STACK J#165 Jul 2018

MUSIC NEWS

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I definitely feel like even though it was so f-cked up, it really helped me to feel fearless, and boundary-less. Who are we hearing speak and play on Mars and Saturn ? That’s my little brother, Ruben. He’s an amazing piano player! All throughout my youth, living at home, he would play the piano – since he was about seven. I gave him my iPhone [and] asked him to record some of his originals. It’s not perfected or anything, it’s just him recording himself for the first time. His words just [described] his beautiful little brain processes that he was having. It felt really humble. You’ve said that you realised elements from '00s music, contemporary at the time just before or just after your sister passed away, were finding their way into the album. Do you think you hold those things in more reverence than the rest of us, who might be quicker to cringe at our 14-year-old selves? Yeah… I was like, wow, maybe this is my 14-year-old self trying to express herself through this music. And a part of me might still be stuck there, in that shock zone, or when life was happier – the past kind of 11 years. I guess I just had this really natural affiliation with songs like Teenage Dirtbag and even Stacey’s Mum ! Or Blink-182, Britney Spears… all this stuff that was just the beginning of pop music for me. I was like, f-ck it, I love this so much, I don’t care what anyone thinks. This is going in. Her Smile is very clearly about your sister. Did you begin with this one because you wanted to be as honest as possible? That song, I really purposely put it there. It begins with a demo that was the first time I ever wrote that song. So it just feels really honest and vulnerable. And even though [the album] goes through so many places, I wanted to start in a really honest place. Also it gets kind of supernatural at the end and a bit mystical… I don’t know what the word is, but ’spiritual’, for me. I wanted to kind of open the doors to the album. If we just started with a banger, then you're not really aware of the story. ZKR

INTERVIEW

JACK RIVER On her debut Sugar Mountain , Holly Rankin (AKA Jack River) has turned her personal grief inside out, and exposed its glowing inner lining.

that time in my life! I think I realised that when I was writing In Infinity , which is the last song. I felt so low

On Ballroom you sing in perfect fifths, over and over, and it gives this really hopeful effect.Was that a feeling you were deliberately trying to craft? Yeah, I think it was pretty

and detached and far away from everything, that I felt infinite. Like there were no boundaries, no fears anymore, ‘cause I didn’t

F-ck it, I love this so much, I don’t care what anyone thinks. This is going in

conscious. That song, for me, is all about getting out of some dark place into something lighter, and

care about anything. I realised – because I guess everything in this album is about trying to re-think your darkness –

knowing that I need to get there. I had the song for maybe four years or so, and whenever I went back to it, I just felt stronger and stronger about moving forward. So I tried to keep adding that into the song and making it feel as strong as possible.

that when you lose your fear, you’re stranded on a boat that can go anywhere.

The aftermath of your sister’s death was very public, and you’ve described the feeling of detachment that came after it, which was freeing to you – you felt so separated that the usual anchors couldn’t colour your existence any more.When did you become aware of that feeling? That’s one of the coolest findings from

OG O.C. In addition to Wheatus and Fountains Of Wayne, Holly tapped into another teen love, but from the screen: "I was feeling The O.C. heaps! There's one song by Finley Quaye, which I probably copied. Whoopsie." That'd be Dice , from the first ever The O.C. Mix soundtrack.

Sugar Mountain by Jack River is out now via I OH YOU.

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JULY 2018

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