Fousheé
Fousheé’s new album ‘softCORE’ has been described as an angry punk-esque deviation from her previous work. When we spoke she said anger and honesty were the main ingredients behind this project. Perhaps we are leaning into a realm of “genreless” music because music isn’t about those institutions anymore. In a world following years of post pandemic introspection music is becoming a reflection of our fragmented emotions. Fousheé held a specific rage, therefore her music does. Her guitar and vocals on ‘softCORE’ transform into screaming, pulsing life forms that are hard not to relate to. The honesty in her recognition of ongoing change both sonically and lyrically are not due to musical constructs, but rather base feelings. Fousheé says her inconsistency will be consistent, and that’s exactly where the world is too.
There’s a lot of collaboration in your work, how was that utilized in making softCORE?
Mostly I liked to write my own stuff for this project. I did collaborate with friends on some of the songs, but as far as production I like to mix it up a lot and work with people who know how to play instruments, and get different instruments involved. Like the violin on ‘stupid bitch’. I love to use
live instruments, but mostly, I like to just mash up different sounds and genres.
How does the proliferation of different sounds translate to your live performance?
I mean, the setup on this tour has been pretty simple. I play with guitar, bass and drums and to do some tracks. I will say of all the music that I've made this is the most dynamic. It's been an interesting journey and it was more complicated than I thought. I feel like the main instrument is still guitar. Last tour I was playing a lot of the guitar but I had to sacrifice it for the nails. For most of my life I haven’t worn nails because I wanted to keep them short for the guitar. So for this tour I really committed to the character.
A lot of your previous work has been quite vocally smooth. In this album you play around with your voice a lot. Was that an intentional choice, to be like, “look, I can do other things”?
Yeah. Outside of the music that I make I think what I listen to kind of spans the spectrum, and people don't know that about me. And they don't know that I'm able to make the things that I haven’t made. I'm not really doing this so that they know how diverse I am. It was just how I felt. I never felt like making this type of music before, but it was a specific time and I was very angry. What type of palette is better than something gritty and grungy like punk and metal?
“Outside of the music that I make I think what I listen to kind of spans the spectrum, and people don't know that about me. And they don't know that I'm able to make the things that I haven’t made. I'm not really doing this so that they know how diverse I am. It was just how I felt. I never felt like making this type of music before, but it was a specific time and I was very angry.”
A lot of the time you get described as a “genreless” musician. The history of Black women in punk, from Betty David to Willow Smith has been described as a ‘sonic extension’ of the punk genre rather than a move away from it. Do you think that your music is “genreless”? Or do you think that you're just expanding whatever genre you're playing with at the time?
I don't even think about genre, it's more feeling based music and I guess just unconsciously, my influences come in. But it's interesting the history of punk and black women and how it's perceived. I guess it's traced down to angry black woman and now people can see that. It’s not always embraced, but I think that it is beautiful. Like, you’ve got anger and it goes beyond genre for me. The genre is like an afterthought, which is sometimes bad. Sometimes I get into a lot of trouble with these music institutions and the different things they want to categorize. And you know, how am I supposed to explain it? It's hard for me to explain what I mean.
Anger in punk has been around since the 70s, but we are seeing a resurgence of it in mainstream music today. Why do you think there has been this resurgence? Or is softCORE based more on a personal anger for you?
I think both, it is personal. Why the resurgence? Maybe it was just having the time to be introspective. We've had a lot of time on our hands the last two or three years. It’s easier to be angry and to identify that you are angry.
How do you tap into the anger when you're trying to get it out in your writing?
With whatever I make, part of my process thinking about how I feel in the moment. I couldn't hide from being angry. It was just there. And I felt like whatever palette it was, like some of these are cyber pop, or are like, gritty, like ‘bored’ and ‘stupid bitch’, I didn't have to search really hard. It was there and I think rather than run from it or suppress it I felt like whatever the sonic foundation was, I wanted to find a way to express that message, and for it not to be perceived negatively.
Anyone could be angry and screaming into a void, but you seem to have a lot of musical support around you. Do you feel lucky that you have that community that enables you to express yourself?
Yeah, I have a lot of open minded, weird friends. They're important. It is helpful. I also have an equal amount of people who support me, but don't understand what this was about, and that was difficult to navigate. A lot of times I felt like, “am I making a mistake by releasing something so specific?” Because really it is based on how I felt during that time, and I’m sure I'll look back and I won’t feel that way anymore. And the next project will be different. My feelings have changed even from that process then to now.
Do you think as audiences we need to be more accepting that music can just be an emotional expression of a musician’s life, regardless of structure?
For me, yeah. I feel like we all have our roles as artists. I feel like for me honesty is the main ingredient, but for some some of my favorite artists I want to listen to them and feel the same way that I know. Like when I listen to them I'm going to get that it’s beautiful and consistent, but I guess I'll be consistently changing.
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