Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Laryssa Birdseye
183 Plays4 years ago
With her ever-growing and enthusiastic fan base, Portland-based pop-soul singer-songwriter Laryssa Birdseye is probably most known for her emotionally- powerful, sometimes scathing “break-up” songs. Laryssa’s ballads and pop anthems effortlessly tap into the universal psyche of women her age around the world who have all experienced heights and pitfalls in that rocky battlefield called love.
But, Laryssa’s innate talent as a songwriter, accomplished vocalist and skilled instrumentalist prove she’s much more than just the latest incarnation of an eternally lovelorn female pop artist. She builds a depth into her songs and live performances inspired by soul and folk/roots influences, without taking herself too seriously while letting her decidedly wicked sense of humor shine.
All-in-all, one could say Laryssa is a next-gen musical artist with a dirty mouth and a heart of gold. Vocally, she’s been in line with the likes of Norah Jones (perhaps with an itty-bitty anger problem), and has been known to elicit comparisons to hit-maker pop sensibilities of singer-songwriters Katy Perry, Pink, and Adele. Laryssa will have you shouting right along with her during one of her empowering anthems, yet can also emotionally-clutch you in the palm of her hand during a somber, intensely moving ballad. Along the way, listeners should be prepared to laugh - a lot, and to feel - a lot.
Backed by her dedicated full band, Laryssa has been gaining recognition as a rising star in her home turf of the Pacific Northwest and – increasingly – the West Coast and wide World beyond. Her 2nd official album, 'Press Play', is a concept EP exploring grief -and its different stages - and was released late 2019. A prolific live show performer, fans can catch her while touring regularly up and down the West Coast and other cities.
This episode features the tracks 'Shame' and 'Barely Friends.'
https://www.patreon.com/laryssabirdseye
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: Meet Larissa Birdside
00:00:03
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Kendall Ante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
Artist's Journey: Childhood to Career
00:00:18
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and very excited to have Larissa Birdside, artist, musical artist, and she's based in Portland. I've really enjoyed her music. She's got some new music that was just released. Larissa, welcome to Something Rather Than Nothing. Hi Ken, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, it's a great pleasure and on the show we like to feature
00:00:46
Speaker
A lot of artists in the Pacific Northwest and in Portland. So I'm very pleased to have you. The first question that I ask each guest is, were you an artist when you were born?
00:01:01
Speaker
I think that's really interesting. I think everyone is an artist when they're born and I think it either gets stamped out of you or it gets encouraged.
Defining Art: Meaning and Community
00:01:09
Speaker
So I would say, even though it sounds a little kind of douchey, but I do think I was an artist when I was born.
00:01:17
Speaker
I was always kind of writing poems and writing songs and writing short stories and painting and drawing little characters and like cutting them out and I don't know I like to create little worlds around me as a kid and I think a lot of a lot of kids are like that we're we're just these
00:01:36
Speaker
amazing, unencumbered, not self-conscious creators. And I think that we live in a world that is structured in a way that is not always very encouraging to creativity unless it makes us lots of money. So I'm just crazy. I'm just crazy, and I'm just doing this thing. Yeah.
The Story Behind 'Shame'
00:02:00
Speaker
And then that comes up a lot, Larissa.
00:02:04
Speaker
you know, there's a kind of thing where people like, oh, the marketplace encourages all art to make and, you know, people to make art and other people's like, you know, it stamps it out. Did you? So you mentioned like that does happen to artists, where it's like you're doing your wild things that you enjoyed doing. Was there a period where you started to like double think that or do you feel like you've had a thread of being like, hey, this is what I want to do. And here's how I'm doing it. Have you been able to hold that for yourself?
00:02:32
Speaker
So I actually was very, very not, not excited or I just didn't think it was possible to be an artist.
00:02:42
Speaker
And we have all of these stories like Van Gogh and all of these people that ended up penniless and impoverished and had miserable lives. And I think it's this major deterrent to pursuing art. And so when I was in high school, I loved theater, I loved music, I loved a lot of
00:03:02
Speaker
a lot of really artistic things. And I also at the same time was like, that's not a possibility. Like that's not a smart thing. That's not like the thing that I could do and I've got to do something else. And so I spent a lot of years like I went to school, I worked in different industries.
