By now, the apocalyptic Alt-Rock amalgamations being pumped out of Sadie Belica's DIY studio in LA shouldn't come as a surprise. The moody chanteuse performing under the nom de plume "The Waking Point," has been making a name for herself through her unique stratagem in creating nostalgia-inductive rock tunes that drip with ominous energy since her years of enormous workloads and sleepless nights that come with achieving a Doctoral Degree. It wasn't long until Belica's Music would attract remark, being featured on Loudwire and The Deli LA for her authentic combination of Acid-rock arrangements and the ceremonious theatrics that deduce behind each live performance, or behind each take in the vocal booth.
With this year blanketing the entire globe within a bleak pensive state, it's not clear whether to be more outraged by the pandemic, the social injustices surround minorities, or the climate deteriorating in plain sight.
It's a sentiment that the Chicago-native tries to encapsulate through her Moniker, which she's stated as being incited by "the public's resistance to face the threat of climate change." That being said, the most apparent frustration she holds with the state of affairs can be felt, heard, and pictured through her latest hot-blooded Gloom-Rock Extended Play, 'Rose Colored Violence.'
Here, Belica gathers from the touchstones of her influences in Nirvana, Alice and Chains, and Black Sabbath, for a dusky witching-hour venture through an EP that leaves a distinct buzzing after-taste in your mouth. With relentless oozy vibe, black-hued reverberating rooms, and scintillating guitars orchestrations, Belica takes her serrated vocal edges and uses them to cut through the cobwebs of the Contemporary norm, and traverses into a unique and uncontested territory of dusky, obscure, and festering sonic voids.
The Eponymously titled single off "Rose Colored Violence" is like an unstoppable force accelerating through an immovable object. Belica and the tight-knit band behind her, featuring a searing electric guitar, an edgy mid-range heavy bass, and all-out thumping drums, thrust forward out of the gates with unrelenting enthusiasm as if the breakthrough a cemented barrier in front of them. When the haughty songstress takes grips over the microphone, her presence and raspy tone communicate an invading sense of vehemence as she chaperones us through her disgruntled narrative of Violence: "It's not the same for me, I've got the violence!"Halfway through the rambunctious dissolving of super-heated 90s inspired guitar solo mark the stanchion in the indisputable affluence this artist has for highlighting her dark Aesthetic and niche and drives it home with a grandiose bang.
There are tracks on this Record that infuse Belica's New-age grit with the cornerstones of '90s most celebrated, namely in the placement of her cover of Nirvana's "Something In The Way," which arrives as the EP's introductory sonic knee buckler. It's a far arms-length stretch from Kurt Cobain's original rendering, but this conceptualization of this classic seclusion story lands somewhere between being reminiscent of Steve Nicks and Early Alice in Chains. Herem, The Waking Point, sounds haunting, and Belica's voice isn't far off from that perception, as the goth-intoner's incantations quiver in unison with herself. It's a big chunk to slice off from the works of a band as profound and game-changing as Nirvana, but unsurprisingly, with the band behind The Waking Point, Sadie Belica proves her rendition is a slam-dunk reimagining of the classic; festooning with her own distinctive, mood-heavy sonic aesthetics.
As you descend further into this EP, a more magnetic and attention-demanding track seizes your curiosities. "Bad Girl" evaporates into existence with the newly welcomed addition of metallic sounding percussion, a down-shifting hook, and distorted harmonic echoings that get absorbed back into the void just as quickly as they arrived.
Over a driving mid-tempo, the verses here feel like the beginnings of a slow evolving eruption; the drums gallop over deep tom-toms, unusual guitars riff over their dystopian chords, and a multitude of Belica's harmonies dissolve and fuse together into the mix's backdrops. The real pandora's box opens up in the chorus, where all of Belica's provocative attitude-saturated dialects maintain cohesion over the down-shift the decrying portions of this track evolve toward. By the time you're at the 4 minutes mark, you might not even remember where you are or what you were doing. It's an experience that takes hold of all your senses. The wall of sound rhetorics that synergies together with the Ozzy inspired sonics traverses the overwhelming moments, thankfully landing somewhere in-between feeling completely intoxicating and hypnotic.
As you meander along the dark-hues passageways of Sadie Baleca's captivating fun-house of sass, horror, and bad-ass qualities, it's obvious the mood-stricken chanteuse has found reign over the dominion of her Niche sound.
From track to track, you're seldom left feeling like the texture, arrangements, and lyrics travel too far off from the initially established anecdote behind her salacious and clad instrumental whirrings. It's a testament to the achievement behind the cohesiveness of this record, and as the song "Go Back To Sleep" lulls us into a final hypnotized state, it feels like homeostasis; she's putting you back together after discombobulating your mind with the goth-like eloquence, sonics, and adhesion found throughout 'Rose Colored Violence.'
Can you walk us through your process of curating the playback of this Record? What was the inspiration behind opening "Rose Colored Violence," with a cover of Nirvana?
The process of curating the playback of this record reflects the musical journey taken during production and what I determined to be the best natural flow of melodies from start to finish. The first track is a spooky and powerful cover of the Nirvana track “Something in the Way”. This track headlines the record for several reasons, the first being that Kurt Cobain is my greatest influence. My reinvention of this song shows my passion for his music but also demonstrates my specific artistical style on a commonly loved grunge track. It is also the strongest track on the record in terms of production, engineering, and vocal performance.
When you think about what this EP means to you as an artist, how would you describe it? Was this a big step for you in the Musical trajectory of things to come?
This was a huge step for me to produce this on my own. Rose Colored Violence was the first melody I ever wrote, but it took me a year of practicing guitar and learning music production before I could produce a solid track from start to finish. For a while, it was very frustrating because I really wanted to be able to produce something perfectly right away, but since I struggled to describe the musical style I wanted to a producer, I had to be patient and invest the time to learn the tech and practice the instruments.
What sorts of emotions did you find yourself channeling into for the tracks you've featured on this EP? and if you could pick one that proved most challenging to record, which would it be?
The EP channels emotions of frustration, obsession, and sarcasm. The complexity of infatuation and emotional abuse, the dissatisfaction and rage with the state of humanity, and the feelings of desperation for a real human connection. The most challenging track to record was Bad Girl due to the tempo changes. It was suggested at one point that I rewrite the track at one tempo, but I love the rush back and forth between BPMs as it fits so well with the bipolar theme of the song.
When you think about where you pulled the most influence from for 'Rose Colored Violence,' does your time in Chicago come to mind as being a crucial aspect?
No, most of the inspiration for this EP comes from my experience living and attending grad school in Australia for four years, and a bit of it was influenced by recent events in Los Angeles.
If you could give your listeners a few words that would act as the Prologue for the experience behind this new Record, what would you feel the need to say and why?
“Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.” – Kurt Cobain
This is totally the embodiment of the EP. I had learned instruments at a young age, but I could never write until I got hurt. Here are my tragedies.