“I haven’t sat idle through my grief and anger, and let the shitty things eat holes in me and ruin me for the rest of my life. My whole adult life I’ve taken a really aggressive attack against falling prey to my own experiences, and to my own reaction to things, and I feel like it’s paying off.”
– Carla Bozulich, FACT
Carla Bozulich is a prolific punk. In addition to her solo work, she’s fronted several bands including Evangelista, Scarnella, Ethyl Meatplow, and Neon Veins; which range widely as far as genre. (How many artists can you say work in folk and noise?) That’s what happens when you’re filled in equal parts anger and empathy.
Bozulich claimed her last solo release Boy was a pop record, though the songs were still fed through her signature gritty sensibilities. Now, she’s got a whole new collection of songs collected as Quieter. The album was inspired by some hearing damage Bozulich sustained. Her liner notes give us the story:
The cover of the album is a cool pic, sure as hell. But to me, it just looks like tour. Tour is just another job where if you do it long enough you get hurt here and there. In 2014 I lost my hearing completely (temporarily) in 1 ear. I kept playing, as always with injury on tour. After all, it is the law of averages. We all know it. Play more than 100 concerts a year doing 90% of the work alone, injuries are occasional. Well, it was a loud tour — a loud set every nite. It was strange for the volume to be cut in half. I cannot play with ear plugs, I was swirling sound every nite like falling but still refusing to behave — sit still — or even cancel. And boy, it was freaky QUIETER. This photo is from one Otolaryngologist I saw in Austria right before the concert in Graz. His treatment was to put me in a 50s Soviet style scalding hot head-heat-box for 20 minutes. After a while I got bored and took some selfies. They came out exactly like this. Thus the cover. It was a Quieter time for me, like — in the van Mats Gustafsson sounded like cherry ice cream. Finally quiet in the fucking van. I couldn’t understand what was happening unless I turned my head. I completely stopped listening to people talk. Strange concerts. Le Guess Who was a highlight — very like thrashing through the air, as the numerous monitors seemed to be alive and spinning. Eventually I cleared it but not after several promoters kindly took me to crackpot doctors who did silly things. This is a nice deaf pic for the Quieter album. To me it just looks pretty like tour: still a fantastic job to have.
Quieter comes out May 11 on Constellation. Pre-order it now and check out the warped lullaby “Glass House” (featuring Freddy Ruppert) below.
Quieter tracklisting:
01. Let It Roll
02. Sha Sha
03. Glass House ft. Freddy Ruppert
04. Stained in Grace
05. Emilia
06. Written in Smoke
07. End of the World
More about: Carla Bozulich