Art as Therapy and Connection
00:03:18
Speaker
I tried to be like a real adult. And I just like never, it just always felt
00:03:29
Speaker
sort of miserable. It felt like I was denying this part of myself that I would always come back to. Music was such a big thing for me. And it was kind of like a little quiet escalation of what it was. I never thought that I would be a musician. Actually, I never felt like I was a good musician. I never felt like I loved to write songs and I had a guitar
Musical Evolution and Influences
00:03:53
Speaker
and I would sit and I would write songs with the guitar.
00:03:56
Speaker
And I would never play them for anyone unless I was super drunk. And then little by little, people around me were like, you know, you're actually pretty good at this and you should maybe do something with this. And of course I was terrified. But little by little over time, it took me until I was 25 to really realize, OK, well, I'm unhappy with what I'm doing in my life.
00:04:21
Speaker
that sucks you know like that's not an ideal situation yeah it took me until i was 25 to really get the courage to to kind of shift into something else and i quit my corporate job and it was a really good job and there was a lot of like there was so much fear i was like am i ruining my life like what am i doing um but i just haven't really looked back that's um
00:04:48
Speaker
And that's, well, you know, the piece that was nagging inside of you and, you know, and hearing the music and hearing your art, I'm happy for you in the sense of not, you know, just meeting you, but happy for you to be able to be like, okay, this is where I'm going to go. Like, this is what I'm going to do. And as
Personal Struggles and Artistic Growth
00:05:10
Speaker
an artist, but another conceptual question for you, digging into a little bit more of your music.
00:05:18
Speaker
What is art? Like you're an artist and you decide to be an artist in your recording. But what is art? That's a really big question, but also I think like a really simple question. I think art is just
00:05:35
Speaker
just the act of creating anything from something like that didn't exist or something immaterial, you know, like something that wasn't maybe just comes from you, like art can be just you're with your friends around a campfire and
00:05:50
Speaker
Someone sings a line someone sings a riff and you harmonize over that that's art That's something that didn't like necessarily exist before it's something I mean, maybe it did but those notes have been sung before of course But like you haven't sung that with this person in this place and you're creating something that
00:06:07
Speaker
wasn't there and it's nice and it feels good and it feels wonderful to do it. There's physical art, you can dish it with all sorts of different things, but I think it's just the act of creating something that didn't exist before.
Sobriety and Creativity
00:06:23
Speaker
Art can be buildings, architecture is definitely art.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's why I think we're all artists, you know, like we kind of assign this title of artists to the people that are that are like really doing it or like trying to make a living out of it But I think we're all very artistic I mean you can you walk into a house and it's it's there's art everywhere the way that something is designed is we're all creating art all the time Yeah, and it's a I think I think
00:06:51
Speaker
A lot of times in the conversation I had, it has to do with like noticing that there's been this intention with the piece or like how we do populate our homes where we don't say, look at all the art that's in my home. But when you walk in and look around and see the paintings or see this or see an object, you're like, this is very
Existential Creativity: Why Something?
00:07:09
Speaker
artistic, right? But we don't think about it as deliberately. As I mentioned at the beginning, Larissa, I really enjoy your music. And I don't want to like
00:07:21
Speaker
When I have a musical guest and I have a song that I mention, I don't like to let them, like the audience, like, Oh, what is this song? What is this song? So I want to play the song, but could you just talk about, just mention the track, Shame. I know it was recently released, but anything you want to say about it before we plunge into it?
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, so I wrote shame in my car on the way back from Bend in the car. My little brother lives in Bend, and so I'd spent the holidays with him because it was COVID, and I could only hang out with my little brother because he's young, and we figured if we got each other sick, we probably wouldn't die. That was the year that we all had. Yeah.
00:08:05
Speaker
But I'd gotten a text from a mutual friend of someone that I no longer talk to. And it was, it was like I hadn't spoken to this person and it was a very intentional break. Like I just couldn't, I couldn't handle it anymore. It was just very toxic and unhealthy for me. I didn't want to hear anything about this person and I got a text that was something about him.
00:08:29
Speaker
And I just was like, I just spiraled. I was like, like, fuck this guy. And then I was just so
Originality in Art
00:08:34
Speaker
sad because I realized it wasn't like, it wasn't like a fuck this person. It was like, fuck, it's like such a shame that we'll never, we'll just never be close or be friends ever again. And so there's, it's, it's very, it's like a very bitter, very,
00:08:53
Speaker
There's a lot of pain. There's a lot of anger. There's a lot of bitterness. There's a lot of pain. But also, I really think that every single one of my songs is just a love song. I'm just not very good at communicating that I love you. Usually it's like, fuck you. I'm very proud. Even when they're like, I literally hope you die, they're all love songs. Let's just say, I love you.
