“Chosen Family” by Rina Sawayama / Scene from “The Breakfast Club” (1975) Directed by John Hughes / “Landslide” by Oh Wonder / “Sleeping Beauty” by John Collier / Excerpt from “An Oresteia” translated by Anne Carson / Scene from “Good Will Hunting” (1997) Directed by Gus Van Sant / “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
thank you to @stephenroot for sharing this with me, but this is a really fascinating look into how oh wonder literally saved their relationship through songwriting. and although i have joked that songwriting isn't couple's therapy, it really makes sense how they tackled it, and shows how writing together was almost a way to make peace, even after all the talking.
some interesting excerpts:
But like so many couples, lockdown exposed cracks in their relationship. As they continued to write songs over the summer, the lyrics adopted a tone of anger and resentment that took the couple by surprise.
"We'd go in and all these venomous lyrics would just... come out," says Josie. "And we wouldn't talk about it. We'd just nod and finish the song."
[...]
Then, on a song called Free, Josie described the night they got together "sat on the roof of your one bed apartment" on New Year's Eve 2013, before confessing: "I'm sorry we got here / I wish I'd done more to save us."
"We recorded it and you pressed stop," she reminds Anthony. "And your eyes were flooded with tears and mine were flooded with tears and we had a little hug."
[...]
"So in hindsight, we had these big arguments - but the next day we'd go into the studio and the songs would be our way of apologising. It sounds really weird and it sounds like we weren't communicating, but I think we'd talked so much, and, and...
"...And this was the final way for us to discuss everything," says Anthony, finishing her thought. "It's like a peace treaty within the songs."
Twenty-two hours, pacing the room
Praying for you, hot cup of coffee
They said you're sleeping
No news is good
Nothing to do, cold cup of coffee
Двадцать два часа расхаживаю по комнате
Молюсь за тебя, с горячим кофе в руках
Они сказали, что ты спишь,
Хороших новостей нет,
Ничего не поделать, а кофе остыл
“body paint” - arctic monkeys / j'ai tué ma mère (2009, dir. xavier dolan) / “body gold” - oh wonder / a picture that had sapphic tumblr in a chokehold in 2015 / “blue monday” by diane wakoski