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Jack Lillian – Weeping Willow
| April 22, 2023 | MCMXCIX Records |
| Single | Digital | 03:41 |
| Emotional Stoner Rock / Psychedelic Sludge | San Francisco, CA, USA |
DIY Bedroom Sound
If you are looking for a paragon for the term Independent Artist, then put your AI chat bot aside and read this instead. This is about Jessica Ann Stephen, also known as Jack Lillian, a California-based multiinstrumentalist who takes care of all writing, recording, mixing and mastering in her bed room. And although those means of music production are often connected to genres like Dream Pop, Shoegaze, LoFi Indie Rock or related sounds, Jack Lillian enchants our hearing with a completely different kind of music. Thus, never mind the Bedroom Pop, this is Emotional Stoner Rock!
Taking back Control
Weeping Willow is a very personal track in which Jack Lillian confronts her own demons and the toxic beliefs that were planted in our head by society. To be exact, it is about anorexia nervosa and about the consequences this diagnosis had on the musician when she was thirteen years old. Although it may be an innocent diagnosis of an eating disorder on the surface, but it is a lot more once one deals with the one who is diagnosed. This is about stigmata, about distorted ideals of beauty, about a society that proactively marginalises and demonises everyone who does not fit patriarch norms and stereotypes.
Turning the Tables
In her song Weeping Willow, Jack Lillian tells the story of how she overcame these structures. Weeping Willow is about a young woman who at one point realised that it is not her who is wrong. And from then on, she began to accept and even to love herself again. In a world that wanted to either assimilate or marginalise her, Jack Lillian refused to get murdered by society. Instead, she took some drops of blood that came from her emotional wound. With this liquid she painted a picture of the knife which caused the cut. And by that, Weeping Willow is an anthem for those who will not take it anymore. Jack Lillian presents a powerful and empowering Stoner and Sludge track that conveys two important messages.
To the misfits and the stigmatised she says: you ae right and you are beautiful. To those who enforce and support these patriarch structures she says: we know who you are, and we are coming for you.
10/ Mangoes
All pictures by courtesy of Jack Lillian
Cover artwork by Sean Aaron
