ISSUE 16: DESIRE

How can music afford us the opportunity to navigate our own desires, be they physical or ideological in nature?

It seems appropriate to be very late publishing this issue when the theme in question is Desire. Sometimes, where you are isn’t quite where you want to be! This lack has proven to be an incredibly fruitful headspace for artists, musicians especially, which makes it a natural jumping off point for our own analysis. 

Desire motivates us to fulfill our most basic needs, but it can also be a state of mind that drives us to change the world around us. That couldn’t be more apparent than today, after weeks of protests around the globe in solidarity with Palestine. Across so-called Canada and the world, people have walked off the job, rallied in the streets, occupied the offices of MPs and banks, held teach-ins, phone blasts and direct action 101s, all in the name of calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza strip, and ending the illegal Israeli occupation.

Left unfulfilled, those desires can shift to longing and ache. They can also be exploited, or weaponized, and used to manipulate us. Exploring how music affords us the opportunity to navigate our own desires, be they physical or ideological in nature, felt deeply interesting to New Feeling’s editorial working group, and the results were more varied and complex than we could’ve anticipated. 

Cierra Bettens always brings compelling interpretations of our themes to her stories. Her profile of Winnipeg-based pop musician Felicia Sekundiak, a.k.a Floor Cry, explores the sense of heartbreak featured on Sekundiak’s debut album, Slasher Flick. As Cierra writes, the record’s sonic and thematic nods to ’80s horror deftly amplifies the exploration of longing in Floor Cry’s lyrics, while also resisting and rethinking horror tropes.  

Not Your Final Girl: In Conversation with Floor Cry

Cierra Bettens

READ HERE

Rosie Long Decter’s feature on Louie Sanchez originally appeared in The Grind, but felt too perfect for us to not include here. Louie Sanchez is the solo project of Eirene Cloma, 1/5th of Toronto-based “queer Filipinx kulintang gong punks,” Pantayo. Rosie connected with Eirene at a moment that feels like it’s still a formative period for the artist, in the midst of still cultivating this new persona, while they explore what it means to queer the traditional Filipinx song form of harana— a kind of love song or serenade. 

Who is Louie Sanchez?

Rosie Long Decter

READ HERE

Tom Beedham has become something of our own official festival correspondent over the years, but this experience at Cloud 9, a music and sustainability festival in rural Eastern Ontario is unlike anything else he’s ever covered. It’s easy to see why it’s appealing to go to small-to-midsize festivals across the country to understand how these incredible feats of cooperation and planning come together, and this piece illustrates just how thoughtful a festival can be with its organizing. Tom’s pitch put it perfectly: “When we talk about desire and the environment, it’s easy to resign ourselves to a future that doesn’t include what we might yearn for; a festival like this is a hopeful gesture!”

Ontario’s Cloud 9 Festival Offers a Glimpse of a Sustainable Future

Tom Beedham

READ HERE

Part of what contributed to this issue’s delay is just the sheer amount we had going on events-wise over the course of the fall. We tabled at a zine fair for Festival Lingua Franca with our Pitch Zine, co-organized panels with Pop Montreal and Shared Bylines on solidarity and the pitch process respectively, had our first Annual General Meeting where we elected our first Board of Directors, and capped it all off with a third anniversary show at Toronto’s TRANZAC. It was great seeing so many of you out at these events, and we hope to have more like them in the future.  

Having to even think about one’s own desires feels difficult, selfish even, when the death toll in Gaza rises each day, when Palestinian journalists are being killed indiscriminately, when any journalist or arts worker who voices solidarity with the Palestinian cause is considered “biased” and at risk of losing their job, and our elected officials stand silent in the face of genocide. But looking at the massive outpouring of support for the Palestinian people all across the world over the past two months, it’s also not hard to see the beauty and promise that comes with putting desire at the front and centre of our politics and actions. 

There are many community and student-led organizations across the country taking part in direct action. Consider supporting them financially, or with your time if you have it, and look to them for resources on how to get involved. 

- Michael Rancic