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onestowatch · 5 years

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girl in red Is Telling Her Truth [Q&A]

Photo: Jonathan Vivaas Kise

In 2018, the final new artist discovery piece we wrote was on an artist that we championed as the rainbow flag-waving anti-pop star of 2019. 2019 would see that artist tour across the world, release a highly-praised sophomore EP, and establish herself as a definitive voice of Generation Z. girl in red, the artist in question, is the bedroom-produced project of Norwegian artist Marie Ulven, who has been heralded as a painfully authentic queer icon for queer teenagers the world over.

Her music speaks to the heartbreaking and euphoric nature of young queer love, fleeting feelings of isolation, and the overall inner turmoil of growing up and attempting to figure out life. By no means is it unexplored territory, but the level of candor, delivered in a fashion that blurs the lines between her bedroom-produced contemporaries and the garage-rock heroes of yesterday, can at times feel groundbreaking.

As our final new artist discovery of 2018, it only seems fitting that our first interview of 2020 is with girl in red. We sat down with the artist hours ahead of her final US show of 2019 to talk about the tangible effect her music is having on people, the revolution Greta Thunberg and Billie Eilish are leading, and painting the world in red.

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Ones To Watch: Does it ever begin to feel larger-than-life knowing the palpable impact your music has had and is having on people?

girl in red: Yeah, it comes out of nowhere really. I make songs and stuff, but I don’t realize what kind of impact it has on people. Because I’m just living my life and that song is just out there, and I don’t know what people are doing with it. So, I think that it’s really cool and weird to suddenly meet a real person that has listened to one of my songs and be like, “That shit saved me.” It’s really weird because I didn't know any of that was happening, but it was, and I like that.

Was there a certain point in time where you started noticing that impact?

I mean, I think I started noticing that things were happening, maybe like, when I released “girls.” That’s when things started getting even bigger, and I got like 20k followers, and I was like, “Woah that’s two digits right there.” I was really excited then. “girls” has been one of my strongest anthems for people to use to embrace themselves. I feel like after that song there have been a lot of people sending me messages like, “Hey, I came out to this song. I used it in the car with my mother.”

Given my walk today here, it’s not terribly surprising. There is already a line of girls down the block camping out to get into the show.

Wow, already? It’s mostly girls. I like to meet boys too; I like seeing boys out there. I think it’s super cool there’s people out there so early because that’s what people do for like really cool artists and stuff, and I’m just like whaaaat? Because I don't feel... I just feel what I’ve always felt. And now people look at me in a weird way that I don’t see myself. Sometimes I'm on stage and someone wants my towel and II don't see myself as someone that people would want a used towel from.

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I imagine people fall in love with your music due to the level of candidness in your songwriting.

Yes! And we need that! Just some normal people that are making music and telling their truth. And I think that maybe I’m doing that. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just doing something that I think comes naturally to me and then people sort of gravitate towards it for some reason.

With that being said, is it hard to just put it all out there in your songs? You’re opening up to millions of people after all.

But when I make music, it’s just me. I’m just being honest with myself when I write and then it happens, I just happen to put it out. In some ways, it’s affected my thinking. Are people going to like this song? I can’t lie and be like, “Yeah, I don’t feel anything. I don’t feel like I'm writing to anyone.” I definitely have had some unsettling feelings, like is this line too graphic? I have a line now that is like, “Was she good? What you like? Did you cum? How many times?” And that’s a pretty like, you know, I haven’t heard that in a line before. It’s a pretty vulnerable and jealous feeling. When I write that, I’m like can I put that in a song? I’ve met girls at meet-and-greets that are like 12-years-old and listen to my music. Like, what are people going to think? But, this is something that came to my head. I’m just going to block out all these questions from people because that is just going to mess up what I’m trying to do.

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How do you feel about being placed in this new wave of “bedroom pop” artists?

This bedroom pop thing? In the beginning, a lot of people called me that, but I don’t feel like a bedroom pop artist but a lot of people put me in this bedroom pop movement because it's easier to understand something if you put it in a box. I think this is happening because music equipment is getting more affordable. Obviously, I’m very privileged. I live in the richest country in the world. I’ve always had a roof over my head and grandparents and shit. I’ve been lucky to have equipment available and stuff and I also think that some people that also have that same privilege get the equipment and start messing around because they’re bored or something. I don’t know why people start making music.

