"Although I didn't write this song, it spoke to me in a way that made me feel as if it was my own story,” Brandon said. “I found myself playing it over and over again in my bedroom, remembering situations that I've been through.”
Check out the video for yourself below.
Her new EP, Projections, which is produced by Alex G and his bandmate Sam Acchione, unravels intimate mundanities and champions nature as the ultimate refuge.
office spoke with Tomberlin about her new EP, quarantine realizations, and the less obvious effects of displacement.
We’ve both moved a lot in our lives. Which sucks, but moving has encouraged me to connect with nature, because it’s always a constant. No matter where I go, I can wander deep in the woods, or somewhere quiet, and breathe. Your music—and your new EP, in particular—provides that same feeling. Do you have any spots in nature that are sacred to you?
Definitely, nature has always been a respite for me. The woods are most healing, and bodies of water too. No matter if it's a river, lake, ocean or even a pond, being around water centers something in my brain that nothing else can. And there's an energy in the woods that you just can't replicate any other way.
What did the title “Projections” come from?
It came to me while I was walking in the woods and dwelling on what this collection of songs means. I realized that I'm only able to tell my perspective, and my songs try to understand others’ perspectives, but ultimately, when I'm writing a song, all I'm able to do is express how I feel and how something was shared with me in a moment in time, even though it may have felt different to someone else. We project our own reality onto other people’s experiences to try to relate, but all I can really offer is my own perspective. Titles are really hard for me though, because I don't want anything to take away from the song. Sometimes bad song titles or dumb band names keep me from being able to engage with the music, so I'm super aware of that to the point where I’m releasing songs like “Untitled 1” and “Untitled 2,” like on my first recond.
That’s interesting because one of the most compelling parts of your music for me is in fact the language. Like on “Floor,” you say, “We filled the space with quiet breath.” I love that line because you literally use words, the very absence of a lull, to describe and invoke a lull.
I've always been a real observer, and acutely aware of energy and space, which I think comes with moving, or being displaced, and having to relearn lots of things. There was no getting used to anything. There was only change. So really small details, people, and silence are things that I'm always ruminating on. It's just how I absorb space and information.
Speaking of absorbing space, I want to learn more about how you made this project with Alex and Sam. Did anything from your recording environment seep into the EP?
There’s some literal background noise that we kept in, but that’s also just Alex's way of recording. We recorded it in his apartment in Philadelphia, so there are sirens, car noises, doors being opened, and cooking sounds if you listen close enough. Those are the literal things that seeped through, and I decided not to get that stuff out in mixing, because it added warmth and a marking of time. Those sounds might not be noticeable to other people, but I hear them and remember what was going on, and that's fun to me.
Alex had just gotten a new microphone, and we used it for all of the instruments, and my vocals. We were literally figuring out how to use it while recording this EP. It was very classic Alex. We were in the second bedroom, which was by the living room, and Molly would be coming in and out while teaching violin lessons in the other room. It was winter, so we would spend all day in that room, and only come out to make food, and order food, and watch shitty TV.
That sounds like a classic Philly winter. You cover “Natural Light” by Casiotone For The Painfully Alone for the last song on your EP. How did that come about?
I heard that song this year, and my version is basically an iPhone voice recording that my friend Ryan Hemsworth helped me produce out. I recorded the guitar and vocals into the Voice Memos app on my iPhone, and then I asked Ryan if he could add some Grouper-y, warbly bass and some shimmery things. He knew what I was saying because we had done some stuff together before. Then I recorded separate harmonies, also into Voice Memos, and had him layer it together.
Do you feel you were prepared for quarantine?
Yes and no. I was supposed to do SXSW and the Soccer Mommy tour, and I was really looking forward to those things. The last show I played with Alex G was on November 30th. So between then and March—when COVID hit—was the longest amount of time off I've had. I thought I had done a lot of work resetting during that time, but I realized I hadn't actually tapped into a lot of things, and I really needed more time and space to process the past few years of my life. So now I feel a lot more stable and at peace in my own body, and just as a person.
