photo credit Giraffe Studios
by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Five years after the release of the well received Waves, Sofia Bolt (aka Amelie Rousseaux) returns with her second full length, the gorgeous Vendredi Minuit. Out today via Born Losers Records, the Parisian born, Los Angeles based songwriter adds a multitude of depth to her oeuvre, blending together dreamy pop, orchestral psych, and soft lit yé-yé grooves. The result is an ever shifting lounge-tinged drift into both Rousseaux’s personal narrative and abstract reflections of moving scenery, emotional anxiety, and means to escape. It worked well as singles during the record’s roll out, but truly should be experienced in full, as mood, tonality, and compositions transition from one song to the next.
Ahead of release shows in both Paris and Los Angeles, Sofia Bolt wrote in to give Post-Trash the inside scoop on each of Vendredi Minuit’s songs.
LOVE IS AN ATTITUDE:
A song about my French grandmother, a celebration of her patient relationship to time, and about the wisdom of our elders in general.
GO AWAY:
About trying so hard for someone and then just suddenly being done with it, realizing how futile all your efforts were. About allowing time to heal your wounds, to be like a sail in the wind and give in to time carrying you forward.
BUS SONG (FEAT. STELLA DONNELLY):
I wrote this song with Euan Hinshelwood (Cate LeBon, Younghusband) who was visiting Los Angeles from London at the time. He was taking the bus to come to my house which is quite a novelty in L.A, so we decided to write a song about it. The song describes the emotions you feel when daydreaming on a bus. When you let go, look out the window and let your mind wander. How the anonymous setting of a public bus is such a nice release from reality. Stella Donnelly brought the perfect soothing tone to the song. We toured together in 2019, spending lots of time staring idly out the bus window. She knows the feeling well.
VENDREDI MINUIT:
This song is about how unfair death can feel but that we must learn to accept death as an intricate part of life. That we should honor death as a reminder of how precious life is.
TU ES PARTIE:
I wrote this song about moving to L.A from Paris in order to get away from the oppressive weight of the city’s history.
MARTINI:
About someone I know who disappeared one day to the next, no one could get a hold of them. I imagined them just needing a break and holing up at a bar, drinking martinis. The end of the song expresses the anxiety you feel when you’re trying to get a hold of someone who won’t answer their phone.
MAHLER:
Wrote this song after watching the movie Tàr starring Cate Blanchett. This song could be a sequel of sorts. Imagining what became of the main character Lydia Tàr from the perspective of her new protégée, who so desperately seeks her attention.
BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME:
A cheeky take on revenge. This song features two of my favorite poems by Beaudelaire, “Le Cygne” and “Chant d’Automne”.
DO YOU REMEMBER ME? (FEAT. RODRIGO AMARANTE):
About being far from sight, far from mind and how distance can sometimes be the best of solutions. I wrote this song as a duo with my dear friend Rodrigo Amarante in mind.
MILK:
An anthem to queer women. I tried to translate that feeling when you meet someone you’re attracted to, everything feels like honey and milk. It’s a sexy song for sure.