"What's My Desire?" one of "22 Stellar Songs from 2012"

"What's My Desire?" made it onto Wicked Local's list of "22 Stellar Songs from 2012," and is in some excellent company. Luminaries on the list include the Beach Boys, Ben Folds Five, Gotye, M. Ward, and more. We're honored to be included in their ranks:

"'All my love letters are forged,' sings Ellia Bisker, one of a series of biting admissions on a lovely, lush single awash with strings and horns. The ukulele is just a bonus."

Read more...

Fan Mail from Australia

The day after a big show there's always a little bit of postpartum depression. All that work and effort, and then the ephemeral thing you hustled for so hard is done. Even when the show was particularly glorious, the day after is challenging...especially when it's a very late night followed by an early morning back at the day job. But getting a random bit of heartfelt fan mail from a listener on the other side of the globe is a wonderful antidote:

Hi Ellia....

I am now home in Australia, and am playing your beautiful music at full volume through our little home which looks over Sydney Harbour....

Every time I listen to your haunting voice, and equally haunting lyrics, I am taken back to a cosy seat in the library of Shakespeare & Co. on a grey old Paris day.

I just wanted you to know that your music inspires me, and reminds me of a time in my life where I was genuinely 'living'.

Thank you.

Love Hayley

Collaborations/Permutations/Charlatan

Last summer Sweet Soubrette released an EP called What's My Desire?. The title track was originally a Bushwick Book Club assignment based on Anais Nin's book Henry and June. 

We shot a music video for What's My Desire? in collaboration with photographer Emily Raw.

Emily sent a still image from the video shoot to Manuel Gonzales, a writer with whom she collaborates on a story project: every week she sends him a photograph she's taken and he writes a 1,000-word story based on the image. 

Manuel wrote this story, "Written."

Then Emily suggested we go around again.  So I wrote a new song based on Manuel's story.  It's called Charlatan.  Lyrics are below.  A live performance video is linked here, and we're getting ready to record it for the next album.

Emily shot a new photograph based on the song.  Now it's Manuel's turn again.  We could go on like this forever.

Read more about this collaboration here.

Charlatan

Here is how it works

Her brother brings them in

She doesn’t know where it comes from

She doesn’t care if it is true

She doesn’t know where it comes from

She doesn’t care
If it is true

Pale was too pale when she put the powder on

The marks suspected

People think she traffics in banalities
She keeps collected
Is the kid who’s selling Coca-Cola
In her spiderweb
Or is she blowing smoke
Are her predictions just a joke

Before they even step inside

She starts to write
She doesn’t know what it all means
She reads it to them anyway
She doesn’t know what it all means
She reads it to
Them anyway

She knows who they long to hear from

What they long for her to tell
Is she getting secret signals
Are they suckers for the sell
All her tales of fame and fortune
Of tragedy and pain
How does how does she do it
It’s a fascinating game

They think it’s a scam

But she’s no charlatan
She writes until there’s nothing left
She cannot stop till she is done
She writes until there’s nothing left
She cannot stop
Till she is done
She cannot stop
Till she is done


 

Shark Bait

Before I wrote songs I wrote poems.  Here's another one from the vaults.

Shark Bait

Sharks close their eyes
the moment before they strike.
They sense the electrical signal
of the heart, they know where to bite,
they can find it blind. The heart
will betray you every time.

It's been a year I've chosen
to be alone. My life is full
of work and talk and the occasional fling
where no one falls for anyone—it's best
to become heartless. No one holds me
back; I don't get that attached.

I say heartless but this is a lie. It beats
red and bloody underneath it all, I am ripe
for slaughter. It keeps getting harder
to hide the signal: the heart wants
to be discovered. Or devoured,
if that's what it takes.

The sharks' own hearts must crackle with charge
as they glide silently through the leaden water—
do they sense each other's presence
as they sense prey?
Do their hearts call out to each other 
in the darkness beneath the waves?

I want someone to draw my passion
like a magnet, a target, I long for it.
So the heart sends out its signal: I'm a beacon.
Nothing will protect me from the danger.
I'm just waiting to feel
the teeth sink in.
 
Ellia Bisker, 2004

Sweet Soubrette - 'What's My Desire?' | The 405

New review of the "What's My Desire?" video by the 405:

"Sweet Soubrette have crafted a compelling bitter-sweet pop song of the highest order."

Read more:

Sweet Soubrette - 'What's My Desire?' | The 405

Fan mail

A super sweet email from my cousin came in this week:

I want you to know that we regularly listen to your latest CD and EP albums in the car, and Claudia [my cousin's wife] has downloaded her favorite songs to her ipod.  Max [their ten-year-old] regularly requests (and knows every word to) “Is it a secret…” (sorry I have never really studied the song titles and so know them only by lyrics; “Wild Wild Wild?”).  I have a recording of him singing it in the car I must send you.  My personal favorites are “Gold Digger” and “We Don’t Talk About It” (lyrics again, sorry; I really must look up your album covers or itunes lists and learn the titles!)

WKZE 98.1FM in-studio interview, 8/15/12

While touring with Sweet Soubrette to perform at the Hudson.Water.Music festival in Hudson, NY, we stopped at the WKZE 98.1 FM radio station for an in-studio interview. Listen to it here:

Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette, WKZE in-studio interview, 8/15/12