“A collection of songs which dances between the hard binaries of life,” we wrote of Oropendola‘s forthcoming album Waiting For The Sky To Speak in a recent preview, “be it presence and absence, past and future, life and death, [embracing] the ephemeral as a kind of freedom.” The Brooklyn-based artist brought such a sentiment to life by consciously working through difficult memories and unrealised dreams, with single ‘Knocking Down Flowers’ exploring the liminal space of the present in all of its uncertainty. “A kind of pocket between periods where consequences are suspended,” as we put it, “and nothing is risked in dreaming.”
With the album coming next month on Spirit House Records and Wilbur & Moore Records, Oropendola is back with brand new single, ‘Trust the Sun’, which we have the pleasure of sharing today. A song which turns away from the woozy haze of ‘Knocking Down Flowers’ in favour of something altogether more vivid, from the threaded piano and its poignant clarity to the growing weight of the vocals themselves. All delivered with an almost cyclical pattern which escalates across the runtime, as though in coalescing around itself, the song finds some internal means to grow.
“I often have this fear that there is something inherent in me that is unstable,” Schubert explains of the single. “Hazardous. Unloveable, even. A curse leaving me doomed to forever push my loved ones away. A slippery slope that leaves trust—in others, in myself—wounded at the base.” Written during March 2020, ‘Trust the Sun’ was created in opposition to this anxiety, crystallising as Brooklyn bloomed into its springtime self through the window of the apartment in which Schubert was now mostly confined. “Forsythias, rhododendrons, eastern redbuds, and cherry blossoms were taking turns exploding open as the world was shutting down,” as she continues. “I took long walks on bewilderingly sunny days and found immense comfort tracking the intricacies of spring, noticing the order of the blooms and the alternating cycles of death and rebirth.”
Applying such close observation to human relationships too, Schubert found herself contemplating her own history of friends and lovers, tracing patterns otherwise too intricate or uncomfortable to follow. A process which seemed overwhelming at first, triggering an urge to flee, though instead Schubert channelled the instinct into Oropendola and chose to sit with the emotions she had unearthed. “‘Trust the Sun’ started as a lament, a plea,” she states, “but eventually, it became a mantra.”
Armed with the song as a kind of protection spell, Oropendola once again chooses to embrace transience. Not merely as a coping mechanism, but a way to more fully inhabit the beauty of the world. “Take a breath, plunge into the water, and savor the cherry blossoms before their once-luscious flowers become fragments of pink dust on the earth,” as Schubert says. “Accept that strong green summer leaves turn to fire and crumple with the pinch of a fist, and it’s not just okay, it’s actually beautiful.” And with this beauty comes self-awareness, then patience, kindness. “Over time it became easier to be more generous with my heart, to extend myself outwards more and more, trying not to fear, but rather embrace, the unpredictability and ephemerality of it all. I walked and marvelled, no matter the season, felt it when the sun came out, allowed its light to find space within me, and allowed myself to find more joy spreading it to other people.”
Photos by Chimera Singer