Mandarins on Vinyl! Comes with a lyric book including original illustrations by Carla Indipendente and a digital download.
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about
“Cities” is about observing the fragility of the city, the renter, and the speculative real estate economy. I wrote this song at what I hope is the height of the housing crisis in Vancouver. I was hearing about renovictions almost daily from friends and in the news. The city council of Vancouver was setting the standard for “affordable” housing which was decidedly affordable for my community of artists, dancers and musicians. Our communities and neighborhoods were becoming unrecognizable through a process of gentrification that as artists, we also help to activate.
As a recent graduate of a masters of Architecture program, I had planned work in the architecture field. I also really felt like “I don't want to get a job designing condos that none of my friends or my community can afford to live in.” I was depressed about my housing situation, stuck in that housing, and also guilty about wanting something better amid greater issues like climate change. I was trying to write about a web of dependencies that is fragile and uncertain.
I also had the image of the soft moon colliding with the earth in Italo Calvino's Time and the Hunter stuck in my head. The scientist character is so humanly sure that the moon will never hit the earth, she's condescending about it, and sure enough it does. For me, that really parallels our societies attitude toward climate change and environmental degradation. Our situation is much less poetic and visually stunning, but just as absurd.
lyrics
Cities on the backs of camels,
when will our thirst be quenched?
Towers on the backs of morning light
And they're higher and higher, higher and hired
Houses on the backs of houses kissing hills,
I eat them all but I don't really get my fill, I still have this chill
As we get interstellar, that's one hell of a gravity, weighing in on me
Cities on the backs of beautiful birds,
Can they take me back to the earth?
Towers on the backs of rumours that you heard
And they're worth and they're worth and they're worth much more
As we get interstellar,
that's one hell of a gravity,
weighing in on me
A still mind wants for nothing,
I'm not still and your still not satisfied
We make our beds in these lines,
Craving sun in fluorescent lights
I know, and I feel and I fear and I think that there might be
Cities on the backs of beautiful birds,
There is nothing that you heard and nothing that you can
Towers on the backs of rumours that you heard
And they're worth and they're worth and they're worth much more
As we get interstellar, that's one hell of a gravity, weighing in on me
credits
from Mandarins,
track released June 21, 2019
Words and Music by Roxanne Nesbitt
Violin by Joshua Zubot
Graftician is an experimental art-pop project fronted by Roxanne Nesbitt. Graftician's sound is
a dream like blend
drum machine samples, and field recorded textures, woven into pop
melodies. The songs draw from a wide range of influences, including jazz, electronic, and
experimental music, all unified by Nesbitt’s soulful voice and provocative lyrics....more
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