Back in October we shared news of Ancestral Home, a forthcoming EP from Chicago‘s Half Gringa. As the title suggests, the collection offers a deep reflection on the past and explores how heritage comes to shape not only the unfolding present but the future too. An intention set out on brooding lead single ‘Miranda’, which Isabel Olive describes as “representative of who I am, who I could be, who I was, who my ancestors were, how I love, how I grieve, and all of the different versions of me that exist in between.”
Second single ‘Sevenwater‘ highlights how the past sits implicit in every version of the future. “Concerning the ongoing collapse of our world’s climate and other systems,” we wrote in an earlier preview, “the track is decidedly bleak, though communicates this not with apocalyptic bombast but the weary quiet of drawn out panic.” But moreover it positions the unfolding calamity within a long lineage of such large-scale loss and violence. “It is tempting to view the end of the world as a singular event, a doom unique to the generations living today,” as we concluded:
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.
Half Gringa has now unveiled final single ‘No Kind of Fire’ before the EP comes out later in the month. Closing out the release, the track again delves deep into the concept of family to explore themes of trauma and reconciliation, tracing threads of pain through history to better appreciate why the present manifests as it does. “This song is about how memory contributes to our perception of ourselves and our families,” Olive explains. “It’s a song I started writing almost a decade ago as a reflection of how blood ties can affect how we love, and how we love can affect what we pass onto progeny through our memories. Understanding how trauma affects our present selves in addition to what of our ancestors it awakens is crucial to forgiveness, acceptance, and the promise of change within us.”
If I shot an arrow into a heap
of bleached bones, would you feel better?
Is all this carnage necessary?
Would a symbol make you feel better?
Ancestral Home comes out at the end of the month and you can pre-order a copy now from the Half Gringa Bandcamp page.