Why did you start making music?

I don’t know. It’s not like I wanted to be Taylor Swift or some other artist at the time. I just wanted a guitar and I wanted to make music, I’m not sure where that came from. I just had the urge to make something. I didn’t get my guitar and start covering songs. I was like let me start writing. So, I think it’s cool what’s happening now because equipment is so affordable and putting it out is so easy. There are so many online distributors you don’t need to be signed anymore. Like, I’m still indie you know? I’m working with a distributor like I have signed something, but I don’t have like a big ass label behind me. And I think it’s like as long as you make good music you’re going to go somewhere. That’s the only thing. I just want to make good music, and I think everyone can make good music and put it out.

Do you mind explaining the chapter element behind the music you have released thus far?

I don’t look at them as EPs. I look at chapter 1 as 2018, and the reason I have chapters one and two is I’ve just been making music and putting it out as I move along, so I want the songs to be like, chapter 1 is the beginning of something. I didn’t want it to be like, “Okay. Now I can make an album.” I wasn’t in that state of mind, I just want to continue this, because this is what felt natural to me. They’re more just like labels, ironically. This is 2018. This is 2019. I’ve now got other types of ideas, my head is working in a different way, so now all my work I see in a different bigger body of work. I didn't with the other songs. I didn’t see them in like an album. But now with the stuff I make, this is like track number four, number one. That’s how my mind works now. That’s what the music has been about, just progressing as a songwriter and a producer.

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What do you hope 2020 holds for you?

2020. What the fuck. That’s so weird. I’m definitely going to be making a lot of music. I know the first few months I won’t be touring, I’ll just be making music and then hopefully I’ll release an album. That’s like world domination, world in red, just make an album, JUST make an album. Then probably some touring, some really cool festivals would be nice. Oh, I’m getting a dog!

What kind of dog?

Bernese Mountain Dog.

What are you going to name it?

Burner, very original!

As we move into 2020, music and politics as a whole are becoming more female. So can we talk about two people you avidly admire, Billie Eilish and Greta Thunberg?

Greta Thunberg is blowing up. Not long ago she had a couple hundred thousand followers, and I was on her Instagram the other day and she had like 3.3 million followers. Then I checked later that day and she had four, then after her speech at the UN she had six. She is so cool she is literally the front figure of the biggest revolution right now. Like, I consider this a revolution it’s crazy. I was thinking about it, you know the French Revolution and the American Revolution? I’m pretty sure at that time they didn’t necessarily think that of it as a revolution. I feel like we’re in the middle of something that is going to be really, really big and it’s so cool that out of nowhere this little Swedish girl comes out. And there’s so many old people personally attacking her because they don’t have anything to I don't know, they can’t fight the science. I think she’s really cool.

I think Billie Eilish is really cool also. She’s also leading some sort of revolution, right now. They’re kind of similar, they’re both really really important people, and they have great voices. I was talking to Isaac [Dunbar], and we were just talking about Billie, she’s like literally the biggest star on the planet right now. And it happened so quickly. I followed Billie when she had 200,000 followers in 2017, and I listened to her EP, dont smile at me, and she was my most listened to artist that year. And that’s so weird, she’s changed so much. Artists that can just renew themselves like she’s doing are the most important. Like David Bowie, he was renewing himself always, making cool music and making new characters and shit. She’s going from dont smile at me to WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, like such a big cool change. And FINNEAS’ production is the future! He is so talented. I met him at a festival in Belgium and he was so nice and he smells really good too.

What does he smell like?

I can’t describe it. It’s like I’ve never smelled anything like that before. It’s like some next-level future perfume. They’re a power duo.

Who are your Ones To Watch?

I’m definitely excited about this one artist called BENEE, from New Zealand, she is really cool. beabadoobee also has some cool stuff going on. We’ve grown sort of a lot this last year. I'm excited about Clairo because she made a really good record. I’m just excited about all of these people that I have been following for the last two-and-a-half years that are suddenly blowing up. I remember I followed Clairo when “Pretty Girl” just came out and had like 9000 streams on Spotify. I’m so excited, because I followed these people so long ago and they were so small then, and now they’re so much bigger. I wonder where they’re going to go.

