Holy Matter – Autumn’s Envy

Holy Matter is the recording project of St Louis, MO-born, Los Angeles-based musician and filmmaker Leanna Kaiser. Having cut her teeth as part of ambient duo Frances With Wolves alongside Andy Kahn (of Cyanides, Shitstorm, Future Junk), which opened for the likes of Wet Hair, Mount Eerie and Xiu Xiu, Kaiser also developed an experimental and often improvisational solo style, creating a rich, atmospheric sound informed by her adjacent career in filmmaking. Adopting the Holy Matter project as a vehicle for this solo work, Kaiser released debut single ‘Eve’s Hollywood’ earlier this year by Royal Oakie Records, offering a glimpse into an immersive country-tinged dream pop croon worthy of a David Lynch set-piece.

Now Holy Matter is back with brand new single, ‘Autumn’s Envy’. Again released via Royal Oakie, the song dials back some of the smoky atmosphere for a more spacious yet no less atmospheric sound. Brought to life with help from guests Kate Bollinger, Andy Kahn, Raphi Gottesman (Sonny and the Sunsets) and Josh Housh (Michael James Tapscott), the song plays less like a dancehall ballad than one delivered within the shadowed under canopy of the woods in fall. “I often get phrases stuck in my head and I kept thinking about the Pavement song title Summer Babe,” as Kaiser explains. “What happens to a Summer Babe in the fall?”

The result occupies the liminal space between the real, emotional and spiritual, as though through loss and introspection, one can lead themselves towards uncanny places. “‘Autumn’s Envy‘ is about experiencing someone drift away as the seasons of love are fickle and change, and the jealousy and insecurity that come along with knowing you are ‘out of season’ while watching someone move on,” Kaiser explains. “It’s about doubting yourself. About longing and calling out for someone, wanting them to open themselves to you completely and the comfort and relief that brings.”

Darling, won’t you call my name
So I am happier, again?
Cut off from the agony and the envy
of a Summer Babe in the Fall
(in the Fall, oh)

The track also comes complete with a video directed by Kaiser, with camera work by Matt Popeiluch. “I wanted to make a video inspired by one of my very favorite artists, Jean Cocteau, specifically the candelabras and forests in his film Beauty and the Beast,” Kaiser explains. “I also had this image of a wraith-like figure shrouded in white fabric, akin to the Italian statues of veiled women from the 1800s, for example the Veiled Virgin by Strazza. It’s often how I describe my own struggle with depression. The veil is also said to be the representation of the separation of the spirit world from the living, which is said to “thin” in the Autumn as everything decays.”

‘Autumn’s Envy’ is out now via Royal Oakie Records.