00:09:18
Speaker
They're all love songs, but based on how you're able to communicate your
Current and Future Projects
00:09:22
Speaker
love. That is great. I'm like, well, you fucked me over. So I obviously don't love you. But like, the syntax is like, oh, no, I do. I love it. Everybody, we're cutting to Larissa Bird's eye track, Shame.
00:09:43
Speaker
I'm so fucking tired of the ways of which I feel so thrown away I cannot say the things you say I mean it What should I say you said? Cause boy I treat you like you're dead You cut a hole inside my head and I can't stop the bleeding You can make or break me
00:10:19
Speaker
Shame, shame, honey, isn't it? Shame, shame, shame, honey, isn't it? Kept me like a secret, like a promise I believed in and the devil's in the details but I never got him Treat me like I'm nothing and I promise I'll come running
00:10:48
Speaker
Can't stop you You can make a break me You look good to make me Would've followed you all of the way down Boy, you got me shakin' Down to my foundation All that's left to say is What a fucking shame Shame Shame
00:11:20
Speaker
Honey, isn't it up You'll just be somebody that I used to know That I, that I used to know I'm the fantasy, you'll never get to hold Oh, no, you'll never hold Everything I gave you just walked away
00:11:48
Speaker
I'll just be somebody that you
00:12:47
Speaker
Congrats on that track. It's a great track and it's a fresh release.
00:12:57
Speaker
I've really enjoyed your music. You mentioned you got some acoustic EP. I was wondering if you mentioned a little bit about that. I had said I hadn't even encountered your acoustic stuff. What about that?
00:13:11
Speaker
Started out as an acoustic sort of singer-songwriter, folkier kind of artist, mostly out of necessity. I could play acoustic guitar and I didn't know any players and so I would hit open mics around town.
00:13:27
Speaker
and just play by myself. And so it was a very minimalist sort of thing. And as time has gone on, I've obviously gotten a lot more into more produced pop tracks, which I love. It's funny because Portland, Oregon is not a pop music town. But when I was little, I think I was always a closet. I just closet loved pop music. Absolutely. But you couldn't really do that. You had to be a little bit of a hipster, and you're like,
00:13:57
Speaker
No, I kind of listened to that. I only listened to Jeff Buckley. But I was bumping. I was bumping out the old shit. So now I'm doing that more. But I do also still love to strip it down to what the song really at its essence is, especially if it's more lyric driven.
00:14:18
Speaker
And so I was able to record a couple songs at the Hallowed Halls recently and I did an acoustic recording of one of my last singles I put out in May called Porcelain and I did that with James Via who also produced the track.
00:14:33
Speaker
And a cello player named Yoko, who's amazing. I can't remember their last name. And then a girl named Rain Ezra sang backup vocals. And so it's just like a beautiful rendition. But my favorite song off of that.
00:14:49
Speaker
Project is a song called Barely Friends and I had just written the song a couple days before and it was one of these things where the song wasn't necessarily ready. I just recently started playing piano in the last year so I'm not like
00:15:07
Speaker
a terrific piano. I'm a competent piano player at this point. So I played keys, rain sing backup. And I just delivered like a very honest performance. And I think it turned out really beautifully. And it's one of my favorite things I've done to date, honestly. That's great. And for listeners, we'll have barely friends at the end of the episode. Larissa, I want to go back. You're talking about what
00:15:34
Speaker
you know, what art is. I have a question that's connected to that for artists and is, what do you think the role of art is? What does art do for us? Oh, I can only say what it does for me. It sort of gives me like a reason to to to keep doing things. Like, I don't know. I just I love I love being able to create. It really it's it's really meditative for me.
