Guelph, Ontario hell-raisers Bonnie Trash are currently in the UK, in support of their recently released new album, Mourning You out now via Hand Drawn Dracula. Ahead of the live dates, they have shared a new video for the track ‘Your Love Is My Revenge’.
Mourning You is, put bluntly, an album about death. Not death in the macabre, violent, or outrageous sense, but death as you or I might know it. A spectre lurking around the corner. Capricious, indiscriminate, and unexpected. Ordinary and all the more terrifying for it. Real. Fear in the eyes of a loved one about to die, and the fear in your eyes – staring back. This is sorrow not as a lingering bruise, but a gushing wound. ‘Mourning You’ is less a post-mortem fantasia than a sudden, swift dagger to the heart.
Bonnie Trash is the project of twins Emmalia & Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor, wedding post-punk’s steely-eyed austerity to goth rock’s brooding grandeur. Today’s self-directed new video clip accompanies the sludgy behemoth ‘Your Love Is My Revenge’, which sees vocalist Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor howling “I wish I knew you better” over densely chugging guitars, lamenting the loss of the twins’ Nonna Maria.
“Accepting the loss of a loved one is never easy” they comment. “You long to hold them again, to see them, to make one more cherished memory. Yet, you are not ready to accept that they are gone. ‘Your Love is My Revenge’ is a reminder of the difficulty of accepting death, and the hope of reconnection.”
Emboldened by the addition of Emma Howarth-Withers on bass and Dana Bellamy on drums, the band will play the following shows over the coming weeks:
Sept 24 – Sheffield, UK – Sidney & Matilda
Sept 25 – Liverpool, UK – Kazimier Stockroom
Sept 26 – Leeds, UK – Hyde Park Book Club
Sept 27 – Preston, UK – The Ferret *FREE SHOW*
Sept 29 – London, UK – The Grace
We asked guitarist and a primary composer of Bonnie Trash, Emmalia Bortolon-Vettor, about their main musical influences.
Photo credit: Alex Carre
BIG|BRAVE – Vital
Robin Wattie and Mat Ball’s guitar work have brought to life a sound that I have been ever seeking. Hearing and witnessing their collective tone unfold is nothing short of inspiring. Their work brings to life the importance of deep listening within both realms of sound and touch, challenging technique to remove itself from passivity. Vital is artistically poignant in that it provides mass behind its narrative. It provides space to think, to reverberate, to understand the embodiment of each word sung.
Go for a walk, listen to every album that BIG|BRAVE creates.
Divide and Dissolve – Basic
Nearly a decade since its release, Divide and Dissolve’s Basic is a piece to be played from start to finish every time. Takiaya Reed’s compositions welcome the listener into a sonic realm which holds the complexities of oppressed identities and non-colonial ways of knowing in a very white, very patriarchal, very racist world. With a swing of very disappointingly violent and hateful decisions being made by some of the wealthiest and powerful people in our world right now, Basic provides hope and a reminder that white supremacy needs to meet its death and we can hospice that.
K!MMORTAL – X Marks the Swirl
We had the opportunity to witness K!MMORTAL live recently at Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, and experiencing ‘Sad Femme Club’ brought our entire band to tears. If your friend is feeling small and unheard, share X Marks the Swirl with them. I am inspired by K!MMORTAL’s confidence as an artist and community leader. It feels like every facet of their songwriting is done with the intention of holding care (and that is a lot of labour) and you feel it in this album. Go and share it.