Even though quarantine has obviously been really hard, and COVID has been destructive to every kind of life form, there’s still something to be said for having a forced pause for our entire country. There are things we’ve been distracting ourselves from, things that need to be tended to. Quarantine has ended up being a lot more work than rest, but it’s been good work that provided rest.
Now that you're dropping a project into a world without live concerts and tours, has the release process felt different for you?
I feel differently, but I’m hopeful that people will actually listen to this project all the way through, now that we all have a lot less on our plates in the way of distraction. I'm such a full album listener, but obviously the music industry is like a video game where it's not about the work, and it's just about celebrity. I want to keep that away from myself as much as possible. Like, I don't want stans. I'm a human being that has the capability to make mistakes. So I don't want anyone to be like “I have undevoted love for you,” when I'm like, you don't even know me. I just hope [the pandemic] resets the way people process music overall. And maybe at shows people will shut the fuck up when music is being played. People will realize that this is a gift. I grew up having to drive two hours to a show and two hours back because I lived in the middle of nowhere. And I hope this helps people realize that music is something that needs to be invested in. Musicians shouldn’t have to try to live off touring and merch sales. We should be able to make money off of our actual work and not have to sign it away for a certain amount of time. I’ve just been thinking a lot about music consumption, art in general, and the music economy. So yes, I do feel differently this time around.
Don't let the dreamy, unpretentious beats fool you. Dummy's ambitions are nothing short of world domination. When asked to describe their goals for the next year, the duo expressed a fervent desire to, "make everyone blue, cancel toilet paper, normalize bidets, increase fruit sizes (5x), exponentially increase ass sizes (10x), and make water only accessible as carbonated."
Tryants. But you gotta love 'em for it.
Check out the music video below.
Geiger began to rise as a musician at the young age of 18 or 19, followed by a long break from performing her own music during which she focused on honing her production and songwriting skills. Her songwriting and production style has attracted many collaborators such as Shawn Mendes, P!nk, Leon Bridges, Maroon 5, Niall Horan, Christina Aguilera, DJ Snake and DNCE. She always wrote for herself on the side, and eventually felt it was time again to share her work. And we're glad she did.
Congrats on your new single, “Sharkbait”!
Thank you!
How are you and where are you?
I am in Los Angeles, and I’m good, and I’m sleepy. I just woke up, I was in Tahoe, so it feels really good to just wake up in my own bed.
Yeah, I bet! Where did the inspiration come from for this song?
Well, part of the music came from this thing I made a while ago, like maybe ten years ago. And then kind of just ditched the entire song. I just liked the drums and like one of the guitars. We were writing it for this friend of mine, Arly, it was me, him, and my other friend Evan. We were working on a bunch of stuff for Arly’s record. This was kind of one of the B sides, but the song’s about just doing what you love and what you’re passionate about even if it’s like… Like we were talking about, if you love surfing, even though there are sharks in the water, you’re still gonna go surfing ‘cause you love it. You’re willing to take the risk because you’re passionate about it. It’s kind of a song about that. When other people don’t quite get what you’re doing and they’re like, "That’s dangerous, you shouldn’t do that." And you’re like, "Yeah, but like, I love it, I wanna live how I wanna live, dude! Lets go!"
What is your writing process like?
Um, it kind of depends. It depends on the thing.
So you don’t really have an order of operations?
No, it’s usually following inspiration and however that comes. Sometimes it’ll be following a little lyric idea, sometimes it’s a little riff, or some chords, whatever it is just kinda gets started and the inspiration kinda just takes over.
How does this song differ from your last album, LilyAnna, from 2018?
I mean, I think it’s the funnest song I’ve put out. Even the album I’m working on now is a little more ambient. I wanted to put out a fun pop song.
In that album you talked a great deal about gender dysphoria and your experience as a trans woman and coming out. What would you say your upcoming music grapples with the most?