00:16:04
Speaker
it really calms me down. I think
00:16:09
Speaker
It's sort of the glue that binds us all together. When you go to a new city, you wanna go to an art museum or you wanna see a show or you want to read something that is by someone that, I don't know, someone's recommended you something that changes your life. I love reading also. I was an English major before I dropped out of college to be a musician. But I think the purpose of art is just to kind of
00:16:38
Speaker
make you feel less alone in what you're going through, kind of remind you that the human experience that you have individually is not just your own. Like we share all of these experiences and we might live them out in different ways, but really we are bound by some pretty basic emotions and basic experiences. It's love, it's loss, it's grief, it's anger, it's betrayal. It's all of these things that like,
00:17:08
Speaker
can completely fucking bust us to pieces. And I think the role of the artist is to take their own pain and transmute it into something that is like, hey, you guys, this is mine. And I think people that aren't necessarily able to create that, like when I was going through a major kind of upheaval in my life,
00:17:35
Speaker
a few years ago and I was writing a lot. I was just like really writing my way through it. I talked to a lot of people and they, you know, what do they do when they go through something shitty? They drink, you know, a lot of people drink or, you know, they do other things, but they don't write a million songs about it. And I think
00:17:53
Speaker
That's what artists do. So when someone is going through some really horrible shit, they can listen to a song and connect to it. And I mean, I've done that with other artists too, where I listen to a song, I hear it, and I'm like, you've written my experience. And I'm so grateful for that because it definitely makes me feel less alone or less alienated. And it's really beautiful. It's super powerful to have that, to have that connecting, that binding
00:18:20
Speaker
thing. It's pretty, it's pretty great. I think art is the only thing that makes life worth living, honestly. It's like this little glimmer in like a world that we've created that can be really oppressive and constraining. But yeah. No, I, I really appreciate your words. I mean, you know, just like
00:18:39
Speaker
the realness of the experience and trying to convey that to others. One of the things I find with music is, and I appreciate you saying that about pop because even on the show,
00:18:55
Speaker
But I think a lot of times I find in talking to others where they've kind of limited like what music they allow themselves to listen to or there's so much like identity that's created around liking something that they don't want that identity. Like they don't want that identity. So like like an example for me is like I adore Taylor Swift. I think she's like I can go on and on. But I adore
00:19:24
Speaker
the music, I endure how it's produced and the pop aspects of it. And, you know, so I listened to a ton of that, but yeah.
00:19:33
Speaker
I go when I go to live shows, I go to I go to Doom Metal shows because that type of intensity and that type of community is the most powerful for me. So for myself, I like that. I'm like, OK, moving from this to that. But I have conversations with others, and I think a lot of times they still kind of like want to enjoy certain things or they want to indulge in, you know, Larissa's song or like this pop song. But they're like, oh, that's kind of, you know,
00:20:03
Speaker
And I always find that so curious, you know, like it's almost like the openness, you know, to experience our elders art.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, I find that as I get older, I care a lot less about that. Like I just don't, because I love Taylor Swift too. And I think I was like a little baby hipster when I was younger. Like I feel like my dad was like the original hipster. He was born in like 1939 and he was like, I don't know. I don't know. He just imbued it in me of like, no, this is for, this is for the normals. We don't enjoy this.
00:20:34
Speaker
I grew up listening to Britney Spears and Mariah Carey and Destiny's Child and Beyonce, all of that. It's funny because looking back now at the early 2000s of what R&B was, that was such a classic era. I was in some restaurant the other night.
00:20:57
Speaker
all of these early 2000 R&B duets came on. And I remember they were all on the radio at the time. And I think that a lot of my friend group, we were very not into liking what was on the radio, even though we secretly loved it. Now, they're just the absolute cuts. They're so good. And it's just like, OK, well, why don't I just enjoy what we enjoy?
00:21:23
Speaker
That's kind of where I'm at right now. Even if it's garbage. Even if something is like...
00:21:29
Speaker
super, like, super, you know, bubbly and whatever. Like, there are still elements of it that are enjoyable. I don't know. It's, again, like, we all have a tendency to be, like, art snobs. Like, everyone wants to be a critic. And sometimes, like, just enjoy it, you know? Everything is its different thing. Like, there's gonna be things that you like because of the artistry of it. Like, I really, I really, really love Phoebe Bridgers right now. I don't know if you're familiar with her as an artist. Yeah, I love her. I think she's, like,
00:21:59
Speaker
As far as lyricist goes, I listen to her lyrics and I'm like, oh my God, what did you fucking do here? What did you do? And that's not necessarily how I write or how I construct. I feel like her lyrics are more like, it's almost like prose. It's like poetry and the way that she fits shit together.
00:22:20
Speaker
And I really appreciate that. I really like that about her. It's definitely not how I write. I tend to be more blunt to the point. Because when I first started writing, I thought that the more convoluted or maybe the more interesting or kind of hidden you could make things would be a better song. And I realized I was like, okay, well, this is just like...
