PRIMER - ALYSSA MIDCALF INTERVIEW

Vocalist and electronic producer Alyssa Midcalf first introduced the world to her performance alias Primer with her 2019 debut album Novelty. The record showcased Midcalf’s ability to transmute trauma into something beautiful, detailing honest and sometimes harrowing stories against upbeat rhythms, lush melodies, and a modern take on ’80s-inspired synth.

Now, with her sophomore album Incubator, Midcalf has pushed the full weight of her musicality, angular songwriting, and ethereal vocals into 10 new wave tracks, creating a sound she describes as “abject pop” because the sonics are buoyant but the lyrics are anything but. Through songs like the socially aware “Just A Clown,” the slow-building, “Feel The Way I Do” and celebratory “Warning”, Incubator offers listeners a synth-pop lens to examine our relationship with ourselves, other people, and life itself.

Incubator will be available April 15.

Interview by Interlocutor Magazine

Synthpop and indie pop are definite influences on your work – who are some specific musicians/bands that initially inspired you to focus on this style?

Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears are big ones for me!

You began writing many of the songs on Incubator in your late teens. What was it like to work with material that has evolved over such a lengthy period? Was it more or less difficult than you anticipated, and did you gain any surprising personal insights from the process?

It was rewarding to see songs I care about finally make it to their final form after so long. A big part of why these songs got drawn out was simply because of having limited resources as a working class artist. But I also like to think they just were taking their time to develop in the incubator. I think a personal insight I gained was to be less precious about songs and to not hold on to them for too long. It was a nice experiment to have songs evolve over such a long period of time but I think my process has changed and I work faster now.

You’ve coined your sound as “abject pop,” which points to its “self-effacing nature since sonically it’s buoyant, but lyrically it’s anything but.”

How do you think Incubator embodies this “abject pop” style, and in what ways do you think your music may be different or has evolved stylistically from your first album Novelty?

I started referring to my music as abject pop during the making of this record because I always dreaded the question “what kind of music do you make?” and abject pop felt very concise. I think my music will always be grappling with the feeling of questioning myself.

However, I do think my music has changed very dramatically and stylistically since the first record. Again, a lot of it comes down to resources. For this record, I had more resources and collaborators which made it easier to execute more ambitious ideas. Also the decision to pivot to pop was very conscious. I opened myself up to using guitars and live bass and better quality hardware instruments. I also decided to adopt more traditional song writing techniques.

Incubator was co-produced by your friend Noah Prebish (of psych-pop band Psymon Spine and formerly of the band Barrie). What's your creative chemistry like with him, and what do you think Noah brought to the project that took the album to different places than it may have gone otherwise?

The first time I worked with Noah we had only met once before and barely knew each other. So I think it was kismet that we were able to connect as collaborators and friends.

For this record, I had a very ambitious idea of how I wanted it to sound and I recognized my own limitations as a producer and engineer. Because of that it felt necessary to have Noah contribute to it. It was also the first record he produced and I think he tapped into talents he didn’t know he had yet. It’s hard to say what the record would be without his collaboration, he added so much life and depth to it.

The video for “Warning” was shot in the Mojave Desert, where you grew up. You've said that you “spent all my teen years trying to reject the desert, feeling stifled and isolated there and wanting so badly to move as far away as possible. And now that I have moved away to many different places, I’ve been able to accept that it will always be my home regardless of where I go.”

What was it like to shoot in a place that impacted you so personally? Was there a sense of reconciliation or conquering this environment now that you've had more life experience? (And where did that old boat you're standing on come from? It's nicely incongruous!)

Absolutely, I think I’ve finally come to terms with “home” as a concept in the past year since I moved back. I spent years feeling like I needed to be searching for something that ultimately I was never going to find. I think a sense of home comes internally; finding where you feel secure and stable and just committing to it and making the decision to stop searching for something more. Filming in the desert was meaningful to me because for most people it’s a landscape or a destination to pass through, take from and leave. But for me it’s where all my roots are.

I filmed the video with Jax Anderson, and a lot of the shots were on her family member’s property in Joshua Tree. Their property happened to have that old boat on it, we lucked out!

Incubator will be available April 15.

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