Track Of The Day: Ethel Cain – ‘Strangers’

An emotive, bittersweet lament about the cyclical nature of love and life, American songwriter Ethel Cain has shared her latest single ‘Strangers’. The closing track to her highly anticipated debut album, Preacher’s Daughter, which is set for release on 12th May via her own imprint Daughters of Cain, the track is tinged with Cain’s irresistible trademark melancholy, made all the more affecting by her yearning, passionate vocals.

“This is the second song I wrote for this record, without the intention that it would become the ending,” Cain explains about ‘Strangers’. “Looking back, I can’t imagine a more perfect resolution to this lineage. I think subconsciously, this song was always the end of the road. It’s the realization that some things cannot be avoided, only accepted, and that just because it isn’t a happy ending, doesn’t mean it’s a bad one. There is an ending in every beginning, and all things come back around in one strange way or another. You can’t change your past, nor anyone else’s and the only real strength you have in this lifetime is your forgiveness.”

Unravelling over the course of almost six minutes like her previous offering ‘Gibson Girl’, on ‘Strangers’ Cain candidly asks listeners “am I making you feel sick?” over lavish, swirling guitar riffs and atmospheric cymbal crashes. Laced with a palpable desire, it’s a poignant rumination on how time affects our perspective on relationships with others and with ourselves, weaved together by Cain’s exquisite vocal delivery and intimate lyrics.

On Preacher’s Daughter, which she wrote and produced herself, Cain paints a portrait of a brilliant and deeply empathetic artist, committed to telling the story of “a flawed family plagued by human nature and the Southern soil on which it all plays out.”

Listen to ‘Strangers’ below.

Follow Ethel Cain on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Ethel Cain

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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ALBUM: Bodega – ‘Broken Equipment’

Sardonic New York art-punk collective BODEGA have an insatiable appetite for philosophy, and with their latest LP Broken Equipment, they have interrogated their own identities – and the external technological influences that shape the band – with self-aware pretentious wit, techno-scepticism and scathing social commentary. The result is a wordy concept album of sorts set in NYC; a collection of cynical anti-establishment post-punk.

Following the dissolution of their previous band Bodega Bay and BODEGA’s formation in 2016, Ben Hozie and Nikki Belfiglio’s satirical musings – like those pondered on their 2018 debut Endless Scroll and 2019 extended play Shiny New Model – never shy away from self-critique. Opening their sophomore album with a dance-punk ode to identity, Hozie tries desperately to understand himself and the constant challenges NYC flings his way on ‘Thrown’. “My molecules change yet I remain / I weave and unweave my image.”

Atop an infectious twangy bassline courtesy of philosophy professor (and ‘de facto’ leader of BODEGA’s philosophy book club) Adam See, and Tai Lee’s percussive strikes, Hozie sneers at NYC’s culture of never-ending productivity in ‘Doer’, spitting out a Daft Punk-esque mantra that the city is maybe making him “bitter, harder, fatter, stressed out!” BODEGA’s sarcastic humour shines throughout their anthemic Beastie Boys/Run-DMC-style throwback (“Innovation waits for no man / Unless I lose my dongle!”), providing us with a New York slice of relatable satire.

Belfiglio takes on lead vocals for ‘Territorial Call of the Female’, dissecting female competition “because you know when the man is around / that’s when I’m putting you down.” Alternating between snarky and sweet with ease, Belfiglio’s expressionist vocalisation is complimented by Daniel Ryan’s angular new wave lead guitar lines and tone (referred to as the “insectoid” sound). This melodic sensibility continues on ‘NYC (disambiguation)’ with BODEGA taking a softer direction that is often at odds with their lyrical anger and disappointment; an honest look at NYC’s history.

Released in multiple languages prior to the LP’s release, ‘Statuette on the Console’ is another Belfiglio-sung highlight that ponders “anyone who puts their reality on your back and forces you to carry it around,” followed by the hip hop bounce of ‘C.I.R.P.’; Belfiglio and Hozie tag-teaming lyrics and wrestling media elitism whilst See, Lee, and Ryan provide ringside support with pulsating bass grooves, driving beats, and propulsive riffs.

