Back in June we introduced Bloodhorse!, the new album from Naarm/Melbourne-based songwriter Grace Cummings, forthcoming via ATO Records. Drawing on racing lingo, the title refers to a horse of exceptional power and speed expected to be a champion, animals which are often volatile, skittish and sensitive. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a trapped animal,” Cummings explained. “And, when I go to sleep, sometimes it’s like I’m in the gate, twitching. And as soon as I open my eyes, I’m fucking running.” This fight-or-flight energy drives the record, making for an intense and confronting listen. As we wrote:
Cummings leaving no stone unturned in her exploration of her own dreams and dreads, no matter how hideous or provocative the result might be. Yet such honesty is less cheap provocation and more an attempt to regain agency within an otherwise restrictive existence, as though to describe the suffocating sensation of living in the plainest of terms is in some way lessen its hold.
With the album’s release on the horizon, Grace Cummings has returned with brand new single ‘Fake’ to further introduce the the tone. Again dialled into themes like the abuse of power, confinement and escape, the song opens in relatively spare fashion, little more than a piano line supporting Cumming’s distinctive vocals. But true to form it soon rises towards something desperate and fierce. The sense is that of a person struggling against the strictures placed upon them, or, more specifically, finally snapping having endured suffocating conditions for so long.
“Sometimes, being called a ‘good girl’ is a form of abuse. And you internalise it. You spend your whole life acting out this role, even though it makes you feel sick. Even though you know it is a form of control,” as Cummings continues. “I hate those words, ‘good girl’. So in this song, I just choke on the first letter. The second half of the song is about the other person’s remorse. This song was really difficult for me to write, to perform, to confess. But, the themes in ‘Fake’ are painfully ordinary for so many women.”
Watch the video below, directed by Tori Styles & Grace Cummings, filmed by Wild Rose Pictures and edited by Creepy Baby Productions:
Bloodhorse! is out on the 14th August via ATO Records and you can pre-order it now from the Grace Cummings Bandcamp page.
