Earlier this month, Arni Mac delivered a scathing country rock ballad in the form of new single All My Fault.
Dressing down a particularly troublesome suitor, All My Fault sees Arni Mac brim with a mix of rage, regret and longing, as punctuated by the warmth and storytelling quality of an acoustic guitar.
Like any great musician, Mac paints a picture with vulnerable lyricism and pristine production, but the visuality of All My Fault is deeper than simply words and chords.
“My songwriting process is quite visual,” Mac explains. It’s this synesthetic approach to music that Mac elaborates upon below, as the Brisbane artist swings by Happy to share the artworks that inspired All My Fault.
Catch her full list of visual muses below, and scroll down to listen to Arni Mac’s latest single All My Fault.
When I was writing All My Fault, art was a major factor in the way I approached the song. There were a bunch of different pieces that really spoke to me, and helped me to reshape the feelings that led up to writing it.
My songwriting process is quite visual, and outside sources play a big factor in how I view each song, especially the cohesiveness of the single art, photography and videos that accompany them.
EVERY CURVE – Zoe Buckman
This piece by Zoe Buckman is so fascinating to me. The combination of the femininity of lingerie and embroidery, with the lyrics from 90s hip hop artists creates this amazing juxtaposition.
It places these comments that were made about women through music, on the clothes they wear, and in some way, onto their consciousness, how they present themselves to the world.
It really speaks to the way that culture throughout our youth impacts how we grow up to view ourselves, and view the world around us. All My Fault is kind of like my rejection of viewing myself through this lens.
I wanted to escape these ideas that I should settle for things that make me unhappy, that my life should revolve around pleasing a man, and that things were always my fault.
EVERY CURVE was so empowering in shifting how I viewed myself, and that played a big part in writing All My Fault.
Illusion of Fire – Kayla Baltunis
When I was writing All My Fault, this image of fire kept floating around in my head. Bright oranges and reds, a woman holding a lighter, ready to set fire to the past.
It stemmed from this feeling of letting go of responsibility, allowing myself to acknowledge that I don’t have the power to stop bad things from happening. I guess it was about letting go of control.
This idea of fire and its inherent chaos, really represented that feeling. Illusion of Fire was like a visual representation of these ideas in my head, which is actually quite rare for me.
I often have an array of images and sounds of my creative projects before I’ve made them, and it can be quite difficult to translate that into real life.
So it was really powerful for me to find a piece of photography that so perfectly represented these ideas I had for the song. It really helped in creating a cohesive vision between the song, my cover art, and the music video which I’m currently working on.
Untitled – Rosanna Jones
The idea of our minds fragmenting into almost a panic state, was really important in All My Fault.
I wanted to take listeners on a journey, from one simple thought, to all the different meanings it would create, a repetitive chorus, to the desperate questioning and ramblings of the bridge.
This would serve as a representation of the inner workings of my mind throughout some of the toughest months of my life. I wrote All My Fault, when I was just starting to heal, when I finally achieved some sense of calm in my daily life.
This piece really represented the fragmentation of thoughts and this image of composure I wanted to maintain. The idea that although you may be a mess, you are still a whole person, who deserves to feel at one with themselves.
The colours were also really important, as they fit in with that visual theme of fire and warmth that had such a hold on me.
It so perfectly represented the version of me that I was writing about in All My Fault. When I look at it now it almost feels like a self portrait.
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