Rotterdam-based indie rock newcomer Mia Porter premieres “pivot,” the first single off her debut EP okay.
Mia Porter‘s debut track, “pivot”, that we are glad to be premiering today, explores human greed, the search for meaning, and the disconnection between man and nature – “Dirty cities, dirty minds, and all that we take / Yet we feel nostalgic and tear up at the picture of a lake.” The single is taken from her upcoming debut EP, okay, a collection of 5 songs in which she questions herself existentially as a 30-year old millennial woman.
“pivot” is built around a punchy kick and snare groove, some soft-clipped tom fills, and a meaty guitar riff. It’s a pretty straightforward indie rock shell that places Porter’s challenging lyrics front and center. Yet the song doesn’t take itself too seriously – as she sings “I feel I have to take nude pictures of myself / and then look at them afterwards and being all comfortable,” we hear a burst of lead guitar that sounds like the musical equivalent of a hand-over-mouth “Oh my word!” It’s deeply Sugarcubes, or in more contemporary terms Cate le Bon, who Porter credits as an influence. These tongue-in-cheek embellishments build throughout the track, lending playful quirk, but never getting in the way of the song’s absolutely undeniable groove. They invite the listener to share Porter’s eyebrow-raised view of our collective ego – “I guess we have to have it all / We stand up and feel so fucking tall.”
The irony of the song is reinforced by its accompanying music video. It features Berlin based actress and model Sophie Bogdan as a melodramatic superhero dancing on the rooftops of Istanbul. The hero is clad in a fabulous red outfit which, for me at least, immediately brought to mind the US version of Kate Bush’s 1978 “Wuthering Heights” video – the so-called “red dress version.” Like Bush, Bogdan’s hero is at once charismatic and ridiculous – wonderfully embodying all the silly traits of human self-seriousness. The superhero dances out the song’s outro – a truly strange, almost spaghetti western passage of acoustic guitar and whistling.
Watch the “pivot” video and support Mia Porter via Bandcamp below.
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