The work of Half Gringa has always explored difficult themes. Led by Isabel Olive, the Chicago-based project focuses its striking brand of indie rock towards the knots that prove most difficult to pick. Released in 2017, Gruñona was our introduction to this style, what we described as “a journey without a clear destination, a question without an answer.” Or to put it more specifically, “an attempt to map identity not to achieve some clear-cut conclusion but rather in the hope of better understanding how history and culture and personal beliefs shape the people we are and were, the people we will be.”
Last year’s superb Force to Reckon felt like a further development of these ideas. An exploration of identity, uncertainty and grief. A meditation on loss that extended beyond the classic aftermath. The result offered what we called “a kind of joined up hurt where the past will always govern the present, and the future will never be free of either.”
This process of inquiry and self-examination is present once again on ‘Sevenwater’, a brand new Half Gringa single in support of an upcoming east coast tour (find the dates below). Concerning the ongoing collapse of our world’s climate and other systems, the track is decidedly bleak, though communicates this not with apocalyptic bombast but the weary quiet of drawn out panic. A room with no view. “I have been experiencing a very intense fear of the end of the world,” Olive explains. “I think what it really means is I am having trouble visualizing the future.”
Seeking comfort amid this anxiety, Olive turned to fantasy novels such as Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters series, and soon found herself imagining the plight of her ancestors as they were confronted with a rapidly changing world. “Did they dream of escaping somewhere despite not knowing what the outcome might be?” Olive wonders. “Or was it the hardest thing in the world to leave everything they knew, would they have preferred to stay where they were and watch everything around them change beyond recognition?”
It is tempting to view the end of the world as a singular event, a doom unique to the generations living today, but the truth is there is nothing special in our turmoil. People have always confronted loss on an unimaginable scale. Lost what is most dear to them, or had it forcibly removed. With ‘Sevenwater’, Half Gringa affords this truth the reverence and mourning it deserves. “I sense that this fear in me is very old and predates my existence,” Olive concludes. “This song helped me explore it and think about my personal addition to its legacy.”
Trapped in amber
My beloved, dancing
On a slender edge
Hold tight and tender
Half-revealed I sense the dullest deep surrender
SEP 24 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club (with Lady Cannon)
SEP 25 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
SEP 27 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s (with Fig)
SEP 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s (with Laura Lizcano)
SEP 29 – Boston, MA @ Cafe 939
SEP 30 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge (with Renata Zeiguer, Office Culture)
OCT 3 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake Hotel