Dove Armitage Befriends Her Demons and Darkness in ‘Concernless’ EP
Dove Armitage, the unclassifiable and unpredictable pop project from songwriter Quincy Larsen, emerged from the ashes of former projects. There are traces of the post-punk band she played bass in after moving to LA, and an avant-garde indie rock band that recalled boundary-pushing groups like Brainiac. The multi-disciplinary artist blended these elements with gleeful, thrilling synth-rock on her newest upcoming project, Concernless.
Over the course of six tracks, Armitage pays homage to the music she grew up blasting. There’s an eye on the past, but this music is built distinctly for the future. In an era in which popular music can be broken down to formulas, clichés and repeatable ideas, Armitage doubles down on her originality, infusing brilliant pop hooks with bold artistic choices that shock the system. It’s a brave introduction, but after so many years of playing with others, Armitage wanted to make an album wholly in concert with her own vision.
Concernless is built around Armitage’s favorite instrument, the bass, and each song hones in on the lyrical themes that she says arrived by accident.
“I want to befriend the darker parts of me. You hear so much about expelling your demons, but maybe you should focus on befriending them because they’re not going to go away,” she says.
First track “Brittle” rightfully begins with the interplay of synth and bass before shuffling drums and Armitage’s haunting vocals. There’s a sense of mystery during the song’s first verse, but the songwriter’s use of digital vocal effects and hyperpop-inspired aesthetics give the song a raucous, stadium-ready energy. “Let go of my hand a little / your touch makes my bones go brittle,” she sings.
Armitage’s philosophy on this EP is to embrace the scary moments and the darkness that exists in each of us. It’s this vulnerability in admitting two sides to herself that eventually led to her alter-ego as Dove Armitage.
“I like these two people. They're both me and they both reflect my inner workings. I would say Quincy is the bubbly one. Dove is the darker one,” Armitage says.
It was her decision to embrace her darker side and harness this energy in a positive way that infuses so much of Concernless.
“I started letting my demons teach me rather than ignoring them because they're just going to be there and want my attention. I might as well give them attention, but do so in a positive way.”
Ultimately, the project is a response to Armitage’s surroundings, and the struggles that impact her and her community.
“I address negativity by acknowledging it, but then figuring out how I can spin it in a positive way. The things we go through as humans, as women, as queer people, suck, but they can make us better, too,” she says. “How can we acknowledge these experiences without belittling them, to live and thrive regardless of those challenges?”
It‘s an all-consuming question, and one Dove Armitage never fully answers on Concernless. That, however, is besides the point. Her bravery in acknowledging them, in understand them, and asking them gives Concernless it’s inspiring, unending power.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for talking to Unpublished Magazine. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t yet familiar with you, can you tell us what inspires your creative persona and artistic style?
[DOVE]: Basically anything, like juxtaposition I love. I love putting things together that don't quite fit. I like mixing things that wouldn't ordinarily be mixed, so that's kind of my motto.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What artists inspire you either lyrically or instrumentally? Whether that's just music you love to listen to or music that you pull inspiration from into yours?
[DOVE]: I've been listening to Caroline Polachek a lot. I think she's a great current artist that I really look up to. As far as older artists, I listen to Enya all the time. I like Enya and Aphex Twin which have always been really huge influences, and a lot of ambient artists are big influences as well.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Say if someone hasn't heard of your music yet, which song would you introduce them to that best encapsulates your artistic growth and maturity?
[DOVE]: “Sex On Display” because I think that one we hit the nail on the head with what we were trying to go for and that one is my favorite personally. It's also the one that encapsulates everything about the project that’s surreal, harsh, dark and beautiful. It's a little scary, it's danceable, it's all the things that I love put into one.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You released your latest single “Brittle” that is a sneak peek off your upcoming EP, Concernless. What is the inspiration behind the track and what did the creative process look like?
