Having fronted various bands in previous years, Oregon-based songwriter Corinne Sharlet made the decision to strike out alone and pursue her individual artistic ideas. “Until now, I was afraid to stand on my own and say ‘I can do this’,” she explains. “I can be a solo artist, which has always been what I wanted deep down. I learned that I could trust myself to be able to take the sound I’ve been hearing in my head and make it a reality.” For all bands offer in terms of collaboration and community, they can flatten personal ideals, idiosyncrasies and peculiarities ironed out by committee. “It was a really hard a decision to leave the band because I felt bad about letting them down,” Sharlet continues, “but I realized that by staying in bands I was denying the vision I had for my music.”
The result is Deceiver, a forthcoming EP that marries the delicate with the raw to produce something striking. With Thom Yorke and Yasmine Hamdan as inspiration, Corinne Sharlet makes music haunting yet tied to the corporeal condition, as though within the desperate beat of blood lies something intangible too. This might be metaphysical or some quirk of memory, or just the refusal of the mind to face up to whatever the opposite must be. How can there not be some magic, somewhere, when we are capable of feeling so strongly?
Lead single ‘Hail Mary’ occupies such a space “It developed into a sort of mythical story that has a nostalgic quality to it.” Sharlet explains. “The song explores the different ways we seek comfort and guidance in times of heartbreak, which is what songwriting does for me.” The song pairs subtle percussion, intricate guitar and grandly alluring vocals, which drift across the dark cinematic backdrop in unpredictable but melodic swirls.
hail sweet Mary
i’m a lot like you
they took my man
they thought there was something that he knewwhen the rain crashes down on the other side
will you tell him that I love him one more time
oh I promise to work hard and be kind
there’s never gonna be another Mary
no there’s never gonna be another Mary
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‘Hail Mary’ is out now and available from the Corinne Sharlet Bandcamp page, where you should also keep an eye open for Deceiver.
Photos by David Neff