Katie Alice Greer embraces duality at any time when she will. With the discharge of her debut solo album, Barbarism (out now through FourFour Records), the previous Priests vocalist units her sweet-sounding voice in opposition to a backdrop of jarring noise, from gunshots to distorted samples. Created throughout the pandemic, Greer used each the fun and the horrifying nature of being alone as a springboard to observe all of her strangest impulses.
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In an interview with AP, Greer delves into the cathartic creation of Barbarism, leaning away from dance music and following the bizarre sounds in her head.
You’ve launched some music on your individual earlier than, however how do you assume you have grown since your final solo launch?
Well, I believe prior to now, after I was releasing stuff beneath simply my initials, it was plenty of my musical impulses and inventive concepts that simply did not slot in my essential undertaking on the time, which was my band. This launch was the primary time I used to be making a concerted effort to make this my essential undertaking, if that is smart. So it most likely shifted the sensibilities of what I used to be placing into it. I believe that the circumstances beneath which I used to be making this music additionally modified lots. Just writing and recording it at dwelling in a unique state throughout the pandemic.
And how would you say the method of constructing this album was totally different from these you made while you have been in Priests?
It’s simply so reverse. I saved joking with folks throughout the course of of constructing this album that now that I had moved out throughout the nation after which the pandemic hit, and it felt so totally different after being in a band so lengthy. When you’re continuously on tour, you do not actually have plenty of your individual house. I believe in a collaborative, artistic undertaking, you’ll be able to really feel that means, too. Everything turns into concerning the shared undertaking collectively, and I believe there have been occasions the place possibly I misplaced contact with simply my very own sense of boundaries, each what I used to be able to and what I wanted to be making my very own work about.
So after I was making this record, I discovered myself continuously being like, “Wow, I’m all alone” and generally saying it in an excited means. Like, “Wow, so much space to really dig into all my weird impulses and just follow whatever feels interesting to me musically in the moment”. Then at different occasions, it was like, “Oh, my God, this is horrifying. If I get stuck on a song or if I’m feeling like I have writer’s block, there’s nobody else I’m working with to bounce ideas off of to get some creative element of the project unstuck.”
Do you assume the damaging components would possibly’ve been useful in that you simply needed to push your self via these moments of artistic stagnation?
Totally. I’ve a good friend who produces plenty of data for a dwelling, and he is all the time mentioned he seems like he works with folks the perfect once they have recorded themselves plenty of occasions, and so they actually have a robust sense of how they prefer to sound, how they do not prefer to sound and the place one other particular person turns into useful to them. I really feel like that should be actually true now as a result of I do know what my drawback areas are. I do know the place I actually prefer to collaborate with anyone else and convey their sensibility in. And it is most likely as a result of I spent a very long time on this record, and I undoubtedly did not abandon ship in intervals when it appeared too tough to complete. I simply adopted it all over, and I really feel like I discovered a lot within the course of.
So how would you describe your sound, and the way do you assume it’s modified over time?
God, I’ve all the time been so dangerous at describing my very own work. I ought to actually get higher at this. I simply do not actually assume by way of style when I’m writing stuff, which I do know most likely sounds so pretentious and unbearable, however I all the time really feel like style is the way in which that music is marketed as soon as it is completed or organized in a record assortment. It simply does not make sense to my mind when I’m writing it. I assume if I used to be describing it to anyone who knew nothing about what I used to be doing, I might say it is a bit bit digital with sound collage components, a bit bit rock ‘n’ roll or pop. I really feel like releases I’ve executed prior to now have been, possibly in my thoughts, coming extra from dance music references, whereas I really feel like this record, I wasn’t actually drawing on these sensibilities fairly as a lot.
[Photo by Kathryn Vetter Miller]
So what attracts you towards making music that blends so many disparate components?
I believe what attracts me to make music the way in which I do, for higher or worse, is that plenty of occasions after I sit down to write down one thing, at any time when it feels like one thing that already exists, I simply really feel like a poser. I simply really feel like I’m copying anyone else, and I wish to get out of that mindset as a result of to me a part of making music can also be conversational. We are drawn to music that reminds us or sounds a bit bit like different issues. If you make one thing that simply feels like nothing anybody’s ever heard earlier than, in plenty of methods, it is virtually completely unrelatable for folks, ? But not less than for this album, I wasn’t actually fascinated with stuff like that. I used to be actually identical to, “What are the weird sounds in my head? And how can I translate them out of me?”
How are you feeling after releasing it?
Having mentioned all that, I do really feel actually good. I used to be nervous that it might make me really feel simply actually uncovered and susceptible. But I assume as a result of I wasn’t fascinated with any form of reception to the record in any respect, and I believe I used to be contemplating the likelihood that folks would simply be like, “Good for you, but this is just not really my thing. I don’t really want to listen to it.” I simply actually appreciated the response generally. It’s felt very nice and validating, while you make one thing that is so private for you and anyone in any respect listens to it, even when they do not prefer it or find it irresistible. That’s superb with me. Writing this record was a very cathartic course of, and I’ve a sense the stuff I’m making quickly will most likely simply sound actually totally different as a result of all of us get bored with no matter it’s we’re working on and wish to do one thing new later on.
Yeah, you voiced plenty of frustrations on the album. Do you assume since you have gotten these out, the subsequent undertaking goes to be fairly totally different?
Yeah, I believe so. I’ve been watching this docuseries on HBO about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, and it is so fascinating. On one of many episodes I used to be watching final evening, Joanne Woodward mentioned that she felt like when you’ve a scenario in your life you could’t do something about — I believe she was talking about it with reference to enjoying characters with terminal sicknesses — generally it is actually therapeutic to make artwork work. And that simply actually struck me. Maybe that is what all of us are doing in some methods. When there’s nothing else you are able to do about sure features of actuality, you are simply doing what you wish to train and possibly really feel your means via it and course of your emotions about it via what you make. I believe I used to be in a position to do this about plenty of stuff with this record.
How do you assume your work in visible mediums impacts your artistic strategy to creating music?
I believe coming from a punk DIY background, many occasions doing plenty of totally different stuff has simply been a matter of practicality, and likewise I just about attempt to do every thing that appears enjoyable to me. So, I do not know if it actually informs my artistic course of essentially, but it surely most likely does sound-wise as a result of I really feel like when you’re working in a unique medium, you’ll be able to’t assist however take into consideration that medium. Later, as soon as I began directing movies, I believe after I would sit again down to write down songs, I might get extra visible concepts in my thoughts of how the music was sounding. That’s additionally most likely partially as a result of I do not learn music, so it is simpler for me to see photos and to attempt to make sounds for them and to consider music notes.
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