4 days ago
4
Here, dark guitars drive over a moody foundation of fuzz. As the stacked chords ring out into a hazy soundscape, Denisse’s vocals, pointed yet delicate, cut through with hypnotic tension. Simultaneously ferocious and vulnerable, it’s a fusion of opposites that strikes the right balance.
A dedicated genre-bender, Denisse calls her penchant for meshing unconventional sounds a “controlled collision.” “I like to ‘Frankenstein’ a track,” she says. “If a heavy riff and a delicate melody look wrong together on paper, that’s exactly what pulls me in.”
An equally passionate reader, Denisse was inspired to write “going nowhere” after reading Carissa Broadbent’s fantasy novel The Serpent and the Wings of Night, a story filled with moments of romance and dark magic alike. While the song takes inspiration from fantasy, its message is rooted firmly in reality.
“‘going nowhere’ captures a stretch of time where everything felt suspended - like moving without a place to land,” Denisse explains. “It was one of the first songs that shaped the upcoming EP, where every track pulls on a different thread from that gray space of duality, self-preservation, and survival.”
Duality, especially, has long been a driving theme in Denisse’s work. Her last single “Like a Fiend”, for example, explored two sides of the self: one fragile and wounded, and the other blissfully euphoric. “If the song makes you feel a gentle gut-punch, that’s the point,” Denisse says. “I’m slipping mirrors into the track so you have to sit with whatever stares back.”
“going nowhere” comes just ahead of Denisse’s new EP due early next year. Inspired by artists like Deftones, Tori Amos, and Failure, it’s a mix of alt and shoegaze sounds shaped by her years living in Florida, Turkey, Nashville, and L.A. From Eastern scales to fantastical lyrics, it's bound to be a project defined by ethereal foundations and a learned technical prowess.
English (US) · 