00:22:44
Speaker
confusing and bullshit and not executed particularly well. So I realized like what works for me was just to be completely like punchy, honest. And there's like a cleverness in that which I'm like, you know, we're just we're just all doing different things. Yeah, yeah. No, I like the thinking about how you how you speak about it. Sometimes it is just like the
00:23:08
Speaker
the reality or the blunt truth of it. And it's your way of expressing. And I wanted to ask another question, Larissa, and it's a bigger conceptual one, but it has to do just about you and what's influenced you. And the question is this, is what or who made you who you are? Like musician wise or like,
00:23:35
Speaker
And like, just people-wise? People-wise, you, Larissa Bergside, it's her show. Well, I definitely think my family has been a giant influence on who I am in very positive ways and in very interesting ways. I have a very, I have a very interesting family of cast of characters and
00:24:01
Speaker
Like my dad was a, my dad is a retired English professor and like grew up in the Bronx in the thirties and just like super, super highly educated. Like I was PhD from Columbia. Like my mom is just like an absolute badass. She's a doctor. Like she's, she's just like a very strong woman. Like I was raised, I just kind of was raised to believe that like I could,
00:24:28
Speaker
really do anything that I wanted. Not in a shitty, the world is swarming kind of way, but in a way that you're not limited by being a girl. You're smart and you're capable and you're talented and go do it. So I think my parents were a big influence on that. I think I was like,
00:24:57
Speaker
I had a lot of growing pains when I was younger. I went through a lot of shit in high school. I had a pretty bad eating disorder that kind of spun me out super early. So I was like 13 going through this really intense kind of secret unraveling. I was like a child, you know? So I think I was going through a really,
00:25:27
Speaker
Like a really just a big nightmare super super early on so like most of what I was focused on was just like survival at a time when kids were like Oh, like where am I going to school and like what do I want for my life? I was like I Don't know if I'm gonna like survive to 17 kind of thing. I want to make sure I get there tomorrow. Yeah
00:25:51
Speaker
I mean, honestly, at that point, it was more like I was so held captive by the eating disorder. Like it was just a very intense. I'm very appreciative for what I know. I think everything that you go through, like every experience, especially when it's something with your brain, when it's some compulsion, whether it's addiction or some sort of debilitating,
00:26:17
Speaker
eating disorder, it kind of carves into you this, you don't necessarily need to understand what it's like to kind of lose your mind a bit. But I think if you can know that and be able to come back on the other side and kind of like regain your shit,
00:26:37
Speaker
I think it has given me a lot of insight into all of the nuances of what it is to be human. It was just a weird time. I also think it gave me
00:26:51
Speaker
less of an interest in doing what everyone else was doing. I kind of fucked that up early. I was like, well, I'm not doing what you're doing, because I can't eat. So I think as I got older, when I really decided, when I was like, OK, well, I want to do what makes me happy. And following that has been a really, really, really great time. Yeah.
00:27:18
Speaker
I've been very close in my life, very close to individuals who've worked through eating disorders. And I myself haven't consumed alcohol since September 9th, 2009. That's amazing. Yeah, thank you. And so yeah, on that. And one of the things it seems like almost sometimes there's a chance aspect to it because people ask me about sobriety and I'm like,
00:27:48
Speaker
I'm not giving up my sobriety date because it's 999. You know what I mean? Like I'm not like, I'm not going to drink, you know, it's obviously I shouldn't drink for other reasons, but I'm not going to drink because I get the coolest sobriety date ever and I'm not giving it up. No, that's, that's incredible. Yeah. I, I myself am, I'm at 80 days of not drinking and this is,
00:28:10
Speaker
After, before the pandemic kind of fucked the world, I had had 14 months of sobriety and then everything kind of fell apart and I was like, I'm all alone. So that's amazing that you were able to get through that year. I was just, I was so early in my sobriety and I think I did it, I think I did it in a way that was very like constricting. So now I'm a little, I'm a little more like, I don't know,
00:28:39
Speaker
I'm learning that being sober does not mean that I can isolate from everyone, which is what I was doing the first year of sobriety. Obviously, I'm always in bars, I'm always in venues, I'm traveling around in high stress situations, but I've always been able to remove myself at the end and get away from everyone. But I've been trying to force myself to, maybe not force myself, but become more comfortable with this idea
00:29:07
Speaker
Then I can sit with my anxiety or I can I can kind of like work with that and then instead of fear like fearing the feeling of anxiety and like retreating to you know Like my home or like my you know, my bedroom just to kind of completely get away from everyone
00:29:25
Speaker
you know I'm just yeah well it sounds like you know I know sometimes with the with the you know moving into sobriety it's almost like there's like a certain need of room to breathe right because I know like even for myself it was like um like how do you navigate life number one like uh you know how do you have fun in these settings that I always used to be at how it can have fun anymore then you can't do the settings and so there's a lot there's a lot to navigate about like how you see yourself and and and how you define yourself but um
00:29:56
Speaker
um well uh best of luck you know each day Larissa I mean you know as a person me to you um you know good good good for you we're gonna jump yeah we're gonna jump from from that to like a question that I think most guests think is inherently unfair and too big but the question is why is there something rather than nothing why is there something rather than nothing
00:30:24
Speaker
It reminds me of that song, that nothing from nothing comes nothing. I don't know. Something that I'm a nothing. Oh, you're a bastard. Yes, I knew it. I mean, I guess we could relate this back to art. I feel like a pageant queen. I feel like a very stumped pageant queen right now.
