Could there be any better ways to spend your Friday night than speaking to a visionary artist? For me, probably not. The power of the full moon seemed to curse our tech, but once connected encouraged a conversation fueled by feminine creativity, intuition, and the creation combined with loss when making records.<\/p>\n
My friends and I fell in love with 070 Shake during her live performance at Splendour in the Grass back in 2023<\/a> (remember that old thing?), so when speaking across the void it always feels a little more special, intimate and real when the artist has their camera on. I\u2019m always looking to see what parts of their conversational selves are hidden within their performative onstage DNA, and with Shake, she\u2019s just as cool; eating a croissant in Paris.<\/p>\n When doing my research, I know she likes red wine to \u2018keep it classy\u2019, so as I have a sip of mine, I reassure her this is not an alarming breakfast-time habit; it\u2019s evening here. Perhaps with relief she tells me she\u2019s a red wine girl too, \u201calways.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “There’s something about putting something out that makes me feel a little bit detached from it. It starts to feel a little bit impure, it feels tainted a little bit.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n I feel it\u2019s always the sign of a good record when it\u2019s hard to explain what genre it is or immediately pin point references, Petrichor <\/em>\u2013 the New Jersey musician’s third studio album \u2013 is definitely one of those records. It having been out for a while, I\u2019m curious to know how it sits with her, but she seems to step away from the concept of reception altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t pay attention enough to the aftermath of dropping something,” Shake tells me. “There’s something about putting something out that makes me feel a little bit detached from it. It starts to feel a little bit impure, it feels tainted a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Many artists I have spoken with seem to have this shift \u2013 where the personal and almost hermetic joy of their art mutates into something that other people can tear apart. \u201cI always like songs, to me, way better before I put them out,” she continues. “They completely change once I know they\u2019re out. I could really, really love a song, and then once I put it out, I\u2019m just like\u2026 not really that in love with it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n For an artist who is actively documenting love, I push a little deeper, and she explains her process a little further. \u201cWhen I\u2019m in the process of making something, it\u2019s just pure and it is what it is. It doesn\u2019t have to be criticised. I just\u2026 I keep it safe, you know? I keep it safe. But that\u2019s just part of the process.\u201d Before people can objectify the work or criticise it, \u201cit is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Shake has spoken before about journalling and poetry as integral to her process, naturally I ask to know more about the writers that influence her own lyricism and poetry, Audre Lorde? Sylvia Plath?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere are people that are way more seasoned than I am [in poetry]. But I kind of lock into certain things.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI really love Sylvia Plath,\u201d she says. We talk about Mirror<\/em>, Plath\u2019s poem about female self-perception and ageing, and then about Anne Sexton, whose work Shake says her friend Mustafa put her on to, and whose work she frequently returns to. \u201cAnne Sexton is incredible,\u201d she says with emphasis. She brings up the poem Sexton wrote to Plath after her death, dedicated to her friend and rival.<\/p>\n \u201cThey spoke about suicide a lot to each other,\u201d Shake says quietly. \u201cIn a way, they kind of kept each other alive. And then Sylvia went on to, you know, do that, unfortunately.\u201d She paraphrases Sexton\u2019s lines about death arriving like a prize one friend took without the other. \u201cIt almost felt like a competitive thing,\u201d she says. \u201cLike, the fact that ‘you did it without me’.\u201d<\/p>\n She speaks with the passion of a scholar yet protests not to be well-versed in poetry. \u201cThere are people that are way more seasoned than I am. But I kind of lock into certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n If poetry shapes the language of her music, cinema shapes its visual architecture. Although Shake says she would never call herself a cinephile in the rigorous, archivist sense, she would have films like Bergman\u2019s Persona<\/em> playing on mute during her recording sessions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t mean to be such a regular \u2013 <\/em>because Paul Thomas Anderson is one of many peoples’ favourite directors, and I think there\u2019s a good reason for that. He\u2019s made a lot of my favourite movies. I would dream to, you know? I mean, that\u2019s another level.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI do love movies,\u201d she admits. \u201cI\u2019m very, very passionate about it; very intrigued by it. It\u2019s a big part of my music-making process.\u201d And if she was asked to do a film soundtrack for anyone? \u201cI don\u2019t mean to be such a regular<\/em>,\u201d she laughs, \u201cbecause Paul Thomas Anderson<\/a> is one of many peoples’ favourite directors \u2013 and I think there\u2019s a good reason for that. He\u2019s made a lot of my favourite movies. I would dream to, you know? I mean, that\u2019s another level.\u201d<\/p>\n However, whilst PTA might be the dream, on scoring she\u2019s pretty open: \u201cAnybody that allows me to, honestly,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not precious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cinema obviously plays a huge role in her visuals, each video or image creating a unique world rather than a consistent universe. \u201cVisuals for music are very important,\u201d she tells me. \u201cIt further gives life to a specific kind of communication, which is music. It adds to the mould of it, into the body of it. It\u2019s arms and legs, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “[Music’s visuals] add to the mould of it, into the body of it. It\u2019s arms and legs, you know?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get the opportunity to make a visual that properly helps mould that vision, it feels very satisfying. You feel like you have a full thought, a full vision. It\u2019s complete.