Author | Shea Carmen Swan
Featured image by Norman Wong
https://soundcloud.com/artsandcrafts/lowell-cloud-69
Lowell’s red silk kimono glitters in the dimly lit Brooklyn Night Bazaar. As her fingers wrap around the microphone her heart pours out through the speakers. Singing passionately with her eyes shut, she reveals warrior-streaked, radiantly pink eye shadow. Lowell sounds like Sleigh Bells (with less angst) and PJ Harvey’s lovechild.
When Lowell took center stage on Valentine’s Day, she began playing to a few people sitting at adjacent tables. By the end of her set the crowd she enticed had gathered around the Bazaar’s stage. She seduced and mesmerized her audience with her stage presence. As Lowell jumped, danced, and sung, she brought everyone into the moment with her.
Lowell’s music career began when she was only 3 with her parents signing her up for piano lessons, which she appreciates now because music comes to her naturally: “I found out music was a way to let out my emotions and how I felt about society and the world and my life and my own experiences.” It was this realization that fueled her to make music her career.
On Lowell’s upcoming album, We Loved Her Dearly, the song LGBT was inspired by her frustration from overhearing homophobic guys on the train while she was living in England.
“…One of the guys was saying that guy is so faggy, fuckin fag, he’s so gay, and was obviously talking about a straight guy in a derogatory term… I was like, man, fucking love, don’t hate on love, what’s your problem?” says Lowell. “… So I had an idea, if I made the most poppiest, happy, most catchy tune, possible for gay rights that no one can deny, will people actually sing along, and think about it and be like wait, don’t hate on love, that’s so catchy and fun to say, and maybe they’ll even believe it?”
Lowell’s music is entirely based off of her own hardships and life experiences. She genuinely advocates for LGBTQ rights by embedding herself as an out bisexual woman into her lyrics. While producing “LGBT” she wondered if critics would chastise and accuse her of exploiting the LGBTQ community. “… it really does come from the heart, and if I make a pop tune about gay rights maybe people will sing along and feel like they can support it too.”
Lowell shares her triumph of surviving an abusive relationship and being raped through the song Words Were The War on her new album. “That one is my empowerment,” she explains, “because I wrote it the day I finally got out of that relationship, and the main hook is I don’t need him anymore. Finally being able to get out of that and being like I’m better than this and I’m a human being and I have feelings and I’m also extremely intelligent, and the fact that you’re treating me this way makes you a shitty person, not me.”
Lowell sings about hushed issues such as rape and abuse because she believes by not speaking out we perpetuate the deadly silence surrounding these problems. Her latest EP, I Killed Sarah V, addresses gay rights, rape, and women who are forced into prostitution. “In general people won’t say ‘rape’ – the forbidden word. The fact that people won’t say this word is what makes it so difficult to feel like you didn’t do something wrong.”
Writing lyrics comes easy for Lowell. Her songs are layered with multiple meanings in an effort to allow everyone to relate. “It’s almost like freestyling… when you start thinking of a purpose of a song then you start thinking of puns and ways you can subtly slip things in there. Sometimes there are three reasons to write a song, one is lighthearted, one is super deep and dark, and one is in the middle somewhere about breakfast or something.”
Lowell’s set at Brooklyn Night Bazaar on February 14, 2014 came to a close with a standing ovation from her captivated fans. The beads of sweat trickling down her face were testaments to the heart and soul in her enthusiastic performance. New York is eagerly and impatiently waiting upon her return.
Check out a small video clip I took at the show below:
For additional information:
Visit the iTunes store to purchase I Killed Sarah V and other tunes.
