| BEING. Photo credit – Josh Yong |
| ‘BEING.’ is the moniker for Auckland based Indie artist Jasmine Balmer. Known for her dynamic live performances, BEING.’s music leans towards a Melancholy-Surf aesthetic as she jumps from zest-drenched Indie Pop to introspective spoken word. Sifting through ‘streams of mind-mess’, Her lush layers and illustrative lyric render the chaotic into a soundscape of peaceful melancholy that is ‘BEING.’ |
BEING. Facebook / Instagram /
A glance at her worldwide touring schedule in 2019 shows little sign that Lucy Dacus is slowing down, Make sure you see her live in her one New Zealand performance this April:
Thursday 4th April, 2019
Tuning Fork – Auckland
JUST ANNOUNCED!
Auckland based BEING. as support.
2018 was a milestone year for Richmond, Virginia’s Lucy Dacus. Her widely celebrated sophomore record, Historian, was met by a cavalcade of critical elation including Best Of coverage from The Guardian, Noisey, Pitchfork, The Line Of Best Fit and Rolling Stone among many others. Features in MOJO (‘Rising’), BBC Entertainment, Quiet, Uncut, and plays across BBC 6 Music, Radio 2 and Radio X.
“this is a rock’n’roll album with deep understanding of pop melody but layered up with bold lyrics which disarm you as much as they connect with you.” – NME
“The record is a thoughtful, emotionally astute account of loss in all its bittersweet varieties.” – BBC Music
“A Stunning post-coming-of-age album driven by lyrical wit” – NZ Herald, TimeOut
Her collaborative EP as 1/3 of boygenius (with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers) became one of the most talked-about new projects of the year, and was heralded by publications including The Guardian, The Observer, i-D, New Statesman, Uncut and MOJO.
“The sizable talent and personalities of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus come together for a harmonious, confrontational, and all too brief EP.” – Pitchfork
Dacus headlined UK venues including London’s Islington Assembly Hall and Omeara, and made US national TV appearances on CBS This Morning, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Last Call With Carson Daly.
Recorded in here-and-there studio spurts over the last two years, 2019 will be released later this year as a physical EP, and will be made up of originals and cover songs tied to specific holidays, each of which will drop around their respective date: Valentine’s Day, Taurus season and US Mother’s Day, American Independence Day, Springsteen’s Birthday, Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s.
In honour of Valentine’s Day, Dacus has released a cover of Edith Piaf’s ‘La Vie En Rose’ sung in both French and English. Dacus’ clear vocals and faint vibrato float over the chiming piano, a starry-eyed, upbeat take on the classic tune, and a hint at her pop-star potential. “From the first time I heard it, I thought ‘La Vie En Rose’ was a perfect song. Hearing it, I knew that, one day, I would fall in love,” says Dacus, adding “I want someone to listen to this while running at top speed to the doorstep of the person they adore, ready to profess their deep, undying love. (P.S., there’s a longer story about singing this song as a duet with my middle school janitor, but it is not concise).”
Dacus uses her gift as a songwriter to help understand and cope with the world around her, including making sense of national holidays, often more geared towards social media boasts and manufactured consumerism than authentic celebration. “What is going on,” she asks herself on these days,
retreating from the heightened expectations of holidays to figure out what to make of them and to find her own meaning. “I’ve collected some songs from trying to answer that question,” she says, and “this series seems like the right place to put them next to each other. These songs are self-
contained, not indicative of a new direction, just a willingness to do something different and sometimes even out of character.”
