the early stages of this sound, I was collaborating with the etherial Christa Rae, a songwriter and Grief Coach, on a guided meditation. You can listen to it on her YouTube channel here. During this project, she said “if you're going to love, you're going to grieve” and a bomb was dropped on me. Viper captures that moment. The song closes with “smoke and stillness" with the horns.
It's followed by Annoying, a guitar driven sound with structure. It was the song I wrote first for Cherry Flavored Heartbreak. I wanted structure and to be rocked back and forth. This song goes hand in hand with Snarl, a song on Sisterhood of Darkness.
Cruelty was a mixing and mastering BREAKTHROUGH for me. I've been working on the production side of music for a year now, and this just clicked for me. I had written the lyrics for this song while making A Villain's Take on Love. We all have a breaking point, where forgiveness runs dry, and self-respect takes lead.
Ohhh Wild Things, the Interlude that followed was captured in a moment of painful rage. The raw vocal takes on this took me weeks to sort through. For such a short song, it winded me. The guitar captures the tender soreness, and was a huge shift in the creative flow. Never give up, remember to rest, and find places of safe connection.
Wild Bliss. It's BRIGHT and has that zing-zing flavor. Dare I say a sound of trust. The lessons I learned in mixing drum in Cruetly can be heard in the drums in Wild Bliss.
Dance Floor was the last song I wrote for this album. You can see the music video for it here. So much energy was brought forward. I wrote the entire song and filmed within two weeks. I am personally very proud of the drop, and sustaining bass sound.
Time and Space is the crowning jewel of the album for me. SO MUCH EFFORT was put into this song and music video. You can see the video here, the behind the scenes video here. I love this song. It was completed before Cruelty and Wild Bliss. Safe love is a precious thing. I balanced the duality of sexual empowerment and hyper-sexuality through filming. I was forced to face the terror of childhood sexual abuse. I want to know the joys of safe love. Consent is sexy folks!
A huge thank you to Blaze Coutier for collaborating on the album art with me. The terrors of CPTSD rise from the dead, again and again. Coutier captured the warrior that continues to fight, and never give up. You can see more of his art on his instagram @ravenant_creativity. He's currently in the process of making a graphic novel. I've gotten sneak peaks of it. It's as brutal as it is inspiring.
Cherry Flavored Heartbreak is streaming on my website, and is available for purchase here. Every dollar that you give goes to supporting me on my journey as a musician and survivor.
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