If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Adam Alonzo Skullcrusher typically releases music that's intimate and stripped down, and that's certainly what her latest single is. What makes "Living" different from what we're used to is that it's not exactly a beautiful song. Sure, there's beauty throughout, but "Living" has an oddly disturbing element to it. There's something unsettling about the way the song is structured. It might also be the closest to a pure folk song that Skullcrusher has released to date. It's still intimate, although it's more lush than "March" was. This one is a great song you're going to love, but be warned that it may just unearth some unexpected emotions within you. Helen Ballentine (aka Skullcrusher) says of her latest single: “One day I was wandering around Brooklyn and I felt like I was watching everything through a window or on a screen. I felt like everyone was moving so fluidly and certainly like moving through a piece of c...

Photo by Adam Alonzo Skullcrusher (aka the musical project of Helen Ballentine) is back with new music. "March" is an almost painfully intimate piano ballad. It's one of the most sparse songs we've ever covered, with the piano being used sparingly, and most of the focus on Ballentine's vocals. Slowly these electronic noises come in, but since the song is so quiet and intimate, I thought it was possibly some wind sounds the microphone picked up. Intimate doesn't even begin to describe "March," and at times you'll find yourself wondering if this is something meant to be heard by the public. All that just makes Skullcrusher's latest an intensely powerful song. Helen Ballentine says of her latest single: “March is like a confession.  It felt like surrendering myself to the things I’ve lost, the things I don’t understand, the confrontation of life & responsibility. While I reflect on things, familiar situations take different forms. I make a f...

Photo by Silken Weinberg Skullcrusher (aka Los Angeles based musician Helen Ballentine) is back with another single that doesn't fit the name of the project at all. "Day of Show" starts off disguised as an indie folk song... until the synths come in. Slowly it morphs into a more dream pop infused with shoegaze song. It creates this dreamy, hazy feel which is kind of perfect for laying around the house in the summer heat while under quarantine. Ballentine says of the song:   "I wrote ‘Day of Show’ on a hot day last summer in my roommate’s bedroom because mine didn’t have AC," explains Ballentine. “I felt dazed and restless from sitting around in the heat all day. It is a song about feeling trapped in yourself, unable to help yourself and reluctant to let others in. It explores the fragmented behavior and thoughts that arise from this feeling: a kind of daydreaming that can be really creative but also the darkness that also exists there. It’s musically inspi...

Photo by Silken Weinberg Skullcrusher is the musical project of Los Angeles based artist Helen Ballentine. If her new song "Places/Plans" is any indication, Skullcrusher will quickly become a favorite here. Despite being mostly Ballentine's voice and a soft guitar, "Places/Plans" isn't quite folk, but maybe folk adjacent. It's a layered in a way to truly be mesmerizing. It's a hypnotizing song about isolation that was written a year ago but seems to have been made for right now.  Ballentine says of the song:  “ I thought a lot about my self-worth during this period of uncertainty.  ‘ Places/Plans’ attempts to communicate the beauty and vulnerability of being alone and what it means to let someone else in to see that. It feels like the thematic core of the EP. It is a song for being alone in your room, lying on the floor with a book and the window open, but also for letting someone in to lie with you .” You can watch the video for "Places...