Pigeon Opinion Featuring an Interview with Energy Whores

“Fade to Gray” by Energy Whores is a mesmerizing slow burner that fits the “avant-electro” theme of the project to a T. The composition consists of melodic snippets that slowly grow to create a dark and cinematic climax.

Interview with Energy Whores

You describe Fade to Gray as something dissolving in real time what specifically stopped feeling real while you were writing it?

What stopped feeling real wasn’t one event, it was the slow realization that certainty itself is fragile. Things I thought were stable like people, narratives, even my own interpretations, started to feel like constructs rather than truths.

At what point in a song like this does it stop being about a story and start becoming a confession?

All songs are confessions of your spirit, so there is no line between the two.

The track moves from intimacy into something almost haunting what emotion did you refuse to let it end on and why?

The emotion had to remain suspended, slightly haunting because nothing in life is ever totally resolved.

If this song is about belief dissolving what belief of your own got tested in the process of making it?

Making this track showed me how easily perception can shift and how little control we actually have over what happens to us. I am always trying to believe in hope and love but very often they dissolve like a fading synth, a sound not well defined yet piercing and sad.

You call the vocal motif transformed into instrumentation when do you decide a human voice should stop being human in your work?

When it stops communicating identity and starts communicating sensation. At that point, it’s no longer a voice, it’s part of the emotional architecture of the track.

Do you ever worry that making something beautiful out of unease might make the unease more comfortable than it should be?

No. I think beauty is the entry point. It draws you in but then the unease stays with you longer than you expect. Also the edginess of the lyrics can be more effective when the musical arrangement contradicts them.

When you are building a track what do you trust more emotional instinct or narrative intention and which one usually betrays you?

Emotional instinct comes first. Narrative often follows, but narrative is the thing that lies to you because it’s your interpretation. However instinct rarely lies.

What is a musical idea you initially thought was too much but later realized was the point?

Mostly all emotions are initially too intense but I want those emotions in every track. The point is not to sound like a scolding mother and more like a friend giving you sound advice. That advice is the point no matter how honest or uncomfortable it is.

You describe your work as both immersive and confrontational what is your line between seduction and discomfort?

Seduction gets you inside the song. Discomfort keeps you there. The line is when one starts canceling out the other, then it stops working.

Is there a risk that beauty plus unease becomes its own aesthetic safe zone and how do you break out of that if it does?

What is a safe zone? That is a very personal emotion and boundary. I can only be real and paint the music around it. I also think my music is not “safe” because it makes you think and to some that is dangerous.

You blend EDM electro pop art rock and protest music what genre rules do you intentionally break badly rather than elegantly?

Why does music have to be in a category or box? I know these songs are not easily fit on playlists and they confuse curators. But in my former career as fine artist (painter). I was taught to break the rules or invent new ones. Why not do this in music?

If someone enjoys your music purely as atmosphere and never engages with the message is that a failure or part of the design?

That’s part of the design. The music works on multiple levels. If someone comes in through atmosphere, that’s still an entry point. Sonic insurgent and lyrical arsonist are strong identities what parts of Carrie Schoenfeld are not allowed inside Energy Whores? The part that wants to hide under the bed.

If Energy Whores is a form of political theatre where does the performance end and the private person begin?

The performance amplifies what’s already there. The private self is quieter and more introspective but not fundamentally different.

Do you ever worry that the intensity of the project becomes a shield rather than an expression?

Not really. The intensity is who I am and the emotions I feel are out in the open. I’m not hiding anything.

What would it look like for Energy Whores to make a song that fails politically on purpose?

I’m sure many of the songs fail politically for people who don’t agree with my point of view. A song that aestheticizes the issue but avoids responsibility. That would be a failure.

You say you make warning signs not love songs what would a love song from this universe even sound like without betraying the mission?

The song would still have tension. It wouldn’t be safe or sentimental and it would acknowledge venerability, contradiction, euphoria and pain. All that real stuff that love is sometimes.

If your music is a weapon who is it actually aimed at and what does success look like for that target?

It’s aimed at complacency. Success isn’t agreement, it’s disruption of indifference.

Is there a danger that constant confrontation with injustice turns into aesthetic repetition of outrage?

Yes, that’s a danger. That’s why the music has to evolve, not just the message. There

really isn’t outrage though, just a sneaky hacking into the machine that keeps us

complacent.

What is harder writing something that shocks people or writing something that changes nothing but still feels true?

This is kind of a pretzel logic question. Because I don’t know if any song changes anything unless the listener is ready to take action. A song that feels true and shocks you can be the same thing.

When a track shifts from melodic to unsettling what changes first rhythm harmony or texture?

Usually texture. Texture shifts perception before anything else.

Do you design soundscapes to reflect lyrics or do you let the sound contradict the lyrics intentionally?

Yes I do both of these things simultaneously. I like to be very calm and almost soothing in my vocals while I’m telling you how fucked up things are. Also the musicality reflects the emotions of the lyrics in a cinematic way. I always have the movie scene in my head while writing the song.

What is a sonic decision in Fade to Gray that most listeners will notconsciously notice but fundamentally changes how the song feels?

The gradual loss of a clear vocal identity. Most people feel it, but don’t consciously

register it.

At what point does production stop serving composition and start becoming storytelling on its own?

Production becomes storytelling when it starts carrying emotional meaning on its own.

In a way each song has a musical character arc.

What part of your music would sound most normal if removed and would that make it more or less honest?

What is “Normal”? I don’t really understand this question.

If someone stripped all lyrics away from your catalog what political message would still remain in the sound alone?

Tension. Instability. A sense that something isn’t resolved. The fact that you can mix genres using analog and synthetic textures and get something new and evolved is in itself a statement. BTW I love artists that do this.

What do you hope listeners misunderstand about you?

Misunderstanding me is fine. Some people have told me I’m intimidating but I’m actually

very warm and fuzzy and really lots of fun : ).

What part of reality do you think your music refuses to let people comfortably return to?

The idea that things are stable, fixed, or fully understood.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Energy Whores on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist