HEROINE Makes Our Ears Dance with New Single “Baptism”
- BUZZ LA
- Dec 20, 2019
- 4 min read
Brooklyn, NY - full of rich art and culture and today we are brought an incredible piece of the cities offerings. HEROINE brings us the gift of “Baptism”.
Sonically, you are instantly brought into a time warp in the production of “Baptism”, with the sparkling 80’s influence. Lyrically, there is poetry here, shining with lyrics such as “let the storm brew like it’s a Baptism”. The guitar work is amazing and feels like The 1975’s “Love Me” mixed with the iconic 80’s artists such as Cyndie Lauper. The group HEROINE is comprised of two amazing female talents that are on a mission to spread equality and unison - making way for the new world and way of life that we are all hopeful for. The vocal performance is full of soul, passion, and delivery. You can feel the intention in the delivery and I’m sure that the producer of this track was very pleased about capturing these vocal takes. By the end of the song, you feel better than you did before you listened to it. “Baptism” is the sonic boom that could transform the world and create a better space for everyone to live together.
Listen "Baptism" here.
Thanks for being with us at Buzz Music! Your new single “Baptism” is sonically of the ’80s but the lyrics are progressive and forward. Was this something you consciously had in mind when writing the song?
Thanks for having us! And yeah! The song was inspired by a friend's fear of coming out to her parents and her own inner reckoning with being both a gay woman and a Christian. The song offers reassurance to anyone going through their own inner battles, with the message that it's okay to let yourself feel the tough stuff too-- that if we let ourselves ride headfirst through the storm, it can lead us to the light at the end of the tunnel- to our own powerful truth. "Don't be afraid of the water, it's here to make you new." Since the song talks about embracing that idea of riding through the hard times, we thought a dancy, uplifting sound would best represent that forward motion. We all have to keep waking up every day and find the energy and courage to keep fighting for who we are.
Who was the producer of “Baptism” and why were they chosen for the job?
Dan Ryan (of the Baltimore-based band, Super City) produced this song. He’s a great hometown friend of ours and has worked on a few of our songs with us in the past. We originally wrote “Baptism” along to a drum groove and sent it to him just to see what he would do with it and what his instincts would be for the song. He sent us 2 demos in a day or two with almost the whole track built on garage band on his phone. The first option he sent was the fast, groovy part that you hear in the first half of the song. The second part goes into more of the ocean part of the song. Calm, but still with good momentum. We decided to take both of those parts and make it into one song. One of our engineers, also based in Baltimore, Steve Wright, helped bridge those two parts together beautifully. We had a great team of collaborators helps make this song as powerful and funky as it is now.
Being from Brooklyn, how has living there inspired your art?
We’re both originally from Maryland, but living in Brooklyn has totally inspired the art that we’re making. There are so many people making so many different kinds of art and that energy is infectious. To live right in the middle of that, surrounded by other creators and doers motivates us to keep going and to keep trying our “crazy ideas” just to see what happens. Most of the indie musicians live in Brooklyn too so it’s easy to collaborate, rehearse, see shows, go to sessions, and the list goes on. It’s nice to be a part of the community. We’re also roommates in BK, so that has really opened a lot of doors for us in terms of being able to rehearse and write at home together. We actually just opened a new neighborhood music venue called The Garage in our home garage in Crown Heights, where we perform with our other two roommates (both singers as well) and host open mics for other artists to come and try out new ideas in a safe space. We’re really excited to see where it goes.
How do you hope that your music will change the world?
Oh, man. It’s a tough question and we talk about this a lot. The main thing that we’re trying to do with our music is just as honest as possible in our writing. The hope is that our honesty will inspire and give people space where they feel they can truly be themselves. We believe that if we can write truthfully about our observations and our own experiences as queer women in the world, it will (hopefully) inevitably reflect the times-- and if changing the world can mean changing the life of just one person, or offering just a little bit more honesty in the constant flow of media, then we’re doing our job. It’s truly an act of resistance especially during this time in America to share how three dimensional we are. We are spiritual, queer, women who love chocolate and love to laugh and also have deep insecurities. We all have a lot going on in our lives and beings and some of that carries similarities and differences. Either way, it’s important to hear it all and share it all.
Lastly, what is something you want to leave listeners with and can we expect more new music at the turn of the decade?
We hope you love Baptism. We’ve been excited to share it for a long time so thanks so much for listening and supporting indie bands like us. And you bet!! We’re working on our debut EP so be on the lookout for lots of new music in 2020!
