I love creating abstract, strange, and magnetic things that help me to think in new ways. I am fascinated with the ancient bardic tradition of musical story-telling. In my personal projects I get to explore both aspects with a greater freedom.
On the 26th of March 2020, as the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic rolled across the world, I felt inspired to create a project that would speak to the general sense of unease and uncertainty we were collectively feeling. Combining atonal neon synth lines with flickering, pixellated, high speed video felt like a good way to bring various themes together in a non-linear, multimedia way.
Almost a year in to the pandemic, along with a few other world shaking events including the death of George Floyd, a highly contested US election, the lockdowns, and South Africa’s various corruption scandals, I was fascinated by the social and political narratives that were unfolding across a wide range of media. I decided to create a project that might reflect some of the issues facing the world today in an abstract way, particularly around the idea of how we as humans make sense of the world.
Breathe is a song about combustion - how the momentary flame burns towards the future and away from the past as it becomes ash. It is a song about unholy miracles in quiet places, sin, avarice and entropy, but also about hope, redemption and re-invention. It is about the opposing forces that keep things going: the air in the lungs, the inward grasp and gasp for life and agency, and the exhale - the outward, inevitable capitulation to powerlessness.
The name references the constellation that guides nighttime travelers/sailors in the Southern Hemisphere. It also resembles a fallen crucifix, a cut diamond in the sky, a kite on the descent… I am thinking a lot about systems, ideologies and addictions here. Writing this song was somewhat of a purge in that it feels like the world is going through a time of significant and uncomfortable change (hopefully for the better), and the only way out is through.
