Crowjane Shares New Track 'Gallows'
(Reybee) "The malevolence that greed can create becomes a defect for many people," Los Angeles-based experimental post-punk artist Crowjane (real name: Heather Galipo) says about her new track "Gallows." "When I was writing the lyrics, I just kept imagining the gallows in medieval France. I wanted to sing about what it might have been like to see the hanging of other humans. I started thinking about the different crimes, including those caused by greed, that might have sent someone to the gallows, and thought of greed as this weed that overtakes humanity." "Gallows" is out today via Kitten Robot.
Ushered in with haunting violin and distant, ancient choral chanting, "Gallows" then unveils CrowJane's velvety and resonant vocals as she sings, "In the gallows she burrows, forgiveness she pleads / In the gallows Our sorrow strengthens and breeds / Crimes of fellows consumed, consumed by greed / In the gallows are sorrow strengthens and breeds." With post-punk vocals reminiscent of those of Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cranberries, and Sinead O'Connor, the song mirrors an old medieval tale, while still being harrowingly relatable to current tragedies suffered in the world.
"I was shooting a movie in the Northern part of France and one of the lead actors/producers was a pianist. He started to play a beautiful melody on the piano that I recorded on my iPhone," CrowJane describes of the mournful ballad's origin. "On a different day, I was sightseeing at Mont-Saint-Michel when a choir of men were walking through the sand while the tide was low, singing what sounded like an old spiritual song with ties to a time of fighting. I recorded them singing on my iPhone." She continues, "I knew I wanted to create a song with all these inspirational aspects of sounds and places. So when I was in the studio I knew I wanted to make a pretty flebile. Vocals and a piano mixed with experimental sounds in the beginning, using the sample of this French song..."
With its hymnal chanting combined with vampiric piano and lush vocals, "Gallows" was produced by Paul Roessler (T.S.O.L., Nina Hagen, The Screamers) (also plays piano on the track), written and performed by CrowJane (vox), and Blaine L. Reininger (violin, founding member of Tuxedomoon). CrowJane remarks, "Piano, violin, with some Tuxedomoon experimentation in the beginning, melancholy melodies... that's what I wanted to release."
Following the release of "Savage" in May, "Real Life" (Tones on Tails Cover, Daniel Ash Approved, and also featuring Reininger) in June, then the fiery, textured, anthemic single "Ashburn Sight," released on August 20th, CrowJane is propelled forward, having received critical acclaim for her 2023 EP Bound to Me and 2020 groundbreaking debut album Mater Dolorosa, exploring the intersection of post-punk, indie rock, goth, electro, industrial and dark orchestral rock.
Enchanted by the haunted and unearthly and with her background in the visual art of surrealism and horror, CrowJane has also built a career as a professional horror effects makeup artist having worked on Mulan, The Orville, Ryan Murphy's Hollywood, Civil Twilight, The Clinic, Don Quixote, Toolbox Murders, The Last Of Us: Part II, Star Wars: Fallen Order, among others. This unlikely background helped foster an outsider musical sensibility that is perfectly balanced by a comprehensive knowledge of the byways and back roads of punk and death rock, both historic and in LA's contemporary underground music scene, of which her bands Egrets on Ergot, Prissy Whip and The Deadbeats have been an integral component for the past decade.
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