About The Girls E.P.

The Girls E.P. project was seeded when Natasha Lee was approached by Haullie Free, an survivor and advocate of sexual and domestic violence, to write a few songs to be played along with various survivor's stories on the audio documentary, Voices of Strength. Being a survivor herself Natasha got started  researching the project right away, searching her internal self for the landscapes where she could find the scattered pieces of her spirit.

During her search Natasha discovered places that she didn't know existed, lost memories bubbled up, voices once silent were released and the girls began peeking out realizing they were being called to the material world. Natasha was sucked into the ethereal world and learned many of the secrets of her subconscious mind, "While I was in the thinking stage of the song structures I found myself travelling distance and time, the first song who showed herself was 'The Hunted'. I could see her clearly, her dress torn, the wind whipping her hair, she was running away from something. I found myself staring into emptiness, there was nothing there, until I understood that the monster chasing her would never stop until her story was told. All of the girls came running after that, I think they understood that I was there to set them free.

"The second song I discovered was 'The Icefield', I go there often now, but when I first found it I was disoriented and lost. The snow and ice harboured a power to lure me in and twist reality in order to keep me there. It's so easy to get lost in that type of cold. It's the cold that victims of sexual abuse all learn to deal with in their own internal ice fields. There's something about that type of cold that understands that some secrets are meant to be frozen in silence; there is a key to melting ice, but one has to discover that journey themselves. Once I found my way out the other girls came to my rescue; I think they thought that I would never leave anyone behind, that I would lead them away from the cold, sadly some of them cannot exist made up of ice and still dance with the sun."

Even though The Girls has been recorded and released, Natasha says that her healing journey is only just  beginning, "The interesting thing about agreeing to help Haullie with this project is that it brought out aspects of my being that I thought had been dealt with, when in reality they were just buried under layers of ice and snow. Now that I've opened the door to these girls to find the light there are other pieces that want the warmth too. I find their need to come out is almost impossible to deny, they're bowling me over in a rush to come out and play. These are beings that are connected to me in one way or another, and they're coming whether I want them to or not. So there are more girls coming, revealing layers like a budding lotus, I just hope that I can sit through their emotional wrath. I'm harbouring such overwhelming emotion at this point that I hope that I can remain strong throughout the messages and memories that are currently showing themselves to me. They sneak up on me and their masks are quite terrifying, but once the masks have been removed, they're a lot easier to take out for a walk. It's not that I don't enjoy their company but when conversation turns to wailing it kind of chokes the spirit, not to mention it hurts the ears."

For now Natasha Lee is sitting with The Girls and listening to their stories, and she looks forward to future releases when more girls will speak out loud for the first time, "These Girls had no voices, there was a discovery of voice but it was more like discovering a spark versus building a fire. There was more story than actual details. The new girls are finding a way to speak through melody so the new songs are more intense and vicious; just more vocal on the whole. The listener won't need a translator to know what they're talking about."

Interview & Article by: Candace Hellion