00:30:47
Speaker
I mean, because there can never be nothing. Everything is creation. Everything, you know, like that's what we do. We can't really like live in nothing. We're always going to make some other shit, you know? That's what we create.
00:31:05
Speaker
Yeah. One of the things that I hear a lot when I ask a different question early on, it has to do with making things. And a lot of times, the language people use, I heard it from you a bit too, is when you've created something and it's through here, have you reconfigured existing things, or is it
00:31:30
Speaker
This is my new thing. And it's from Larissa. It's from Ken. And here it is out into the world. So it's always like it feels to me like how you made the thing, you know, and whether that came from nothing or came truly from something. But I think it comes from something.
00:31:51
Speaker
I think you'd be hard pressed to find anything that is truly original. I think we're all building off of things that we've learned or heard.
00:32:05
Speaker
especially with music, there's such a limited amount of notes. There's only so much you can do and you hear a song and it gets in your brain at some level, maybe a year later, something similar comes. Sometimes I'll write a song and I'll bring it to the band or I'll hear it later and I'm like,
00:32:25
Speaker
Fuck it's that song and it's not even conscious like I'm not even doing it consciously which is funny because now there are all sorts of lawsuits where it's like no, this is my song and and maybe sometimes there's there's you know, like blatant kind of stealing but I think it's kind of silly because fuck everything every song is every other song
00:32:44
Speaker
It's sort of, you know, but it's all original. It's all like, it's maybe not like, it's all borrowed. Like we're all borrowing from each other all of the time. We can't, we can't really have like a completely original thought because it's, we're so, we're so influenced by, by everyone else around us, by everything else that we read or we hear. And
00:33:06
Speaker
I was really fascinated by that. When I was younger, I had this afternoon of this awakening. For the first time in my life, I really opened my eyes and saw the world as it was, and I was laughing. I was like, what the fuck are we doing? What are we doing here? I was watching everyone drive around in their cars. I was like, why? What? It was just beautiful. I could really, really see
00:33:31
Speaker
everything like for what it was and it dissipated pretty quickly but it was pretty like it really stuck with me the like the potency of that but I was just thinking like what what do I believe that's like truly me and can I actually know that but like what do I believe that I've been conditioned to believe and and how do I unpack that and what's useful and what's not useful so it's all
00:33:53
Speaker
I mean, I got away with it, but. You got to you got to wait. It's what you can can can get away with it. So, yeah, it was a bastard of a question, but you hit it. You nailed it. So, you know, leave us.
00:34:10
Speaker
One of the things I want, I want you to convey to listeners, as you know, I encountered your music through a friend and then, you know, you got some on YouTube and you're on Spotify. Larissa, can you tell the listeners right now what you're putting out, where to find you, where, you know, where to interact, whatever, you know, where do they find Larissa Birdsock?
00:34:36
Speaker
I would love to plug my Spotify. I've released an EP this year called Wildfire. I released a two-track EP called The Hallowed Hall of Sessions. And then I've been releasing singles pretty steadily, so I released Porcelain in May, and then I released Shame.
00:34:54
Speaker
A couple days ago, I'll be releasing another single called, Grow the Fuck Up, and then a single called, Happy Now, later in the fall. And those are my plans, so I've been working with a couple different really talented producers, Ryan Lewis, who's worked with Doja Cat in the past, and then James Villa, who I've worked on the last couple singles, who's so talented, he's young, and he's going.