The Cult-like love song ‘Pillar on the Bridge of You’ and The Velvet Underground inspired ‘All Past Lovers’ continue Hozie and Belfiglio’s journey of self-discovery in NYC, tackling relationships new and old, whilst ‘How Can I Help Ya?’, ‘No Blade of Grass’, and ‘Seneca The Stoic’ allow BODEGA to show off their rock and roll chops; Ryan shredding his way through the band’s ceaseless punk energy. But it is Broken Equipment’s closer, ‘After Jane’, that will leave a lasting impression.

Picking up the acoustic guitar, Hozie reflects honestly on his relationship with his mother for the album’s heartfelt final track; an emotionally raw realisation that after her death, her grace and pain now reside within him – “I’m channeling your hurt when I sing my songs” – It’s a sombre ending to an otherwise biting social satire, told through the ethos of punk rock.

BODEGA is a philosophical project and Broken Equipment is their latest thesis; an analysis of the changes occurring around us at an accelerated pace that directly inform our life experiences. Perhaps we’re the broken equipment.

Follow Bodega on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Pooneh Ghana

Ken Wynne
@Ken_Wynne

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INTRODUCING INTERVIEW: x/o

A creative polymath with a curious mind, Vietnamese-Canadian producer, vocalist and filmmaker x/o creates cinematic electronic soundscapes exploring the revelations and challenges that come with undergoing a personal metamorphosis. Their debut album, Chaos Butterfly, is an altruistic journey towards self-acceptance, full of eclectic beats, urgent vocals and a myriad of synthetic sounds. We caught up with x/o to talk about their new record, what inspired the sound of Chaos Butterfly, and the importance of duality within their work…

 

What are your earliest memories of making music? Can you remember who or what inspired you to start creating your own sounds?

When I was little, my family introduced me to karaoke and Vietnamese variety shows like Paris by Night and I was obsessed. I remember telling my mom I wanted to either be a singer on Paris by Night or a computer programmer. It’s funny how producing electronic music in the present day still makes sense to my childhood dreams. But strangely enough, as obsessed with music as I was, I never did take any music/band classes in school.

It wasn’t till I was 19 or so, that I heard you could make music on garage band and was curious about playing with the software. I had to get my first laptop for school, so ended up getting a basic MacBook and tinkered from there. I tend to have a lot of DIY energy when it comes to learning new software and I had previously taught myself how to use photoshop. The inspiration came from the accessibility of instruments and tools in the software that I didn’t have prior. The idea of limitless possibilities was very exciting to me.

It’s nice to hear that you’re living some of your childhood dreams through music!

You’ve recently released your debut album Chaos Butterfly. It’s loosely based around the narrative of “an anti-hero navigating trauma…a vengeful spirit who finds true strength in inner healing and forgiveness.” Can you elaborate on this concept? How did you translate this narrative into the music for the record?

Chaos Butterfly is the parallel sequel to my previous EP, Cocoon Egg. Parallel in the sense that both works deal with healing over adversity, and a sequel in the sense that the butterfly is the evolved form. But the narrative came from wanting to portray duality in contrast with the previous EP. I often play with different visual and sonic elements – soft/hard, masculine/feminine, light/dark, external/internal, etc. – and experiment with the loose narrative from there.

When I work on an album or EP, I love the idea of it being a soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist. Meant to be listened to from front to back, the narrative is translated through the emotional journey in each passing track with the song titles as additional hints for your imagination.

Your music is very cinematic. I know you’ve also described Chaos Butterfly as “a journey of self-acceptance and reflection…towards your non-binary identity.” Was creating the album an empowering process because of this?

Because I wrote this over five years, the process was one that grew as I grew. When I began I was still figuring it out myself and questioning a lot of things, but with time it was like a slow building of confidence and self-acceptance that led me to find this empowerment through music to be comfortable in my own skin in my own way.

With the project x/o, it had been a safe haven for me to express and explore gender in this way long before I had the actual words to articulate what it meant to me. It took a long time to have the courage to talk about my gender fluidity. So in many ways, the evolution of the project really is a transformative butterfly experience for me.

What would you say are you most proud of about this record? Do you have a favourite track?

‘Hea11ng Ca11’ is one of my favourite tracks. It’s the ending of the album and there’s a wave of relief that washes over you after having listened to the intensity of the journey prior. It’s also parallel to the ending of Cocoon Egg’s ‘love and reb1111rth’ – a hopeful path towards healing and growth.