It’s kind of like, I feel like, it’s me growing into myself and having this second puberty, kind of coming through the changes I’ve gone through and the process of listening to myself along the way, and what my inner voice is saying, and kind of listening to that inner voice… The whole album is surrounding that inner voice and about letting that guide me somewhat.
What else can you say about your upcoming album, out in 2021?
It’s kind of a little ambient, but it also still kinda rocks. I wanted to have it so you can kinda relax to it, put it on in the tub, or you could crank it up in the car and go for a drive and rock out.
How did you get into production?
I was always interested in it. I was always into recording, since I was little, ever since I got my first tape recorder with a mic, I was just always making recordings and stuff. Then I got a four track recorder when I was 11, and started using that, and then eventually transitioned to ProTools, but I was always interested in it. Always playing with it.
Did you start producing simultaneously as you were becoming a musician?
Yeah, I started producing as I started writing songs when I was younger. Like making demos and stuff. Even my first record, like I demoed a lot of it out before I went into the studio, so there’s a bunch of early demos of that stuff that I recorded myself, which is funny.
You were a rising teen star for a moment there when you were around 18-20, and then you sort of retreated from that before rising back up in the last few years. What sort of transformation occurred during this time artistically and why did you kind of take that distance from the path you were going on?
I guess it’s just that, I mean, I always really liked making music, and more and more my artist project when I was younger became about trying to get more celebrity. It was more about being a celebrity and being out in front of people. And I just wanna be in the studio and making stuff. So eventually, it just wasn’t going to work out because I wasn’t passionate about being that kind of artist. I wanna be in the studio, I wanna be making albums. At the end of the day, as long as people find it and they wanna listen to it and they’re excited about it, that makes me happy. And whether I’m a celebrity or not isn’t really the point, you know?
So I spent a long time after that in the studio writing and working on those skills and kind of developing myself as a producer/songwriter. Eventually I had the opportunity to move out to LA and sign a pub deal, and that was kind of the beginning of this next kind of resurgence of me as a writer/producer vibe.
So you’ve been writing and producing for other artists for a long time.
Yeah, it’s been maybe since I was like 25, so it’s been the past 6 or 7 years.
That’s awesome. And what kind of let you know that it was time to let your own voice be out there again?
I’m always writing for me, too, on the side, so basically it just got to the point where I had enough stuff and I was like, I really wanna put this out and share this stuff.
I hear you.
It’s fun.
So, how would you describe your sound in only a few words?
Oh, my god. I don’t know, I guess it’s a little Lo-Fi, but also a little catchy and pop-y. Maybe not over-thought. I try to keep it kind of emotional.
What advice do you have for a young person trying to find themselves?
I don’t know, I guess just pay attention to what you’re feeling and what that voice inside you is saying. The more you find that voice and pay attention to that, I mean, that for me has been the most important thing. Especially the last five years, really finding that voice. And paying attention to it. Sometimes that voice is there, but there’s so many other people telling you other things. So you think, What I’m feeling inside, if everyone else is telling me to do this, maybe I should just do that. Instead of saying, What is this voice telling me and how do I need to express that to other people? Make sure you’re following that.
It’s harder when you’re younger because everyone is telling you what to do and you have to do it. As you get more freedom, you get more room to explore that voice and listen to that. It’s taken me forever to really feel like I’m acquainted with it because there’s so much in the way when you’re growing up. Everyone has an opinion on what you should do and how you should live and what you’re supposed to be. A lot of that is right, but a lot of it isn’t right. It’s tricky. That’s my main focus right now in my life; the theme is always finding that voice and listening to it and having that be a part of what I decide to do, even if it’s not aligned with that voice. That balance of having that voice but still trusting other people but also trusting yourself. I don’t know if that’s any kind of good advice.
I think that’s great advice. That’s sort of what you were saying your upcoming album is representing for you.
Yeah, exactly.