00:35:20
Speaker
He's going to the top. Yeah, you can tell. Yeah. He's just great. And he's lovely to work with. So follow me on Spotify. I'm doing a lot this year. And then I'm mostly active on my Instagram. I post a lot there. I think Facebook is becoming a little bit more irrelevant. I think we all just, we abused Facebook too much with political tirades last year. And I think we're very much finished. I think abuse is the proper word in that sense. Yeah.
00:35:49
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean I'm still on Facebook. I still update YouTube. I put out a lot of music videos. I'm actually putting out a pretty
00:35:56
Speaker
pretty wild music video for Shame that I filmed with my friend Adam Sweeney of Adama Creative. So we built like a, we spent a full week building this. Like we did it super, super DIY, picked up like a ton of brick and stone and we built this kind of like old ruined temple and like had platforms and a whole thing, we had torches.
00:36:23
Speaker
and basically shot a ritual sort of sacrificial music video. People are going to be pretty upset. It's not satanic. It's not satanic. It's just the vibe of a horror movie. So I'm putting that out in a couple weeks, and then I've got a lyric video coming for shame, which I'm really
00:36:46
Speaker
I'm really, really happy with just like a really, really cool concept. And yeah, just a bunch of stuff coming, honestly. I spent last year really kind of incubating because I had to, we were, usually I'm pretty slammed with playing shows. And I, for the first time in like a couple of years, I had time to really sit and write. And I wrote more than a hundred songs and kind of
00:37:16
Speaker
Paired it down to what I thought would be worth it to put out and kind of spend time with. So now I've been in a release cycle. I've been having a lot of fun. It's definitely a different side to it. It sort of feels a little relieving to not be as manically creative. And now I'm kind of like in the business side of things, which I think is healthy. It's all an ebb and flow. I think if I was like straight creative for a really long time, I think I would Vincent van Gogh myself. I think it's too much. Yeah.
00:37:44
Speaker
I think, and it was, thanks for sharing that because I want folks to connect to your art.
00:37:52
Speaker
I will say on the shame, and I saw the visuals for it. I mentioned you maybe before we went on, I love horror, and I just love all that aspect. So I was almost maniacally, I'd be like, where's the video for this? I know she has to have popped out of it. So when you mentioned the video, I'm like, OK, now I'm waiting. It's coming, it's coming. That's great to hear.
00:38:17
Speaker
Larissa, I just want to let you know I've been very pleased to connect with you and learn about your art and your thinking and about how you create it and for the songs on this episode that I know listeners will enjoy. Because of your productivity and the horror that was, is the pandemic, I know you have
00:38:42
Speaker
a lot of stuff coming out. So, you know, the benefits maybe from from my side of, you know, getting that material super appreciated. But I want to let you know, it's been a pleasure to meet you and hear about your thinking on art and philosophy. Yeah. And best of luck, you know,
00:39:03
Speaker
you mentioned is like what you can get away with. I just want you to get away with as much as you need and want to. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ken. It's been a pleasure speaking with you as well. Absolutely. And hopefully you'll have a chance to talk soon. Take care, Larissa. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much. Bye bye. Bye bye. I'm so sick of watching everybody leave.
00:39:32
Speaker
I'm so tired of feeling this fucking empty You say that you're sorry but I don't think that you are All you did was cut me open and deny that you left scars I hate you Like I promised not to
00:40:02
Speaker
And the worst part is all of the time I've spent playing pretend I guess we were barely lovers I guess we were barely friends And I wish I had never met you
00:40:31
Speaker
And I wish I had never asked you to be part Of any of my music because now I hate the sound Of my voice when I am singing about how you tore me down I hate you Like I promise not to
00:40:59
Speaker
But is all of the time I spent playing pretend I guess we were barely lovers I guess we were barely friends And I wish I had never met you in that bar
00:41:38
Speaker
The night that I keep singing about what you did to me I can't stop fucking singing about how you destroyed me I hate you How could you expect me not to?
00:42:03
Speaker
The worst part is how much of me I gave you in the end So I guess that we're not lovers And I guess that we're not friends And someday when you see me And I'm happy and concerned
00:42:19
Speaker
I hope to God you don't come near enough to ruin it And now that it's all over, I guess there's no need to pretend We were barely lovers, honey, we were never friends