I’m really proud to have pushed my skill sets to the limit and to have challenged myself a lot during this project. It was important to me to produce, record, and mix the project myself but also explore other avenues like screenwriting, film and art direction for the project. For instance, writing and directing for music video/short film ‘Red Alert’, the animated visualizer series ‘Chrysalis Wrath’ and ‘Initiation Relic’. I’m excited to share more visual world-building explorations very soon.

Speaking about visuals, can you talk us through the concepts behind your beautiful videos for singles ‘Red Alert’ and ‘Chrysalis Wrath’?

As duality is a key theme in my work, ‘Red Alert’ was a great opportunity for me to explore these themes in a visual context. In the music video/short film, the lead character is fearfully confronted by numerous red signs. This eventually consumes them as they become the colour red itself. There’s an interesting dynamic between white vs red selves being safe vs dangerous/angel vs devil, the different levels of subconscious, and instinct/intuition at play. I worked with a small talented film crew to make it happen.

For ‘Chrysalis Wrath’, for a long time now I have been interested in both feminine and masculine tropes in my practice as another extension of duality, and in particular subverting seemingly “feminine iconography” like eggs and butterflies in a way that gives it a more “masculine” energy. I worked with fantasy illustrator NicoSaba to make these ideas come to life.

Do you have any plans to perform your new album live this year?

Yes, I just had the opportunity to perform with Brussels collectives He4rtbroken and Slagwerk at Listen Festival, and I am planning to perform a number of dates in Europe where I will be based for the next few months.

That’s exciting! Finally, as we’re a new music blog, we always ask artists to recommend a band or another artist that they’ve been listening to. Can you recommend someone to us?

Definitely check out artist Bela. They are an incredible electronic artist from South Korea and their EP Guidelines released on Editions Apparent is full of powerfully refreshing takes on experimental music informed by Korean folk music.

Thanks to x/o for chatting with us!

Follow x/o on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter & Instagram

Listen to/buy Chaos Butterfly here

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Introducing Interview: Gabi Garbutt

Having received acclaim from the likes of Steve LaMacq at BBC 6Music and shared stages with legends such as The Libertines, London-based ‘punk-poet’ Gabi Garbutt has now announced the release of their second album via lovely label Trapped Animal Records.

Taken from the album, latest single ‘Never Never‘ showcases Garbutt’s knack for creating instantly catchy indie-pop anthems. With a soulful, impassioned energy propelling the jangling, uplifting musicality, it’s an emotionally-raw, fiercely gritty earworm, leaving you longing to hear more.

We caught up with Gabi to find out all about the new single, upcoming album, their thoughts on the industry, and what inspires them most… Have a read!

Hi Gabi Garbutt! Welcome to Get In her Ears? Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi Mari! I’m a half-Chilean singer songwriter from London, then Gloucester, then London, writing mainly lyrical soul punk songs.

Are you able to tell us a bit about how you initially started creating music?
The first band I was totally obsessed with were Green Day. I remember for my twelfth birthday being taken by my mum and dad to see Green Day at a festival in Nottingham. Iggy Pop was the support act and I was right up there in the mosh pit being thrown around, the crowd howling around me… My baptism by fire. That’s when I discovered rock and roll. From there, there was no going back. Bowling around school with Clash City Rockers tipexxed to the back of my school jacket. Next birthday my mum and dad bought me a Squire Strat and soon after I started learning songs. When I was in my mid-teens I used to borrow my sister’s acoustic and busk in town at the weekends, then spend that money on buying records. Another watershed moment was when I was sixteen – my English teacher lent me his copy of Patti Smith’s Horses, and hearing how she merged poetic lyrics with punk, I realised that’s exactly what I wanted to do. I started writing songs and when I moved back to London when I was 18 I started my first band.

I love your uplifting, colourful sounds, but who would you say are you main musical influences?
Thanks! Ezra Furman and Patti Smith are two of my main influences – that lyrical urgency fuelled by euphoric punk energy is something I really aspire to. I love a lot of Motown and Stax soul artists and they inspire a lot of the upbeat brassy sounds. Julian Casablancas’ band The Voidz are really exciting, totally original wild pop verging on chaos, and they’ve inspired the more electronic songs on the record. Nina Simone is a big inspiration; I really admire her fearlessness and conviction, and how she turned her vast musical vocabulary into really raw and emotionally charged songs. I’m a huge fan of Valerie June, particularly her latest album Prescription for Dreamers, it’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before, totally stratospheric soul. I’ve got it on repeat in the tour van and often put it on before we go on stage. It’s a totally energising, mind expanding record that at the same time gets me in a calm and collected state. Lyrical masters like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed are big inspirations too.

