Four years ago, Sharkk Heartt singer-songwriter Lara Ruggles found herself driving to Tucson, Arizona to move in with her dad and stepmom. Life was getting very real. At the time, Lara was 30, enduring heartbreak, reeling from a band breakup, and unable to keep her bills paid. She was feeling rudderless and bracing for the start of the Trump administration.
“I was questioning the hell out of myself,” the Tucson, Arizona-based artist recalls. “I was writing songs that were bigger than me, finally – that dealt with things in the world on a larger scale than just me and my own emotional experience. These songs gave me purpose in a time when I had lost the thread.”
Sharkk Heartt’s debut, Wars Our Mothers Fought (due out April 16th), features these seismic songs. They are culled from a transformative and tumultuous time during which Lara learned the necessity of intersectionality in activism. Spurred on by her close relationship with several LGBTQ friends, the realization that “no one is liberated until everyone is liberated” hit home. The resulting, impactful 7-song album from this epiphanic time features moody downtempo electro-pop music paired with sharp political and cultural commentary. Sharkk Heartt’s music would fit snugly on a Spotify playlist alongside artists such as Vagabon, London Grammar, and Florence + the Machine.
Today Glide is excited to premiere Wars Our Mothers Fought, a stirring collection of songs that has taken Lara three years to record, mix, and master. Instead of working with a band, Lara composed songs on her own using digital techniques that resulted in a delicate and layered sound. Album opener “One Step” features minimalist pop instrumentation alongside soulful vocals. Focusing on universally-resonating topics like break-ups, sadness and change in the world, Lara puts her lyrics and vocals on full display throughout the album. Many songs feature little more than a drum track and synths, making for a moody style of down-tempo electro pop that contrasts nicely with a vocal cadence that feels rooted in R&B and spoken word. For Lara, the album feels like an empowered breakthrough as she seems to revel in taking complete creative control over the production and songwriting to give the listener the truest version of her musical and poetical self. Each song feels like an anthemic statement about both her personal experiences as well as the state of the world at large.
Lara Ruggles describes the process and inspiration behind the album:
Making my last album, I was lucky to work with a couple of really talented producers and a lot of amazing musicians, but when I first moved back home to Tucson in 2016 and started writing the songs on this album, I was striking out on my own again. I’d been touring with a band but it had kind of fallen apart, and I wanted to find out if I had what it took to produce and arrange my own music. I wanted to see how far I could get. So I started learning how to work with samples in Ableton, and I built some arrangements I could play live and loop vocals into, and eventually I recorded them and started listening back and trying to figure out what they needed in order to feel complete. Once I recorded the songs it took me another year and a half to fully produce them. My friend Kevin Larkin added some really cool samples and my friend Andrew Bates, who I’d been touring with in 2016, played bass on a few of them. My friend Tyler Sabbag added drums on Call Us What We Are. And I worked with several really talented singers and songwriters here in Tucson to build a big angry choir into that song. I just did each bit of it here and there, in between tours and other projects, and big life events like getting married.
I wanted the songs all to be political, and to say something big and anthemic that would maybe have enough power somehow to stop all the racism and sexism and hate that was so much more out in the open after Trump got elected. But I think all the songs still ended up being personal reflections too. I was trying to ask big questions of things outside of myself, but I was asking them of myself as well, and taking baby steps toward being a more effective advocate and activist.
A lot has changed since I started writing these songs. It feels like we live in a different world after what’s happened in the last four years, and the last year especially. It’s been so tough for so many people. I know that the way I show up, and the things I prioritize, have shifted pretty drastically. I’m prouder of who I’ve become than who I was four years ago. But I feel like the me of 2016 and 2017 still had some good things to say. She got the songs right. So I’m glad I can finally release them.
LISTEN:
Photo credit: Kevin Hainline
