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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 |