Montreal-based songwriter and performer Carlyn has composed a new single with House of Wolf, available now.
Carlyn explains,
“”Alive (Dead)” is “about two people who see insufficient value in life for completely opposite reasons. One feels nothing, and the other feels everything. It’s about the difference between feeling numb versus being constantly overstimulated by emotion. Both are broken. Together, they destroy themselves.”
It’s accompanied by the official video directed by Estelle, set on Halloween.
Carlyn prefaces:
“Although all of my songs are stories with specific characters, I never want my audience to feel like they can’t interpret the themes in their own way. As the lyrics speak about a toxic relationship between a man and a woman, Estelle and I wanted to show this kind of relationship through a different lens in the video: parent and child.” She elaborates, “‘Alive (Dead)’ is about a relationship between a person who feels an overwhelming amount of emotion and a person who lacks feelings of emotion. Both of these people struggle to see the point of life for different reasons, so there’s a strong theme of contrast and opposition. I also feel very strongly about validating younger people’s experiences with depression or other mental health issues. In the world we live in today where mental health issues are overwhelmingly common, it is so important to really listen to kids. They feel things just as strongly as us, if not more. And they never forget.”
Carlyn joins the likes of Billie Eilish and Madison Beer in creating a dark indie dream style she’s coined nightmare pop. When writing, she sometimes draws inspiration from her own life and experiences, but in the end, they’re all fictional stories being told. From a young age, she was always intrigued by dark themes and excited by the things she found scary. She loves horror films because of the score, and It (2017) is her favourite movie for that reason. The dark side of her imagination inspires a twist on her pop music, both in composition and theme.
She elaborates,
“I often write from the villain’s perspective because it is so interesting to me. To go into a character’s mind who thinks and acts in shocking ways is thrilling to me as a writer. I write a lot of my songs through characters I’ve created. This one character, Trey, is one who is heavy on my mind. I often use her perspective to write songs, or write songs about her. The spoken word bit at the end of ‘Alive (Dead)’ was something I wrote when I first developed this persona. I wanted to include it since the song came to be through developing her, and through her long journey that I’ve written. That’s how her story ends (for now).”