photo by Alan Weedon Low
Softly Spoken by Melbourne artist Braille Face (aka Jordan White) feels like a glowing ember of pain and catharsis cast in a pop ballad meets post punk motif. The bass thump and distorted guitar sustains on what sounds like a programmed beat feel wrought from Pixies-esque places but the vast production with pretty scattered piano melodies and soft backing vox feel more pop forward making it all go down easily and maybe sounding overall sadder. It is the latest single to be taken from his forthcoming album "Original Cast Recording", the long-awaited follow-up to his cult 2016 debut album Kōya (and fueled by an amazing DIY animated Official Video created by White himself) is artfully moving and a diorama of his ongoing quest to be / feel better as he reflects:
“Softly Spoken” was written when I was at the pinnacle of deciding to get off medication, and it was like finally working it out. Literally, the chorus is: “I figured out what I need”.
Medication absolutely saved my life - but for me, I didn’t want to keep continuing blindly, to keep trusting that I’m fine, or that I don’t have work to do. It was like: I know what I have to do in order to regain control and take the power back. For me, that moment was about changing the narrative really strongly and saying “OK, I’m not the thing that’s broken here.”
-Robb Donker Curtius
Melbourne artist Braille Face returns with "Softly Spoken." It the latest single to be taken from his forthcoming album Original Cast Recording, the long-awaited follow-up to his cult 2016 debut album Kōya.
It is an urgent and raw guitar-driven song that cuts out the electronic production from his previous releases, and instead links directly back to his formative grunge and indie rock influences, and bands like Dinosaur Jr and Nirvana.
Each song is accompanied by a DIY video made by Braille Face himself, who flexes some impressive new animation skills learned during lockdown.
In the words of Braille Face (aka Jordan White):
"For these songs – the double single – they’re both really raw, and urgent.
“Softly Spoken” was written when I was at the pinnacle of deciding to get off medication, and it was like finally working it out. Literally, the chorus is: “I figured out what I need”.
Medication absolutely saved my life - but for me, I didn’t want to keep continuing blindly, to keep trusting that I’m fine, or that I don’t have work to do. It was like: I know what I have to do in order to regain control and take the power back. For me, that moment was about changing the narrative really strongly and saying “OK, I’m not the thing that’s broken here.”
“Love, You Don’t Know What You Love” is just about the fear and the doubt that comes with falling in love and making yourself vulnerable to someone else. It's about not trusting that someone can fall in love with you if you don’t love yourself.
Both of the songs are coming from a place of really wanting to get the point across – they’re not shying away. It felt really appropriate to put them together for that reason.
It's also a sonic choice. Up until now, Braille Face has been pinned as an electronic music project, but these songs are going back to earlier influences. For me, there’s a raw energy that comes from playing guitar and singing, that I’ve not explored with this project yet."
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