Caroline Loveglow - Strawberry (2022)

Isolation is a familiar feeling for Caroline Loveglow. Even
before the world shut down, her meditative dream-pop music was
informed by long nights she would spend at home getting lost in
her head. Sitting in front of her computer, she’d twist and
contort familiar sounds—stretching out a piano into an unearthly
drone or swirling guitar parts together through pillowy clouds
of distortion and reverb. Her vocals and incredibly honest
lyrics float above it all, as she ponders existential questions,
mulls inner turmoils, and wonders what it really means to be
“human”.

“Patience Etc...” shows the power of this approach. Over dizzy
synthesizers and a pummeling breakbeat, she explores
psychological and romantic anxieties, asking questions and
expressing the complicated thoughts that sneak up on her late
at night. The song ascends, suggesting there are ways to work
through one’s darkest moments- “There’s this sort of melancholy
feeling that’s been present since I was little,” she explains.
“I fight with it all the time, but I don’t think I would be abl
to write without it.”

Caroline uses music as a vessel to understand herself. Growing
up in San Diego, she discovered guitar at age 7 and a love for
poetry that eventually led to songwriting by 12. Inspired by
both the textured and emotional music her Mom showed her
(Radiohead, Neil Young) and her own favorite at the time (The
Cure), her earliest songs were small poems she’d set to a few
chords in her bedroom. Even then, it was a way of trying to
process the complexities of the world; and it was just for her.

Caroline cut her teeth at open mics around the city, and as a
teenager, she started the first version of what would eventually
become Caroline Loveglow. First playing in a band, she began to
write the kind of dreamy, emotive songs she does today. But in
taking her music into studios, as it ran up against producers
and collaborators, the songs weren’t quite matching up with
what she envisioned.

Her music crystallized, as she took the work entirely into her
own hands. She now produces her own songs. She’s obsessively
captivated by the intricacies of cascading rhythms and abstract,
ambient soundscapes- crediting Brian Eno as a major influence.
Caroline eventually landed on this misty, otherworldly sound
that spans across her new album- Soon to be released by the
tastemaking label 100% Electronica.

Though the music’s creation was a solitary pursuit, Caroline
forged a strong bond with 100% Electronica. A longtime fan of
George Clanton, the label’s founder, Caroline sent a demo of
“Patience Etc...” to the label’s live VR podcast. Clanton and
co. were stunned by the song’s casual beauty and actually
dissuaded her from uploading it to the internet- in favor of
giving it a proper release. Since she’d spent so long making
incredibly vulnerable music on her own, it was hard to know how
others would react, let alone someone who’s music she thinks so
highly of. “It was very cool and validating,” she says. “It
saved my music from just floating off into the ether”.

Caroline’s music offers a lifeline to those who, like herself,
spend a lot of time in their heads, grappling with the weight
of indecision and self-doubt. This new music feels like a direct
message to anyone trying to find their way. Steady and
dreamlike, her songs offer solace.