"Dappled blue and black / Would you even change?" photo by Shab Ferdowsi
Not A Citizen by L.A. based Changing, the musical project / retro love letter of Taleen Kali (TÜLIPS) and Greg Katz (Cheekface, LA Font) feels like a crashing and love crush of 70 /80 bands and to me I hear early Blondie (circa 76 X-Offender) and a smattering of The Cars and The Vapors (don't hold Turning Japanese against them) or current outfits like Sheer Mag or Smarthearts. It is a sound that I am fond of and thankfully, respectfully Kali and Katz infuse the potent, youthful, angst and raw tones with words that cut deeper than sometimes is the case with this genre.
Not A Citizen is informed by and infused with the feeling of the other, of being exiled with in a place that you live and breathe. Those are feelings that are important to absorb at a time of increased identity politics or everything on the left and right being us or them. There are glimmers of hope though, like the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold DACA. Not A Citizen and Kali's back story about Changing made me sentimental about the explosion of raw music in L.A. from 2006 to 2014 specifically (the amazing Pehrspace that closed in 2014) that seemed less complex and less predatory. The implosion of morals with some of the indie bands currently has made me sad for those years but then maybe it was just as bad and I wasn't looking.
Very, very cool sound by Changing. Totally into this and hope you are too- read Kali's words below:
It was a jaded time – L.A. was changing so much and it didn't feel like the city I grew up in anymore. Pehrspace had shut down, and we didn’t have a spot to play regular shows. Most of these songs are about emotional exile and reclaiming a sense of power, contending with impossible truths. So many school shootings and police brutality was happening that year too, and a lot of harm in our DIY community. I was thinking a lot about what happens in communities when there is harm but no proper support or accountability. How capitalistic and patriarchal structures trickle down even into DIY microcosms. I remember I was reading "Citizen" by Claudia Rankine the afternoon before we went in to write "Not a Citizen." I was thinking a lot about otherness and belonging and citizenship and exile and wanting to learn how to affect change, not having yet learned about transformative justice. "Damage Prone" is inspired by stories of my own, and stories from my friends: very strong women. We've all dated "that guy" who seemed pretty neutral at first and drawn to a strong woman who he's ended up trying to compete with or control, and then at the end, can't. That attitude of possession, entitlement, toxic masculinity, harms everyone involved – and I think the term "damage prone" encapsulated a clapback, and the whole song ended up being built around that lyric.
We made demos of "Damage Prone" and "Not A Citizen" at our practice space and sadly, Greg’s laptop got stolen and they were lost. So we decided to start them from scratch during quarantine and see what would happen. We recorded everything separately in our own homes and sent the files back and forth through the airwaves.
–Taleen
"Not A Citizen / Damage Prone" double single out now by Changing.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Changing is an L.A. love letter to riot grrrl and classic ‘70s-’80s glam rock from the minds who brought you Taleen Kali and Cheekface.
Changing is an L.A. love letter to riot grrrl and classic ‘70s-’80s glam rock. Greg and I started working on these songs in our practice space in Echo Park while we were between projects in 2016. TÜLIPS was about to play our final show at The Regent and I hadn’t gone solo yet, and LA Font was taking a break before Greg ever started Cheekface. Since Greg had produced most of the TÜLIPS catalog we had worked diligently in that practice space together for years, so we decided to see what would happen if we tried our hand at a co-write. We started meeting up and sketching out some song ideas. It felt like a period of great transition, so we decided to call the project Changing.
It was a jaded time – L.A. was changing so much and it didn't feel like the city I grew up in anymore. Pehrspace had shut down, and we didn’t have a spot to play regular shows. Most of these songs are about emotional exile and reclaiming a sense of power, contending with impossible truths. So many school shootings and police brutality was happening that year too, and a lot of harm in our DIY community. I was thinking a lot about what happens in communities when there is harm but no proper support or accountability. How capitalistic and patriarchal structures trickle down even into DIY microcosms. I remember I was reading "Citizen" by Claudia Rankine the afternoon before we went in to write "Not a Citizen." I was thinking a lot about otherness and belonging and citizenship and exile and wanting to learn how to affect change, not having yet learned about transformative justice. "Damage Prone" is inspired by stories of my own, and stories from my friends: very strong women. We've all dated "that guy" who seemed pretty neutral at first and drawn to a strong woman who he's ended up trying to compete with or control, and then at the end, can't. That attitude of possession, entitlement, toxic masculinity, harms everyone involved – and I think the term "damage prone" encapsulated a clapback, and the whole song ended up being built around that lyric.
We made demos of "Damage Prone" and "Not A Citizen" at our practice space and sadly, Greg’s laptop got stolen and they were lost. So we decided to start them from scratch during quarantine and see what would happen. We recorded everything separately in our own homes and sent the files back and forth through the airwaves.
–Taleen
"Not A Citizen / Damage Prone" double single out now by Changing.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Changing is an L.A. love letter to riot grrrl and classic ‘70s-’80s glam rock from the minds who brought you Taleen Kali and Cheekface.
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