CrowJane Approaches the Question of Female Body Autonomy With A Battering Ram In New Single “Savage”
“In this current political climate – with the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the banning of abortions in certain cities/states, the wars, the Presidential candidates, being a woman, and being interested in the killings/ tortures of women and male allies during the historical witch accusations – I felt inspired to write a song about all those facts, ideas, and the emotions swirling around them,” says Los Angeles-based experimental post-punk artist CROWJANE (real name: Heather Galipo) about her new song, “Savage” which is released today, May 14, 2024 via Kitten Robot.
Bottling the frustration, anger and angst that all these injustices have instilled in her, “Savage” carries the contentious, disruptive, and bellicose emotions that swelled while writing the track. “I wanted to take a more aggressive approach to the song and tap back into my punk roots,” she explains of the abrasive and assailing industrial track. Capturing the energy and toxicity that comes with the female struggle to fight back against these mostly male-sourced transgressions, CrowJane’s battle is not alone. Enlisting fellow LA-based musicians Christine Lynise (Guilty Strangers) and Mika Carlson (SETI, classically-trained opera singer), CrowJane has built a combative three-women front as a battering ram. “We three female-identifying singers joined forces on the frustrations of religion and politics gaining control of our bodies currently and historically,” she adds.
Singing “They have no right / They have no right / They have to take our dignity” in the chorus, the source of the song comes not only from history but from literature as well. Drawing inspiration from Italian-American intellectual Silvia Federici’s 2004 nonfiction book Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation, “Savage” tackles similar subjects within the nonfiction tome. “In it, [Federici] talks about social movements and political crises in Medieval Europe and the transition into Capitalism,”
CrowJane explains. “She explores the degradation of women, the body being viewed as a capitalist tool, the power of Christianity, and her views on the great witch hunt from a feminist perspective. Her book demonstrates historically that capitalism and patriarchy were not the only possible paths out of the Middle Ages, and that this economic and social system is the product of a relentless process of domination of lands and female bodies.”
Produced by Paul Roessler (The Screamers, Nina Hagan, Josie Cotton) and Daniel Muñoz (45 Grave, Guilty Strangers, Panthar) with drums and additional production by Shok (Daniel Ash, Josie Cotton, Donita Sparks), “Savage” is a precursor for more music to come from CrowJane in 2024. Her critically hailed debut album Mater Delarosa (2022) was applauded by Ghettoblaster Magazine as “a heady and heavy release that allowed CrowJane the freedom to express every ounce of emotion from track to track.” Under The Radar chimed, “CrowJane conjures eerie soundscapes and instrumentals swirling with brimming intensity and marries them with an equally enticing visual narrative.” Her follow-up EP, Bound To Me (2023) found JammerZine commenting, “Each track sets a deeper and darker tone and can run in any order, because like all talented artists, this is what creativity above all else sounds like” while Rebel Noise claims, “CrowJane’s Bound To Me EP seamlessly blends tribal punk dance and darkwave influences, creating a sonic journey that encapsulates the spirit of LA’s underground music scene.”
TOUR DATES
June 22: Los Angeles, CA – The ECHO+PLEX – PRIDE, Lesbian Goth Night by Nightmare Market LA
July 11: San Diego, CA – The Whistle Stop
July 12: Oakland, CA – Hot Goth GF at Spire
July 13: Portland, OR – The Coffin Club
July 14: Tacoma, WA – The Valley
July 15: Seattle, WA – Substation
July 16: Bellingham, WA – The Shakedown
July 19: Vancouver, Canada – Astoria – Verboden
July 22: Salt Lake City, Utah – International Artist Lounge
July 23: Vegas, NV – Sin Wave
Coming from a visual art background of surrealism and horror, CrowJane has built a career as a professional effects makeup artist who has worked on Mulan, The Orville, Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood, Civil Twilight, The Clinic, Don Quixote, Toolbox Murders, The Last Of Us: Part II, Star Wars: Fallen Order, and more alongside her music career. This unlikely background helped foster an outsider musical sensibility that is perfectly balanced by an encyclopedic knowledge of the byways and back roads of punk and death rock, both historic and in LA’s contemporary underground music scene, of which her bands have been an integral component for the past 10 years.
CrowJane’s single “Savage” was produced by Paul Roessler (The Screamers, Nina Hagan, Josie Cotton) and Daniel Muñoz (45 Grave, Guilty Strangers, Panthar) with drums and additional production by Shok (Daniel Ash, Josie Cotton, Donita Sparks) and is released today, May 14, 2024 via Kitten Robot. It is available for stream or purchase at DSPs here: https://tr.ee/23nGs3MGPx.
“SAVAGE”
She has some kind of powers
She can heal wounds
she gathers with others
In suspicious forms
They gossip for hours
Strength that knows no bounds
We can’t be consumed
The looks, the charms, the nurturing abounds
Chorus 1:
They have no right
They have no right
They have to take our dignity
They have no right
They have no right
They have aggression and virility
Her body is the devil’s gateway
Take no accountability
Make her feel wrong everyday
Gain power over her fertility
Chorus2:
They have no right
They have no right
They have to take our dignity
They have no right
They have no right
They have aggression and virility
They want our mind
They want our mind
They want our divine femininity
Outro chorus:
They have no right
They have no right
They have to take our dignity
They have no right
They have no right
They have aggression and virility
They want our mind
They want our mind
They want our divine femininity
They burn our flesh
they burn our flesh
They burn our autonomy
They spread their words
They spread their words
They spread their god toxicity
They want our minds
They want our minds
They want compliant bigotry