The project started as Elephant and has now become Girlhood; their 2014 album Sky Swimming was extremely well received. Their cinematic textures and evocative songwriting got them rave reviews from magazines such as Pitchfork and Clash and were used on popular TV series like Misfits and Lucifer. After the structural changes, founder and producer Christian Pinchbeck continued to develop and produce it from afar by adding guest vocalists, while the original vocalist Tiece left. An unexpected meeting with singer-songwriter Natalie Holmes while she was performing on stage with Jesca Hoop led to a game-changing collaboration. Rebuilding as a real creative team in Stroud, a Cotswold town, Girlhood now enters into their most personal period yet.
With its release of ‘Lemon Aid’, the world’s first “no-noise” brand is making a refreshing move toward stillness in a fast-paced, digital noise world. The song is the lead single from their upcoming album, This Will Make Sense In The End, and as such, it’s shaping up to be a tender, uplifting plea to those very same emotional strains of the modern era. Focusing on a sentimental piano motif, acoustic guitar and a fun vocal sample, singer Natalie Holmes leads listeners to a place where mundane stresses give way to golden summer light.
The work is about the disembodied and the bodily, the virtual and the real. For years, it was based on the remote files that we exchanged with each other over digital networks, much like the contemporary art sleaze wherein the human touches are lost. Christian Pinchbeck and Natalie Holmes returned to an analogue, “touchable” warmth by bringing the collaboration together in a physical space in Stroud. The surrounding Cotswold geography, its quiet cafes, winding streets and parks all contribute to the track and are very real reminders that a true creative healing can start by being rooted in the immediate physical world.
Food is a metaphor in the lyric and visual image in terms of intimacy, desire, emotional boundaries. But then, as Natalie turned into her thirties, the world’s attitude toward romance and self-preservation took a turn for the worse. The song makes familiar routines such as sharing lemonade on a hot evening moments for emotional rebalancing. Rather than dwelling on past disappointments or falling into burnout, the story is about taking care of oneself, through basic physical nourishment and stillness.
In this manner, Girlhood exemplifies the power of healing as a leadership lesson: how creative expression can heal. The track invites listeners to allow themselves to rest and surrender to the moment, instead of the hard-to-solve questions life brings. The duo demonstrates how forgotten parts of the soul, and lost rhythms of creativity, can be pieced back together to create something bright, long-lasting and deeply reassuring.
Ou bat tanbou epi ou danse ankò.