\u201d<\/p>\n When you think of 070 Shake, you can\u2019t help but draw to mind an androgynous love of denim, but the weight with which she carries such a staple has made her a muse for Irish fashion designer Jonathan Anderson<\/a>, first at Loewe and as of earlier this week, as an ambassador at Dior<\/a>. \u201cOne of my musician friends actually introduced me to Jonathan Anderson,\u201d she says. \u201cEver since that, he\u2019s been very, very sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he was at Loewe, I worked with him there,\u201d she continues. “Luckily I was able to be part of that team. I feel very grateful about it, and very grateful to Jonathan.\u201d<\/p>\n Shake is often described as androgynous in style, but she sees that as entirely compatible with Anderson\u2019s sensibility. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a fashion designer, one of your many talents is being able to, you know, break that barrier between gender<\/a>,\u201d she says. \u201cI think he\u2019s very talented, and I really respect his style, and I trust his style. So it\u2019s very easy to fit into his world, because it just feels very natural to me. Whenever I\u2019m wearing something that he\u2019s created, it feels like something I would have picked out from a store anyhow.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Whenever I\u2019m wearing something that he\u2019s [Jonathan Anderson’s] created, it feels like something I would have picked out from a store anyhow.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n For Shake, style is an outward articulation of an inner condition, ego meeting ID. \u201cStyle is obviously a physical thing,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it\u2019s kind of a representation of your inner expression. It\u2019s an extension of the self.\u201d The denim, the considered silhouettes, the controlled looseness: they are all, in her view, simply \u201chow I feel inside,\u201d made visible. At this point, I resist the urge to sing to her The Smith\u2019s lyric, \u2018I wear black on the outside because black is how I feel on the inside<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n When it comes to process, Shake is almost aggressively unpretentious, she treats influence like a vast internal archive to be accessed as needed. \u201cI have so many influences,\u201d she says. \u201cThe way that my brain retains music and stuff that I\u2019ve listened to; there\u2019s a part of my brain where all these things are stored. Sometimes I\u2019ll just come out with a very 70s melody, or even production-wise I\u2019ll do chords from the 60s. I kind of just do what speaks to me,\u201d she says simply.<\/p>\n Almost always, it begins with the building blocks. \u201cNinety per cent of the time, I start with chords,\u201d she tells me. \u201cIt all starts with the chords. The chords can lead me into different spaces.\u201d She is drawn to the holy trinity of starting points: synth, piano or guitar. And, most recently, has been loving the Telepathic Instruments Orchid<\/a>, claiming it to be very impressive.<\/p>\n Naturally, a Prophet 5 comes up as a great synth, but she tells me she leans toward the guitar and we joke that all guitars are created equal, when she reveals no real preference. We don\u2019t discriminate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Ninety per cent of the time, I start with chords… The chords can lead me into different spaces.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Shake is known for her various collaborations and has spoken on them prior, but I\u2019m more interested in her interior process. \u201cWhen I\u2019m writing for myself, it\u2019s very insular,\u201d she says. \u201cFor my own projects, I never really think about collaboration in that way. It kind of just always falls on my lap. It\u2019s not really something I seek out \u2013 not because I\u2019m not open to it, but just because I\u2019m so focused on my own world.\u201d<\/p>\n Her approach to life is similarly reactive, rather than grasping for structured direction. \u201cI kind of just follow the course of the world and the Universe,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything happens how it does. I\u2019m in my own world until things just fall on my lap.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEverything happens how it does. I\u2019m in my own world until things just fall on my lap.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n When I ask about writing love songs, particularly in the context of Petrichor<\/em>\u2019s intimate dissection of love\u2019s tumultuous ride, she resists any idea of strategic construction. \u201cMy music is a reflection of what I\u2019m going through internally,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve never thought about making<\/em> a love song. It just happened to be that that\u2019s what I was feeling in the moment, and it was reflected in music.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps her process encapsulated is: \u201cYou write a love song if you\u2019re in love. If you\u2019re not, then maybe you write sad songs, which I\u2019ve done. It comes from your experience. When you\u2019re experiencing it, it\u2019ll come naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n Whilst Shake\u2019s hometown of New Jersey is part of her soul and musical DNA, travel is incessant \u2013 perhaps the shifting landscapes feed into a diversity of sounds and textures? Shake tells me she’s excited to head to Australia later this month for Beyond The Valley<\/a> and Wildlands Festivals<\/a>, although she \u201cdoesn\u2019t really know what to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n Whilst myself and doubtless thousands of others lucidly remember her 2023 Australian shows, her memory is a little blurrier. \u201cWhat\u2019s crazy is, I don\u2019t remember anything about that trip,\u201d she admits with a small laugh. We can only hope to make this trip a little more memorable, inspiring and fuelled with creative performance.<\/p>\n Oh, and Pinot Noir, or a French red from Bordeaux, or a Barolo \u2013 just as a heads up for her rider\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tickets to 070 Shake’s Australian tour dates in Melbourne and Sydney<\/a>, Beyond the Valley festival in Victoria<\/a> (now sold out) and Wildlands Festivals in Brisbane and Perth<\/a> are on sale now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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