"Those ladders coiled in your sweet body / They hold the secrets, spin the stories / Of how our history
was made / I wanna know what this gasoline was / I wanna know what this gasoline was...
Less than 8 seconds into the reality and surreality of "Our History" by Shannon Hawley, and off of her sophomore album "STARTHROWERS", there is an immutable sense of lives realized through a fantasy life, of imagination as affirmation and affirmation as that hidden key to manifestation. I am thoroughly digging the textured synth sound that drops down on acoustic guitar picking. Those keys that build stairs to somewhere ethereal with other synth sounds, bass tones mirroring the synth melody (at times) creates a wide emotional panorama. Hawley's voice drops in around 20 seconds in with the beat and is instantly magnetic. Her vocal countenance that quivers subtly touches on baroque pop tones feeling both sagely and vulnerable. Not so vulnerable as to break but to bend and not break.
If the song is cast in a fantasy light, in light sci-fi or fantasy rock and that argument could be made by the very cool electric guitar chords that end up holding the persona of the song as much as any other musical stanchion. Kudos to the player, the guitar attacks remind me of Matt Bellamy (Muse). The point when all the aforementioned elements intersect is cool and powerful, artful and so fucking dreamy.
"There’s a woman that you never met / She’s tucked down deep inside your bones / They break down and then they build again / Climb the ladder that your body knows / Now the sirens calling from the deep / And the ambulances on the street / And the street laid on the ground for you / And the ball of fire underneath / We’re always living with the dead, ya know / We’re always living with the dead you know..."
In the end, I don't know what Hawley's poetry is exactly about and, in my mind, it is best unrevealed. I like the idea of everyone who listens taking something else out of the song. It's reach feels historical, mythical, and for me I sense universes creating, shape shifting and us being a part of it all, for good and bad. Closing my eyes, "Our History" gave me chills and that says something.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57rOR3oFUeB0DJezumqFN8
https://www.instagram.com/songandsoundhealing/
https://shannonhawley.bandcamp.com/album/starthrowers
Shannon Hawley’s second studio album STARTHROWERS is a memoir in song with anthemic choruses paying homage to caretakers who did the brave and often overlooked task of loving.
She sings certain phrases with a haunting knowing, the way the word ocean rolls out of her mouth, the sometimes lulling but mostly visceral waves. And the way she comes down on the word bones reminds us of what we are made of - those structures that are always breaking down while they are building. The songs touch on the bittersweetness of life and death and the ones who had to grieve to know what they loved. The honey collector’s heartaches and offerings. Deeply rooted in New Jersey, she wrote the songs while on an epic odyssey from her hometown through Brooklyn, Ithaca, Argentina, Vermont, Los Angeles, California, Costa Rica and then back home again while the world collapsed in on itself and attempts to learn its lessons. The heroine’s journey - where you come home to yourself changed and expanded more than you thought possible - connected through time and space to the ancestors and the earth, the cosmos and the body, and ultimately the new world, ready to heal it and walk each other home.
Her last album “a different kind of progress” with a understated sound and intimate voice was influenced by Rumi, Rilke, Mary Oliver, and Tagore. This time she is drawing mostly from her own life and the lives of her ancestors. She references the deep grief of losing her father at a young age and being the oldest of 5 daughters in Starthrowers . Then there are the detailed slices of life from her relatives and beloved women who died young or were birthing babies during wartime, who worked in poisonous factories, or were widowed and left with 5 girls to raise, who grew up with lifelessness around them and looked to the water - the ocean, the river, ALL of them Love Warriors, all of them Starthrowers. These women were the like mycelium network - the almost invisible threads connecting and sharing resources to all of the tall trees. They were like the murmuration - each bird paying close attention - its unwilting devotion - to the seven birds around them - changing direction of the entire flock, keeping them safe, changing the sky.
Her collaboration with friend and producer Nekter Gun (Hector Gundlach) expands her sound with sparse crashing guitars, layered electronic accents nodding to EDM, her clear voice and and the bold choruses represent the journey.
“Obsessed with magic and spells I attempted to set myself free with these prayer songs. Reclaiming my body as a site of liberation - my throat the bridge between what was brewing in the darkness and the light within me and the mysteries and miracles that happened before me, and are happening all around me. That are me. My voice, my songs - the only way out”
She does it in all her work. “The deep deep work of remembering who we are and what we came here to do. I vow to leave a legacy of generational healing. To say this is a passion project is an understatement. The sacrifices of creating, writing, singing, and seeing this through to fruition are my life’s work.”
Shannon Hawley, singer songwriter, musician, synth pop, indie rock, indie pop, folk, dream pop, new album "STARTHROWERS", "Our History", fantasy, history, mythology, producer Nekter Gun,
No comments:
Post a Comment