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Anything else you want to say?

World In Red

#girl in red #interview #indie #indie rock #anti pop #bedroom pop

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evilelitest2 · 7 years

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100 Days of Trump Day 75: Revolutions Podcast

Welcome Back to 100 Days of Trump, where I try to explain WTF happened in 2016 in 100 recommendations. Now I have made no secret of the fact that I don’t judge all of these works equally, some of the things I recommend matter more than others. Assassins, Marat/Sade, Veronica Mars, The Wire are all the most important works to understand the shitshow that was 2016, and on that list of “most important works” I include the Revolutions Podcast, by Mike Duncan. It is a podcast....about Revolutions....made by a man named Mike Duncan.....its good....

Ok seriously, the left likes to fetishize the idea of revolutions as the glorious wave that brings down the autocratic state, but rarely do they know more than a the most basic details of said revolutions. Taking to a lot of people they seem to be under the impression that if enough happens then....the Revolution will happen. Magically, on its own. Which leads to this sense of inevitability towards revolutions, and that is where you have people who have been sitting around saying “revolution any any day now “ since 1964. But this podcast goes through each of the major revolutions in a fairly in depth view, and once you get into concrete details, you see a lot about how revolutions actually work in practice. And since this is a comparison work, you see a lot of interesting patterns emerge from this, and a lot of you’re questions about revolutions might be answered such as

Why did the French Revolution go so crazy while the American stayed largely moderate (I mean by Revolution standards)

Why did the English Revolution go into Repeat mode like twice?

Why do so many revolutions wind up emulating the people they overtherw

Why do Reovlutions happen when they do?

Wait, Haiti had a revolution?

To me the most interesting thing about this series are some of the reoccurring patterns that always seem to emerge in every revolution

Firstly: If you don’t reform a system from within, it will fall apart from without.

In every single revolution covered the monarchs in power (but this applies equally well in non monarch nations) were aware that there were systemic problems decades before the revolution, and often tried to even address it, but systemic corruption, entrenched interests and just sheer incompetent rulers made them give up, which allowed societal pressure to build up and explode in bloody revolutions down the line. The English, English Again, French, French Again, Spanish, and French again (seriously WTF France) all had opportunities to fix their system well in advance but didn’t, and then were shocked, shocked to find that the people went to more extreme measures.

Seriously, I can’t empathizes this enough, if you’re political system makes a majority of you’re citizen body extremely unhappy, and they don’t have any way in which to change the system legally, they will do it illegally eventually, and when that happens, shit gets really ugly. Whats worse, if you deny people the ability to work within the system, then they will grow more radical, and thus far more dangerous. It is always good to reform you’re system well in advanced so that you don’t have to deal with worse problems down the road...

which yeah, America hasn’t done, our system hasn’t been properly reformed since 1980, which is why the population got so angry in 2016, because all of the earlier attempts at reform didn’t seem to work.

Secondly, Revolutions start with stupidity, not Malice

The popular image of a revolution is a baby eating Caligula like tyrant who is so cruel and vicious that he drives his own people to a glorious fantastic revolution to end his evil regime but in practice...not so much. As a rule, when rulers impose a really iron fist, revolutions mostly just peter out after a few months, they don’t really lead to the overthrow of the state. No what leads to that are weak, stupid, unfocused, incompetent, or simply unlucky rulers, who claim absolute power but lack the actual competence to enforce it. Charles I of England wanted to be an absolute monarch but was like...really incompetent. The British Parliament/King George III demanded the Colonies obedience but the colonies were way too far away to impose order. Louis XVI was less evil rather than profoundly stupid, Charles X had no idea what he was doing and the Spanish American Revolution happened once Spain was literally cut off from her colonies. Even the Haitian Revolution the most directly oppressive of them all didn’t happen during the most vicious period of oppression towards the slaves, but instead when those in power were having a civil war allowing the slaves the opportunity to organize a revolt. Incompetence is the great killer of kings more than tyranny ever does

