I think I just got run over by a Mack truck! Not literally, thank God, but that’s the first thing that came to my mind after I played the new Black Sea Dahu LP called White Creatures, straight through. Afterwards, I sat there on the couch, like an idiot, in silence, and processed how this humble 8-song Urban Folk record affected me.
What can I say? The writing on this one is hooky as fuck! Mid-way through just about any song on here you’ll catch yourself singing along. And it’s deep! The arrangements are fleshy and orchestral, huge, yet somehow still warm and lo-fi in feel. As far as emotional affect is concerned, in a sense you are being wrung the fuck out, slowly and effectively, and served brutal, beautiful, personal truths about what it means to be human. Anyone who has some Mobb Deep in their collection, knows that a vulnerability fully exposed is straight gangster!
White Creatures is already out, so you can find it on just about any portal out there. And, apparently, the vinyl will also be available soon. In the meantime, enjoy these three stories about three songs from the record, courtesy of the lady who penned them and whose husky voice you’ll hear all over this release. BTW, she just likes to be called Janine.
Yet another relationship that didn’t work out. There’s sad sarcasm and irony in this song, but I know that it probably sounds more like a great love song, which it is, as well, no doubt. When I wrote this song, I didn’t believe I would ever be able to have a healthy relationship with trust and love and commitment. I found myself repeating the same old pattern time and time again…
I wrote that one after talking to a friend. We’d come to the following conclusion: “So many people feel the same way and no one talks about it. Everyone just feels alone with themselves and their feelings and their feeling of being lost.” I wanted to encourage myself and others, and I still struggled with fitting in in strict Switzerland, after returning from a long backpacking trip.
While recording the song felt like an epiphany to myself, and I was crying in the end because I realised that I was not at all living by my own values. I wasn’t happy with a lot of things in my life and I just endured it instead of doing it my way, and making decisions of my own. I exposed myself, this song is a mirror.
I wrote this song after a car ride with my siblings. We drove home from rehearsal and I felt excluded and I wasn’t happy with how things were in the band, at work, in my life. So many different expectations. My mom used to drive us to our violin lessons and I remember being very unhappy during those car rides because most of the time I had not practiced enough. I am a very ambitious person. At night the car lights drew ghost-like figures on the walls flashing by, and it felt like they were following me to help me. I saw these ghosts again that night when we returned from the band rehearsal. I was desperate and worried and didn’t find a single thought that would ease my mind. I was working way, way, way too much. I suffered from a severe sleeping disorder, and lying in bed wide awake I thought: my legs work, my arms work, I have two feet and I can move my hands and fingers, my body is unharmed. Everything is fine, I am ok.
