“Watercolours” is a dreamy slice of entrancing folk from La Faute, the project of Peggy Messing. The visual artist, singer/songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is originally from Winnipeg, Canada. The project’s previous single, “Blue Girl Nice Day,” drew praise upon its release in February, providing a first look at La Faute’s upcoming album.
“I’m a flower on the wall,” Messing consumes amidst the contemplative guitar-led sereneness, into the “then the picture changed,” lead-in — enthralling as the title-touting refrain appears. The ruminating acoustics and spontaneous, chilled-out piano complement the chilly vocals for a stirring production throughout.
Messing elaborates in detail on the track:
“Watercolours are impossible to control when you’re painting, they won’t stay put, they never remain where you want them to. Sometimes when they’re still wet, the picture looks amazing and it’s so exciting. But the water dries and what’s left behind looks chalky and muddy, the good part has gone, evaporated. Sometimes though, you think you’ve made a huge mess but when the paint dries you’re surprised to find that there’s a beautiful bleed that you never could have planned, like a flower or running mascara between the colours. Yes this is a song about love.
In the songwriting I was thinking about big, small, outside, inside points of view. I was picturing water on windowpanes, tears on cheeks, the rhythm of windshield wipers while driving in the rain. I was thinking about the main character of the song, the narrator, as a little sinister, is this song about love or is it unhealthy, unrequited obsession? I wonder if that feeling of infatuation bordering on obsession rings a bell with anyone. I wanted to teeter between a feeling of longing and a little bit of darkness.
“I’m a flower on the wall I’m an elevator falling when I see your face”. I like to contrast delicate, shy imagery with something violent or sudden if I can. Something small and something big and impossible. Two things happening for someone at once: on the outside they’re quietly a wallflower, on the inside it’s alarm bells and disaster! The music is chill and kind of groovy, and I’m singing quietly, hopefully the lyrics can kind of sneak up. That desperate, slightly sickening feeling that love or obsession can bring.”
And on the video:
“I decided that the character in the video would alternate between being in her inner world, the cocoon of the car, and the outside, in the harsh elements of real life. The scenes alternate that way, outside, inside, back and forth. For the most part the video shows her driving through a city, day and night, singing to herself and smiling a little. This is intercut with scenes where she’s outside in the cold rain, drenched and struggling. In control and out of control, fantasy/reality. I also included a few very short scenes to hopefully make one wonder, wait is she on a stakeout? Is she a stalker?
I shot and edited everything myself, over the course of a bunch of freezing rainy days and nights this winter.”
Check it out:
—
This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of March 2023’ Spotify playlist.
