1.2 - The night I fell in love with Róisín Murphy

This woman changed my life. She is my David Bowie. I'm sorry I just didn't grow up listening to Bowie, and yes he is a genius and yes I think he is one of the greats.

The fact is, Murphy did for me what Bowie has done for others. She set me free. It's like these icons, they open our arms to welcome the ultimate embrace of one's own essence. The freak inside us all. They release the abnormal from the confines of basic society. Róisín is a stylistic powerhouse that is unapologetically feminine. She is a strange and mysterious force, yet somehow, there is something familiar about her. She is a true performer, and on one night while I was bartending at The "Lighthouse” Theatre in Downtown Vancouver I discovered that truth for myself. 

I had been working there for a couple years on and off at this point, and in between the night's second $20 single highball rush, a moment drew near. A moment I knew in the beating valves of my being, it was destiny. A game of hide & seek began between my oblivious, and all-knowing selves. I was the seeker. 

A gay couple ordered G&Ts "With extra lime wedges" and I, as I gathered the REAL LIME JUICE exclaimed 

"Sorry I only have it from the bottle, and I’ll squeeze in extra but trust me IT'S REAL LIME JUICE OKAY IT SAYS IT ON THE BOTTLE.”

They didn't understand that during my tenure of working in such an overpriced bar, I had a deep-seated frustration with never having any real limes. I really wanted them to enjoy their drinks, but due to the penny-pinching forces beyond my control, bottled they got. Like, it's a bar, bars have limes. Anyway, they literally could not care less, and were just so genuinely happy to be there. I mean come on, they were at a beautiful venue in Downtown Vancouver, ordering cocktails while flying high in the glory of a Róisín Murphy concert. As the one of them paid, the other whisked my wrist up by their face, and confessed his love for her to me. 

"She is a true performer." He closed with cementing those words into my chest.

Though he was talking about Murphy, there was a part of me that heard it as if he was talking about me. As if an angel passed a note to me by way of his tongue. You would only think that narcissistic if you don’t know me, or have a false pre-conceived notion as to who you think I am. It was a contracted moment of the soul, for the both of us. 

The rush dragged itself back beyond the velvet curtain. And in this story, I’ll say it was my coworkers Stella and the Welsh guy whom I begged to stay and watch my stand. I dried my cold fingers good and dry.  I was going into that crowd. I needed to make sure I could feel that luscious red curtain. 

And it was that curtain that played its role as the final gate between me and the moment…

MARRY GO ROUND AGAIN 

ROUND AGAIN 

ROUND AGAIN 

Like, are you kidding me? I walk in there and she's singing "Mary go 'round again" at the top of her lungs in perfect pitch???  I obviously heard it as my band's name. I took the magnificence happening before me as a universal signal of my present alignment. Regardless of my past, unconcerned with my future, exactly right where I was meant to be. 

Tears of pure joy burst from within me. I was laughing so hard. I kept looking around to see if anyone else was in it with me. I was too enlightened to care. Unity. 

My ambitions,

Aspirations, 

Musical sensibilities (whatever that means), 

My Sponge-bob mind, 

My anxieties 

They all cast themselves away. And for a moment, the truth of human connection was mine. And holy fuck did she put herself out there. She spread herself so whole that it reached within the hidden narrows of my eternity. Another contracted moment of the soul. She didn’t need to know I was there to reach me. Her music, the moment, and the people alone, were enough to open a portal to the heavens on that stage, and take me along with it. 

I feel like everyone has had this moment for themselves. At least I know every musician has. You’re at a concert, or in your childhood basement, standing there, being blasted with a sound you didn’t even know could exist. You quickly realize these people have pulled a bunny out of a hat, a coin from your ear. I mean it must be magic because that level of human expression seemed unfathomable then.

I’m not alone??? There’s someone out there like me??? Then they become your favourite artist for the rest of your life and you love them forever.

Anyway, go watch this gem and come back to read the rest of this entry because she's just too cool. 

And that's what I love about her. She's got style. Honestly, reminding myself that I discovered her performing LIVE. That's the ultimate. AND I was working. Hahahaha.

But man, you know, as I paraded myself to the front of the crowd, I sent an energetic wavelength of gratitude to my co-workers at the bar. I'm still grateful to them now for allowing me to sneak away and experience such delight! 

How does she connect to my music?

The sound I am going for in my project could not be more different than her art-pop electronic sound. I’m personally thinking more indie folk/rock, (I'll get into that later hehe), but what I will pull from her is her aura. The magnetism she exudes on stage. Her endless creativity, and skill of execution. She has this ability to out-perform herself show after show, year after year. I just love how freaky and fierce she is. Total It-girl. She has not allowed the big music machine or age to swallow her. I won’t pretend to know everything there is to know about her. And regardless of anything she has said or done off stage, I know that moment was true. There was love in the room that night. 

Róisín Murphy. Legend. 

Ilyf, 

Bianca Isabella