Bedroom Drama
Release Date: August 2, 2019
Label: Soft Boy Songs
Pre-order: https://sosensitive.bandcamp.com/releases
TRACKLIST
01. My Heart Is Open
02. What’s A Girl To Do?
03. Enough
04. Star
05. What’s My Body For?
06. Lipstick
07. Devotion
08. Caught In The Dark
09. Cold
10. Let It Out
11. I Love You
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BIO
Sometimes you have to make a new world. Kira Clark, songwriter and vocalist of Muscle and Marrow, along with drummer and producer Keith McGraw, were living in Portland, OR and had steadily been making a name for themselves in the heavy music world. A busy 2016 saw them release Love with Flenser Records, followed by a national tour in support of the album with Marissa Nadler and subsequent European tour after that. The album drew critical praise all over the spectrum from outlets like Pitchfork, Noisey, NPR, and The AV Club and it seemed like they were poised to continue to build on this success – but isolation is a deadening thing. “I was always the only woman or one of very few at the shows. I had never before been so acutely aware of my embarrassing gender, like an extra appendage, something to quiet” recalls Clark.
The night of the doomed 2016 election was the night Clark knew she couldn’t continue with Muscle and Marrow anymore. The two had been writing new material that was a radical departure from the previous sonic world of Muscle and Marrow, and the pain of the election left Clark feeling reckless and angry, wanting to burn everything down. That fateful night was the birth of So Sensitive – Clark and McGraw moved to Brooklyn, determined to release their first album under that moniker.
Bedroom Drama is in large part a reaction to the masculine, mostly straight world of heavy music. Influenced by Britney Spears, Kate Bush, and Madonna, Clark and McGraw challenged themselves to make what they refer to as subversive pop. So Sensitive is interested in a particular kind of excessive and emotional pop, the kind that has historically been dismissed as unintelligent or lowbrow, but they intentionally embrace camp, sparkles and a distinctly feminine voice, challenging the perception of those concepts. There is something surprisingly cerebral about crafting a pop song. You cannot follow every whim because there’s almost always an awareness of the audience in pop, but those rules and restraints are exactly what led to a type of boundless freedom in the creation of the record.
The two developed a new way of writing that centered the production, arranging and crafting new sounds in the studio, as opposed to sitting behind their respective instruments. Britney Spears and Courtney Love are reoccurring inspirations for Clark. Spears is often thought of as a cipher, something empty with which we pump full of seduction, sweetness, stupidity and then later tragedy, horror, comedy. Clark is fascinated by doomed and hated women, as seen in her ode to Courtney Love, “My Heart is Open.” She sings “We shot up in the bedroom / It made my old heart feel brand new / I know I’m feral / I know I’m mean / it’s cause I won’t ever let them stop me.” She feels a tenderness, even admiration, for these complex and ambitious women. To be hated, after all, must mean having never compromised some essential part of yourself in order to appear likable, and to the extent that Clark has done this in her life, she gets to undo this completely in So Sensitive.
In “Devotion” and “I Love You,” themes of obsession and sacrifice are explored. “Cleaning the sink / fell to my knees / cursed this body that ages me / and I have been nothing several times / It’s not like I care if you keep lying / My love it may leak / might embarrass you / but it is there,” Clark sings on “Devotion.” For the duo, exploring obsession feels like the only way to filter the intensity of being a person in the world. Clark had never before written from the perspective of a character. Of course, any work of art contains an element of the artist, but she found expansive freedom in shedding at least the outer impression of the self. She is not a suicidal housewife, as depicted in “Devotion,” but she does feel connected to that character and deeply sympathetic towards her. Writing from another person’s perspective tore something open in her and allowed for less paralysis in the creative process.
In “Lipstick”, perhaps the album’s most direct link to Madonna, McGraw started with a house inspired bass line. After listening, Clark wanted to make a seemingly normal pop song but with a surprising pronoun choice. “Lipstick” is her queer anthem, her experience as an invisible bisexual femme trying to navigate her own queerness inside of a world that refuses to see her as queer. “If I’m honest with myself / sex used to always be about / just trying to obliterate myself / Don’t let my lipstick confuse / I want to make love to you girl,” she sings.
It’s difficult to put into language what makes a work of art moving. If there is such a thing as a “good” work of art, surely it must be in some way connected to surprise, something that jolts a dormant part of us into recognition. So Sensitive is the meeting point between the familiar and the unfamiliar. The duo follows the structure and melodic tradition of pop, but use unusual sounds and disorienting lyrics. There is always a concern related to boredom – they would rather make something bad than boring, something strange and shifting. For them, Bedroom Drama is a synthesis of their love of traditional pop as well as more experimental electronic music.
The two have succeeded in creating a distinctly catchy yet unsettling work. The melodies are accessible, but there’s often an undercurrent of desperation, even an unraveling throughout. Bedroom Drama is a feminist piece of synth-pop that leaves you a bit uneasy and entirely moved. Starting over for the duo has been frightening, but necessary and they’ve never felt more liberated and honest.
PRESS QUOTES
“So Sensitive’s debut is an exploration of the more contentious aspects of love. This is anything but “low-brow.” – The Line of Best Fit
“…an absolute visual marvel with a myriad of symbolism to unpack, and a titanic debut from So Sensitive.” – Impose Magazine
“So Sensitive stun in their understated and introspective debut.” – Born Music
“Synthy, sweet, and sleek, the band’s debut album Bedroom Drama is a messy, beautiful affair with femme and feminine identity diving deep into inner struggles with self-love, sexuality, vulnerability, and more.” – Atwood Magazine
“…influenced by disparate pop artists like Britney Spears, Courtney Love, Madonna, and Kate Bush, the latter of which is more than obvious on ‘What’s A Girl To Do?’ alongside its Chairlift meets Tei Shi like satin heat.” – I Heart Moosiq
MUSIC
Buy/Stream Bedroom Drama: https://fanlink.to/BedroomDrama
Buy/Stream “My Heart Is Open” here: https://fanlink.to/MyHeartIsOpen
Buy/Stream/Watch “What’s A Girl To Do?”: https://fanlink.to/SoSensitive
PHOTOS
