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After crying herself into a sinus infection in November 2016, Trishes crafted the message that would be the foundation of her first EP: “Welcome to the resistance.” In the middle of a political maelstrom, the Berklee grad drew power and prowess from Greek mythology, weaving the message of solidarity that would become her song “Hydra.”
“I wrote ‘Hydra’ after the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville last year,” Trishes tells Vanyaland. “I remember after Heather Heyer was killed during a counter protest I oddly felt a sense of hope because I knew her death wasn’t in vain. I knew that next time, even more protestors would show up in her place. It reminded me of the stories in Greek mythology of the hydra, who would grow two heads every time someone cut one off.”
For Trishes, the harsh political climate since that fall has felt especially personal. Born in Trinidad, the all-too-prevalent negative attitudes towards immigrants and people of color became even more evident for her in the time after the fall of 2016. “I think the 2016 election and events that followed felt like a personal rejection to me. It felt very much like the country that I love did not love me back,” she adds. “The song is a testament to the human spirit and our ability to adapt. I see that spirit most clearly within communities of color and immigrant communities. It’s amazing what can be done under oppression or with little resource.”
A week after releasing “Hydra,” Trishes plans to share a spoken word video and art collection that accompany the music video, forming a creative trifecta. Each song on her forthcoming EP Ego, due out in February 2019, will micmic the same pattern, addressing various facets of psychology in her loop-laden electropop.
“With my first album I wanted to capture the essence of the live show, and also dive deeper into each concept, so for each song there is a video, spoken word piece and small art collection,” she explains. “The EP focuses on Freud’s conscious self, which he called the ‘ego.’ This self feels trapped and constantly pulled between the primal self (the id) and the spiritual self (the superego). I chose to speak on five human constructs created to separate ourselves from our animalistic drives but also fall short of our spiritual aspirations: Government, money, language, self awareness and creativity.”
“Hydra” harnesses the power of the last aspiration, but there’s one more thing comes into play in her creative resistance: Casting your damn ballot. “We need to keep writing and making art and music and culture and finding new ways to be heard,” she explains. Our greatest strength in situations where it seems that we are powerless is our creativity. That, and our vote.”
Featured photo by Alejandra Ocampo.