Third, Revolutions usually start over seemingly unimportant things

The English Revolution started because of unclear limitations on Parliamentary Power, the American Revolution started because of a Tax dispute, French over a Budget Crisis, Spanish American over trade agreements, July Revolution over a freedom of the press dispute, and Haitian revolution...over another tax dispute cause the slave owners rebelled first only to then find the slaves rebelling against them. Revolutions are usually only possible when those who have power but not all the power get pissy, and the thing that upsets them the most? Taxes. This is why an internally stable country is important, otherwise you get revolutions over something seemingly minor

Fourth, Revolutions are never united and always paranoid

There is never a faction of “the rebels” up against “The goverment” it is always a massive collection of a bunch of vaguely united factions who spend as much or more time fighting each other rather than fighting the goverment. However the goverment itself is often doing the exact same thing. Revolutions are confusing, messy, and actually really hard to fit into simplistic narratives. But in every single revolution, people involved keep assuming that the other faction is going to do something extreme and therefore preemptively do something extreme before hand....while later historical records reveal that the extreme thing never was going to happen anyways. Partisan paranoia destroying a state, why does that seem familiar to me.

Finally, those who call for revolutions are always consumed by them.

In literally every revolution so far, the person who is the most radical firebrand hard core revolution at the beginning will wind up being a conservative cautious moderate by the end without ever changing their beliefs, because revolutions more fast. We tend to remember Tom Dickinson as the guy who opposed the American Revolution but he started out as the single most radical voice in the colonies with his “Letter from a Pennsylvania Farmer’ only to find himself left behind. This gets to be its most insane in the French Revolution, Lafayette was a super radical liberal but after the 1789 Revolution, he quickly became a conservative stick in the mud that the arch mega radical Danton helped overthrow (its more complicated than that I know, shut up making a point). That same Danton, the most radical man by the standards of the radicals was overthrow and executed for being too conservative by the later revolutions, because revolutions move really fast, and they get really scary really quickly. This is why I really don’t like revolutions because they never end up where you think they are going too. However regardless of my feelings towards them, if the system doesn’t reform fast enough, revolution become inevitable, and the whole nation falls apart.

As we live in an era where the most powerful country in the world is starting to becoming more and more unstable, it might be a good time to look at other instances of this happening and try you know...not doing what they did...cause it went badly. Seriously, check out this podcast, its fun, its informative, and you can pester all of you’re friends with facts about Simon Bolivar @randomshoes The links are below.

Revolutions Introduction

What is a Revolution Anyways? Is the fact that the word literally means something going back to where it started...intentionally funny?

The English Revolution

Which teaches us a valuable lesson about why political compromise is a good thing. King Charles I is basically the Hillary Clinton of 1600s England.

The American Revolution

When governing a nation with a three month travel delay, seriously, don’t just make laws you can’t enforce. If England had chosen one policy and stuck with it, they likely would have won, but they couldn’t make up their mind and the travel time allowed the colonies to organize.

The French Revolutions

AKA the revolution that never ends, there is a running gag in this show that Mike Duncan keeps wanting to be done with this one, but he can’t because all following revolutions are directly influenced by this one. It is also the most analogous to the US right now and isn’t that scary) where there is a massive wealth gap, the rich aren’t paying their taxes, the executive power is both too powerful and not powerful enough, and all reform fails because of entrenched wealth interests. Oh and rampant partisanship combined with paranoia that leads to leftist auto cannibalism, this is of course the most important revolution to study

The Haitian Revolution

The second most is this one, because most people haven’t heard of the Haitian revolution and it is really worth you’re time, particularly because it is a great lesson in how oppressed people are totally fine oppressing others, as the Coloreds are totally victims of racial oppression...and are owning slaves at the same time.

The Spanish American Revolution

The giant revolution, this one is just fun to listen too and all of the nationalism is fascinating.

The July Revolution

The current one, Charles X is really reminding me of Trump honestly.

Revolutions FAQ

The whole thing is really worth you’re time if you want to understand politics as like...actual study and not just abstract rhetoric, this is what you want to check out

#100 days of Trump #Mike Duncan #Revolutions #French Revolution #English Revolution #Haitian Revolution #July Revolution #1848 Revolution #Latin American Revolutions #Russian Revolution #Chinese Revolution #Mexican Revolution #Greek Revolution

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