ETTA VALE
Arkansa native Etta came over to Florence, but unlike most America tourists she stayed. After so many spellbinding sessions at The Tapes, we persuaded her to bring her sorrow and stories to a safe space and be among friends.
The Tapes tag says we are all about ‘the truth’, and this is as brutal and unflinching as it gets.
Etta Vale | Acoustic Poettry from the Edge/h1>
“I still can’t believe that all those stories I wrote down, then turned into songs will be heard by people other than myself”
Transmit 3. E Vale
Etta came to Florence with a lot of baggage for a tourist. “I needed a break from home, too many memories, too much hurt,” Etta explains. Kind of a cliché for an American to come to Florence, but a friend had to give up her ticket, so why not?
“I didn’t look to ‘find’ anything, but I did, I met Mujiki and she dragged me into The Tapes’ Florence studio, borrowed me an old acoustic and told me to get it all out.”
“I can’t tell you how much I cried that night” recalls Mujiki “We all did. Etta played all these amazing songs, til like 3am. Then she stopped playing and said “Well, that’s all I got for now” and we were like, stunned. Total silence, every hair on end. It was a real moment
“She just so pure and honest and her voice is like the most ringing bell. Normally darkStylus are throwing every synth and effect at tracks, but for Etta, they just put up two vintage mics and hit record, that was it.”
“It was something, that’s for sure” Etta recalls, not a little emotional. “I did do it, get it all that, least most of. And it really helped me think of them as actual songs, not just these ‘things’ I carried round with me. We’ve worked on them more now, added some backing musicians who are great, explore them a little further. I don’t know if I’ll ever let those demos out, they’re not secrets now, I’m glad that people can hear them, but those originals? Too soon I think.”
“Some dark studio, deep in Florence, one night, just me playing, wine and cigarettes. I found me some friends. and that moment, it’s like “our thing”, you know.
“Now I don’t know what that means, and maybe I never will, all’s I know is I ain’t leaving here anytime soon.”
/ there was that time when a ceiling became a sky / and it suddenly struck me that it's ok to die
/ there was that time when a ceiling became a sky / and it suddenly struck me that it's ok to die
Ceiling / Sky
#DarkArc 009
A brutal and unflinching look at addiction and it’s fatalist flipside. Overdosing on s stranger’s kitchen floor sees not only her life kaleidoscope past her, but also the chance for peace and release.
“Your ceiling’s clouds open, and I find I’m floating up / To the place us losers go, when there’s simply no more luck.”
No romanticism, no avoiding blame, just dying on a stranger’s floor and it’s all your fault.
Please be aware, this song talks about addiction and suicide, if these are difficult subjects for you, please exercise caution when listening.
Your smoke stained ceiling, it becomes a spreading sky
And I really don’t mind at all, that I’m about to die
I always knew it would come, you know, this day
And deep down, it’s a secret thing I want anyway
Before I Became A Tree
#DarkArc 011
“I can still see you and me / And my heart still breaks at what we were meant to be,”
We all have regrets sure, but some cut deeper than others, and this one, for Etta, breaks her so much she changes her very self to save herself from the memory.
Do we discover why this all came to end, why did two people destined for an eternity together lose it all? Do we want to know?
In some strange forest, you can see a tree
Beneath its bark, there's whats left of me
Remembering that brief time, when we were one
But now around its roots, my tears make a river run
Big love to FugaceFugace for Etta’s ‘Darkansas’ coat, photoshoot, artwork and illustration
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