You’ve recently released your single ‘Never Never’, taken from your upcoming album Cockerel, which is out in May. Are you able to tell us a bit about the album? Are there any particular themes running throughout it?
This record is musically exploratory. It’s got a restless energy and considered sincerity too. There are lone cries and there is sorrow shared. There’s also a celebration of the beauty of existence and the power of human connection. The music takes twists and turns that echo the shifting emotional landscape of the lyrics, but not quite in step. There’s euphoria where there’s raging sadness, otherworldly sounds when the lyrics run closest to the beating heart, but I feel it’s more interesting that way.

How have you found recording and promoting an album during these strange times?
In 2020 we had a bunch of tours and festivals planned that were cancelled. It meant that I had more time to work on writing this album and as soon as rehearsal studios opened up, we started playing these songs as a band. We recorded the album in Spring 2021 but because of the vinyl backlog, it didn’t make sense to release it in a rush. The timing has worked out quite well as we’re doing a fair bit of touring at the moment in the build up to the album release in May. I really thought that all we’d been building would disintegrate during the lockdown, so I’m really happy that the adventure’s continuing.

Do you feel much has changed over the last few years in the music industry’s treatment of female and non-binary artists? 
I do think things have changed. There are still assumptions about females not writing their own songs, crafting the arrangements or being involved in production, which is incredibly frustrating, but luckily I work with a progressive bunch of guys. The label we’re signed to – Trapped Animal Records – are really excellent at nurturing female and non-binary artists, I highly recommend people check out their roster. I was a total tomboy when I was a kid, I remember a girl at school throwing her shoes at me when I was five, and when the teacher asked her why she did it, the girl said it’s because I had said I wanted to be a boy. I’ve always been androgynous and remember hearing the word gender-fluid a few years ago and realising how much that resonated with me. The freedom of expression that music encourages means that the process of creation itself reveals things about ourselves. It also means musicians are perfectly placed to lead the way in starting new conversations, changing perceptions. Artists like Ezra Furman, who recently came out as a trans mum, and consistently promotes trans joy – that’s really powerful, I admire her so much. It just shows the role our musical heroes have in pulling us all into the future.

You’ve previously supported infamous indie acts such as The Libertines – how was this experience for you? And has there been a particular gig you’ve played that stands out as a highlight? 
I’ve been a huge fan of The Libertines since my early teens, so it’s been a brilliant experience. We joined them on a couple of dates of their recent tour – Kentish Town Forum was a highlight, but back in 2019 playing Paris L’Olympia then racing across Germany playing Cologne, Munch and Berlin with them was some of the best fun I think I might ever have had.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any other upcoming artists or bands you’re loving right now that you’d recommend we check out?
Label mates Jemma Freeman & The Cosmic Something are ferocious, one of the best bands around. I’d also recommend Catherine Rudie who’s Glasgow based, a total one of a kind making otherworldly folk. Veronica Bianqui, who creates garage soul stateside, Sasha & The Shades make raw bluesy rock n’ roll, and Magda Goncalves is a brilliant London based r’n’b/ soul singer writer. A lot of the acts that come out of the Lantern Society, a singer-songwriter night in Clerkenwell are really ace too… Sam Nicholson (who also plays with Jemma Freeman), Jeremy Tuplin, The Violet Hum, Dead Writers, Peter Doolan, Chris Brambley, Gabriel Moreno to name a few. My cousin Paula Arismendi and my brother Leo Garbutt are really talented musicians and songwriters. Also shout out to Real(s), our bass player’s band and Hackles, our drummer’s other band who are both well worth checking out. 

In addition to the album release, what does the rest of the year have in store for you?
We’ve got a few more U.K tour dates coming up with Big Country and I’m going to be playing a couple of acoustic dates in New York, including Rockwood Music Hall on 29th April. In the summer we’ve got a few German dates booked and will be looking to tie this in with a few other dates on the continent and some more U.K tour dates. I’ve also started writing and demoing the third record so I’ll be working hard at that, hopefully recording it by the end of the year!

Massive thanks to Gabi for answering our questions!


Cockerel, the upcoming album from Gabi Garbutt, is set for release on 20th May via Trapped Animal Records.

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