Sub Consciousness And The Female Form: A TORRES Interview

TORRES: Sub Consciousness And The Female Form

An interview by Sarah Kidd.

Emerging onto the scene in 2013 with her stunning self-titled debut album, American singer/songwriter TORRES (aka Mackenzie Scott) quickly left fans wanting more. Following it up with her critically acclaimed second album Sprinter, TORRES was soon travelling the world supporting established acts such as Tegan and Sara, Garbage and personal musical idol, Brandi Carlile as well as headlining her own tours in the US.

September 29th sees TORRES release her highly anticipated third album simply entitled Three Futures. I recently spoke with TORRES to discuss the themes of the album and the design process behind the music videos for both the haunting ‘Skim’ and ‘Three Houses’.

Three Futures, which is about to be released – can you speak to the themes behind your latest work?

“There are a couple of prominent ones; one being desire, desire as front and centre and the other perhaps a more overarching theme which is the body and specifically using the body as a mechanism of joy. And within that is an encompassed indulging in the senses; smell and taste and movement. These are all things that I sort of wove in to the fabric of the record”

All of which sounds quite beautiful and at the same time rather different from your second album Sprinter which focused around religion and your strict Baptist education upbringing.

“Yeah I wanted to move beyond that. I said what I wanted with the last record; I healed a lot and I think that I was able to connect with some folks who struggled similarly with their own upbringing and their own sets of limitations within their family dynamic. And then I put that record behind me and I made this one which is more fun I think. (laughs) Which is something that I wanted to do; make a record that I could have fun with”

So a very personal journey; you have addressed past issues and you have healed and now you are moving forward – with a desire to have fun and explore that side of yourself.

Once again you have worked with producer Rob Ellis; being the second time around did the process flow a lot easier because you were now more familiar with each other?

“It did; when we made Sprinter we had known each other for a while already, there was an established relationship there but we hadn’t worked together before so we didn’t know exactly going into it first time how the other was going to be in their process!

This time I think we already knew what to expect from each other so we got to dive right into the meat of it and get at the nuance at the forefront which ultimately just saves time. So yeah we’re mates, we’re very similar Rob and I actually”

There are some fascinating songs on the album; which in particular speaks to you the most?

“Well, maybe ‘Marble Focus’; it’s track 8 (laughs) and what I know of Track 8 on any record is that it notoriously is the one that gets overlooked, but I’m not sure why. I think sonically that one really struck a nerve with me when we recorded it and when I heard it played back it was this sort of ice palace that we had created with the instrumentation. It is something that really made me feel a lot when I heard it back”

Now the music video for ‘Skim’, directed by Ashley Connor – is exquisite yet simultaneously intense. Who came up with the visual direction for ‘Skim’?

“It was quite collaborative, I came to her [Connor] with the idea of this house as a manifestation of the subconscious and she came back with Air BnB rental options! (laughs) We came across this one house in small town New Jersey and rented it for a couple of days and shot our video in it. The storyboard itself; Ashley had quite the cinematic vision for it which is her strong suit. She is a cinematographer – a fantastic one!”

The music video for the ‘Three Futures’ video is also shot in the same house – are the videos meant to be viewed as a storyline?

“I wouldn’t say it’s quite as linear as being the same story, however it is the same house and as I talk about it I guess I try to reiterate this idea of the house being a manifestation of the subconscious. More or less that house is my own subconscious, so the two videos being set in the same house is kinda representative of that”

You speak of the importance of being aware of one’s own subconscious and not hiding from your true self – do you believe in today’s society people are able to embrace their true identity more?

“I’m inclined to say more the latter; there is so much good in humanity, light and dark. I think people tend to hide the unsavory parts from themselves; everybody has them! I think that there is a general unwillingness to completely embrace parts that we hide because we think that if other people were to see those parts of us they wouldn’t like us or they wouldn’t think that we are good people.

But the truth is that everybody has just as much of that in them as they do the stuff that they would wanna share. It’s kind of a beyond good and evil conversation for me. I think that people also tend to really hide parts of themselves that they have been socially conditioned to believe are not ok, which is a whole other conversation! I do think that for the most part people are not inclined to reckon with themselves”

Ah yes, like how often a woman is socially conditioned to believe that certain bodily functions, even when in a stable relationship, are vulgar etc.

“Of course yeah, there are so many layers of it that you know I think that if we were to look back at perhaps the Paleolithic humans it would be totally different. For example, there’s no monogamy, no marriage. There’s no all of these things that we hide from other people that end up becoming ultimately qualities that we hide from ourselves. And that’s the dangerous part, is when we hide things so long from other people that eventually we convince ourselves that they’re not there”

The album explores both the desires of the body – and using the body to explore said desires. I really applaud you creating a record with these themes as so often as a female it is frowned upon to openly discuss such topics.

“I mean that’s a huge area that I wanted to combat with this new album; women – and traditionally in my own experience – are not taught that pleasure is something that we can seek. We are taught that we are the pleasure to be sought out, that the pleasure that we seek is ultimately not our own and that’s utterly false!

So I wanted to make a record about hedonism, indulgence and self-love at its finest and whatever that looks like to each individual respectively. Each person’s body is their own and therefore I believe that each person should use their own body however they want to while they are alive on this planet.”

I am sure that many women who have experienced a similar religious upbringing to yourself will understand the concept of their body – and ultimately their pleasure – not being their own very well.

“It’s shameful. There’s so much … there is so much shame around that, that one’s body belongs to some future husband but until then you are meant to shield your body, protect it and keep it modest because you don’t want to tempt anybody. Then you are meant to save that body for your future husband. I mean it’s just …it’s like a cult! It’s like a cult mentality and it’s disgusting”

It almost separates the consciousness from the body; it’s like carrying around a crystal vase that doesn’t belong to you; you are just looking after it until you can hand it over to the designated owner.

How are you supposed to build a relationship with your own body if you don’t feel like it is yours to connect with in the first place?

“Right!! [It’s like] what do I get out of it?”

Just before we go, I must say that your cover of ‘Special’ by Garbage is breathtaking; and as a fan of Shirley Manson I must ask, why that song?

“Well it’s a beautiful song; I think personally it resonated with me because I have had the tendency to fall into my own patterns of placing expectations on people that I ultimately knew I wasn’t going to get to be with. Or that I ultimately knew I wasn’t going to get what I wanted from, and that song was just absolutely spot on in that regard and so I made it a little bit sadder than the initial recording” (laughs)

Torres’ new album ‘Three Futures’ is out this Friday 29th September on 4AD. You can purchase it where all good albums are sold, or stream it from your favourite digital provider.