200 Words: SAMANTHA GLASS

(In 200 Words, we highlight a new record we like a lot, via a 200-word review by Marc Masters and 200 words (or so) from the artist about whatever they choose.)

SAMANTHA GLASS - Introducing the Confession tape (No Rent)

I don’t know the inspirations and influences behind Beau Deveraux’s latest work as Samantha Glass. But to my ears the music is essentially an abstracted, re-imagined take on goth-leaning, synth-driven 80′s new wave - as if that sound were refracted though memory and transported to another time and space altogether. In some cases Introducing the Confession strikes me even as straight-up, happily-devout new wave homage - closing track “Personal Witness,” for instance, with its climbing synth figure and glimmering accents, could be a lost classic rescued from a great 80′s mixtape.

But most of Introducing the Confession captures the feel of 80′s synth/goth while expanding and deepening the musical forms into which that feeling can be infused. At best, Devereaux is able to craft pieces that resemble both songs and abstraction, as if the ghosts of structured melodies are fading into the distance behind these overwhelmingly-enveloping atmospheres. Perhaps these tracks are like dreams, but not in the movie-cliche sense - more in the way that they’re so evocatively amorphous that they’re hard to make out clearly or decipher quickly. They alter my mood despite - or even because of - the fact that I can’t remember everything about what just happened when they’re over.

– Marc Masters

BEAU DEVEREAUX on Introducing the Confession

    With every release I am attempting to strip away the previously found layer of skin and find new ways to push forward, as Samantha Glass. Being genderqueer, I’ve had a roller coaster ride through the years trying to figure out my sexuality. Samantha Glass has always been a great diary of that progression through word and sound. That progression yielded yet another album filled with personal stories of wild rides, late nights, depression, and the masterful as always delusion spiked by fantasy, reality, and pleasure. I keep finding myself harkening back towards ambient foundations that got me excited to finally play / record / release music back in 2008. That, alongside field recordings & SG song structures, creates such a larger story and feels more realistic to me. Utilizing processed vocals & adjusting the tape speed of my own voice, has opened up yet another door unto the blurred lines of gender, and new ways of expressing myself. I’ve always had interest in performing in drag as Samantha Glass. Just as I was finishing up this cassette, I was also practicing the songs for a live performance. I realized the ideas were intersecting naturally and that I could utilize the movement of this album, and an upcoming one, as a foundation for making that jump.
    I owe a lot of thanks to everyone that has been by my side at any point during my life. Trust me I know I have not been an easy queen to get past sometimes (i.e. selfish, obsessive, etc.) but I’m trying. I’m feeling closer to freedom than ever before, thanks to my community of support, and let me tell you it feels amazing. I’ve always seen masculinity as mostly a trap, and it’s not me. I feel more genderless than ever before, and I am ready to be swept away upon the next journey, while sharing stories with the listeners of the world. I’ve always been more of my mind and heart than of my body.        
 Remember, take care of your community and loved ones. It’s all we really have.
Xoxo,    
Beau Devereaux aka Samantha Glass

Introducing the Confession is out now on No Rent. Buy it here.