Luckily she managed to evade the man who’d taken her to Brooklyn and thanks to the kindness of strangers, escaped unharmed, for the most part. You see, the thing about a traumatic experience like that, is that the acute feeling of heightened awareness never leaves you.
Lou’s new video “Skin Crawl”, the second single off her upcoming album Paper Castles, is a result of the singer trying to work through the experience, make sense of it all.
“It’s about the little things,” Lou begins, “the words, the comments, the feeling that ripples through your skin every time you’re told you’re a bitch because you don’t want to give him your number. Because for me, it’s the little things that are the starting point of a broader culture of non-consent and sexual aggression.”
However in this current tumultuous #MeToo climate, it’s hard to make any kind of bold statement as a woman without some ill-informed man taking offence. With this in mind, Lou is eager to profess that she does not “paint men with a single brush”.
Instead, she has heaps of adoration for the men that she works and socialises with. “These are the same men that appear in my music video for “Skin Crawl” close friends who were happy to play a role in a video where I could use them as my objects and my furniture in order to turn things on their head,” Lou laughs.
“The song’s intention is to ask that we all work towards a world where we strive to make each other feel comfortable and safe at all times. That’s the dream really. Cozy and safe and equal,” she concludes.
That’s the dream, isn’t it? However in a world where an alleged child rapist can continue making music for two decades unchallenged, an alleged victim of sexual abuse is still forced to work with her alleged attacker due to contractual obligations and a transgender DJ is assaulted in a Cape Town club by a bunch of ignorant boys, it’s clear that we’ve got a long, long way to go.
Watch the video below.
The Paper Castles 2019 Tour
North America
March 3 – Toronto, CAN – The Garrison
March 4 – Montreal, CAN – Bar Le Ritz PDB
March 5 – Boston, MA – Cafe 939
March 7 – Vienna, VA – Jammin’ Java
March 8 – Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
March 10 – Durham, NC – Motorco Music Hall
March 11 – Atlanta, GA – Vinyl AT Center Stage
March 13 – 17 – Austin, TX – SXSW
March 20 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
March 21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Moroccan Lounge
March 23 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
March 24 – Portland, OR – The Old Church Concert Hall
March 25 – Seattle, WA – Barboz
Europe
April 10 – Leipzig, DE – UT Connewitz
April 11 – Dresden, DE – Polimagie Festival
April 13 – Hannover, DE – Faust
April 15 – Bristol, UK – Thekla
April 16 – Manchester, UK – Deaf Institute
April 17 – London, UK – Earth
April 18 – Nottingham, UK – Bodega
April 20 – Utrecht, ND – Tivoli
April 21 – Amsterdam, ND – Zonnehuis
April 23 – Aachen, DE – Kulturbunker
April 24 – Brussels, BE – Botanique
April 26 – Vienna, AT – Flex
April 28 – Prague, CZ – Futrum
April 29 – Erlangen, DE – E-Werk
May 1 – Friberg, DE – Jazzhaus
May 2 – Munich, DE – Ampere
May 3 – Zurich, CH – Bogen F
May 4 – Stuttgart, DE – Im Wizemann
May 6 – Cologne, DE – Kulturkirche
May 7 – Mainz, DE – Kuz
May 8 -Kiel, DE – Pumpe
May 9 – Copenhagen, DK – Vega
May 11 – Berlin, DE – Columbiahalle
Tickets and more information: AlicePhoebeLou.com
