"she's a fairy sings at night..."
I love music that transports you somewhere and "Goth" by Alberta based Moral Pleasures, the solo project of Ryan McKinley (Pkew Pkew Pkew), does just that. And it is not only because of the dreamscapist ethereal sound but the organic flavors he incorporates in this piece of oneironautical theater. The acoustic piano sounds, acoustic guitar and even plaintive harmonica feel anchored in a sort of 70's folk pop motif. I also love McKinley's vocal aesthetic with what sounds like his own self harmonies or maybe ghosts from the past lending their voices.
McKinley shares: “Goth” is more about celebrating youth while you’ve got it. When you’re young, experiences and relationships are so intense and you’re so carefree, but that part of life doesn’t last very long. By the time you’re around 30, you start to look back on your youth as this huge part of who you are that you can never go back to because you dare not behave like that again. I was reading a lot of Irish mythology and fairy tales at this time, so there’s a lot of that injected into this song."
"Goth" is from Moral Pleasures sophomore EP, "Sleepy Songs for Dying Loves" set to drop June 11th, 2021.
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://www.instagram.com/moralplsrsmusic/
"Goth" is a cerebral slow burner with an early 00's-era dream pop angst. Mixing gritty guitar distortion with hard-hitting acoustic strums and harmonica, Moral Pleasures creates a moody soundscape for a mythological exploration of youth and its deterioration.
On the track, McKinley says: “Goth” is more about celebrating youth while you’ve got it. When you’re young, experiences and relationships are so intense and you’re so carefree, but that part of life doesn’t last very long. By the time you’re around 30, you start to look back on your youth as this huge part of who you are that you can never go back to because you dare not behave like that again. I was reading a lot of Irish mythology and fairy tales at this time, so there’s a lot of that injected into this song."
And on his production process, McKinley shares: "There’s really only two parts and an ending to this one, so I wrote the music first on guitar, which probably only took 20 minutes. If you strip away the other stuff, it kind of sounds like something you’d hear in a folk/country song, which is why I put a harmonica solo in it. Everything else I did musically was to pull it in the opposite direction. There are strings, a Synclavier with a bunch of filters on it, and a Sonic Youth-inspired guitar part that give some depth. I added the percussion at the very end to give it a greater feeling of space that it was lacking."
Sleepy Songs For Dying Loves is a short collection of simple and dream-like love songs told from various perspectives, times, and places. Diverting from the typical love song tropes, McKinley veers away from themes of straight-up heartbreak, deceit, and lust, taking a more psychological and existential approach, confronting the problem of mortality in the face of love and happiness.
In the collection of cerebral songs, McKinley masterfully weaves together references to art, poetry, literature, and psychology through a nostalgic (but not rose-tinted) lens. Written in a week-long stint cooped up at home in Alberta in January, themes of longing and dreams resurface throughout the five tracks, glued together with an overarching ambient sonic pallette. Combining his love for "weird neo-classical and ambient electronic music," synth pads and drones pervade the undercurrents of the record, giving it a spacey, ethereal energy. The EP was written, produced, recorded, and mixed entirely by McKinley in his home studio, and was mastered by Jon Drew (Fucked Up, Tokyo Police Club, Pkew Pkew Pkew).
Moral Pleasures, Dream Pop, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, 70's folk pop, Alberta Canada, EP "Sleepy Songs for Dying Loves", "Goth", oneironautical theater
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