Mima Good is the pseudonym of NYC-based songwriter Raechel Rosen. MimaGood’s sound and aesthetic espouses a contemporary pop sensibility combined with a dark atmosphere of synths, organs & guitars, creating a moody catchiness in the vein of other pioneering female artists like St. Vincent or Lana Del Rey. What sets it apart are Rosen’s masterful vocals, full of soul and dipped in sadness, that soften the sharpness of the synthetic sound and offer it a classic, almost bluesy air that harkens the listener back decades to the likes of Etta James or Billie Holiday. She began the project three years ago, an attempt to reclaim her relationship to creating music from the abusive boys she began it with.
He recent Good Girl EP articulates the healing process from a tumultuous relationship with a former bandmate, an auditory storytelling of Rosen’s journey from attachment to abuse to self-liberation. But more generally, Rosen processes a confusing relationship with her own femininity, in a culture that tells girls to be “good,” even when the men around them behave badly. Beginning with tracks “I Like It When It’s Bad For Me” and “My Demon,” she delves into the complexities of attachment to trauma, and how traumatic experiences can be so formative to our identities that we don’t want to let them go. The turning point is “1 Hit,” an elaborate revenge fantasy about the abuser, the anger being the next step in letting go of the past. From there, “Spell For A Broken Heart” deals with the acceptance of trauma, of how it must be honored and listened to so that it may be released. And finally, the EP culminates with the title track “Good Girl,” in which Rosen addresses her abuser directly and realizes that she must forgive him in order to forgive herself.
All in all, Mima Good’s Good Girl EP is a soundtrack for our present cultural moment, as women begin to loudly speak their truths about the abuses they have survived. It captures the eternal pain of first heartbreak, the deep sting of unrequited love, and the lifelong work of unlearning sexual trauma and replacing self-hate with love.
Glide is proud to premiere the official video for “My Demon” below a murderously hauting track that edges the line between artsy pop and brooding soul.
‘My Demon’ is about attachment to trauma: the obsession I have felt towards this pain, the sexy desire for revenge… what it means to be haunted and to haunt in return. If I let go of my demon, am i letting go of my identity? The demon is the physical manifestation of past traumas and girlhood memories that haunt my dreams and relationships. Brains have a funny way of creating physical representations of our pain. I find my demon has the face of the person who hurt me most, but years of collected experiences have fed it supernatural power. Through the song and video, I acknowledge the demon’s hold on me and burn the ties, ” adds Rosen.
“The video was directed and edited by Alexandra “Ace” McColl over a 2 year period in New York City and New Orleans. Water appears in many forms throughout the video, representing years of soaking in painful memories. Fire acts as its opponent, burning the remains. And the projections quite literally project past relationships into the present.”
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/mimagood/?hl=en