[DOVE]: “Brittle” came from letting go and acknowledging and saying that you love someone so much but aren't quite good for you. Those two things can exist in the same space. In production, we went back and forth between hyper aggressive glitch noise soundscaping, but also having a shoegaze element that is heard in the more ethereal vocals. The next track, we did a similar vibe, but lyrically it was pulling more from LCD Soundsystem and heavier rock inspirations.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Does “Brittle” set the tone for the rest of the Concernless EP to follow?
[DOVE]: I would say it definitely gets a little bit more complex. “Brittle” was good to get out because it had an array of elements that captures the EP perfectly, but I think it gets more complex as the EP goes on.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is the inspiration behind the Concernless?
[DOVE]: The whole EP came from this exploration of multiple things existing at the same time and also befriending a demon within you, because everyone has their demons. I was told years ago – when I was working through some heavy stuff – someone said to me when I was lamenting that I couldn't seem to get rid of these demons or these things that I had gone through. Someone suggested, ‘well, why have you tried befriending them?’ and that is what ended up working for me. The whole theme and tone of the EP explores this healing process through a kinder lens rather than brushing them off, like why not friend and reacquaint and reassociate these things into a positive? That’s where the first song started and from there, it steamrolled into this whole entire theme of poetic symbolism that could be interpreted in many ways. However, the listener interprets what's going to resonate for them.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Did you take any creative risks or experiment more either lyrically or sonically with Concernless since your debut EP release ///1?
[DOVE]: When I started the Dove project, I was experimenting with ambiance and sonic soundscaping and not really focusing too much on lyrics, which is my favorite part of the process. I just wanted to challenge myself by removing the element that came easiest for me, which was lyrics and see if I could speak through a different language. I’m glad I did it because I feel like I was able to in my own production, sound and sound design, learn how to tell a story through just sonic sound waves and not words, but I miss having my own voice in there. I think it was definitely the first time I really combined what I think I'm good at with my new scale of production. It was the first time I also didn't think about genre. I didn't really care about what genre it would fit into and just made what I felt was the right thing to make and service the song.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You previously said that you wanted to befriend the darker parts of yourself and that’s going to be shown in the project. How do you work with that energy and channel it into the studio?
[DOVE]: I let the studio be a reverence space for creation and not being embarrassed or having anything to be really afraid of. I think holding that as a sacred space for people can be free to enter and whoever you're collaborating with as well, it can be open and free to create the best space conducive for experimenting. The whole point of playing an instrument is you're playing and you want to have this wander in the studio, but I think with the embracing of the dark parts, that is a practice, at least for me. I have to practice that and that's when I bring this darker element into the studio, in my mind, I'm thinking of how can this be presented in a very honest way and this was painful. Things don't have to suck all the time. That's been a healing thing, which I hope that these songs can do for others, to serve as a sense of healing. I think when there's this perspective of I'm just gonna get as dark as possible, I think you can lose yourself to that. So it is a practice and a balancing act of keeping that in check.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What do you need in your space when you feel creative inspiration hitting?
[DOVE]: Literally anything. I usually have headphones with me and if something strikes me, the only thing I do consistently is get away from people or tune out sound. I will voice message either a little hum or rhythm or just whatever I can get my hands on to write down any words that hit me just write it. It leads to a bit of a mess because then I'll have post it notes and napkins and menus scribbled on and I won't reconsolidate them into a notebook.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Unpublished?
[DOVE]: I think this is a very exciting part in my career because it does feel like we're locked at launching this new project. I found my voice. The first batch of songs I think are the most me that I've ever made. I think it's an exciting and scary process because they are so personal and they were so intricately woven of things I've experienced. I am very excited to see how people interpret, relate to that or reconfigure that because once the song is out, it's going to do what it's going to do and it's not my precious internal thing anymore. I'm curious to see how they do because that's what I want the listener to assign their own meaning. The rest of the year is just getting the music out. I have some shows coming up and I have a couple coming up in Europe that are going to be fun.
