The Obelisk Questionnaire & Video Premiere: Plum Green
Plum Green, ‘Valentine’ (Sisters of Mercy cover) video premiere
[Click play above to stream the premiere of Plum Green’s video for the Sisters of Mercy cover, “Valentine.” Her latest full-length, Somnambulistic, is out now on Nefarious Industries and can be found at the bottom of this post.]
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Plum Green
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I made a decision a long time ago to be as honest as possible while writing lyrics. I need to completely connect with the overall message and meaning behind a song to feel good with performing and releasing it. I’ve never written music based on trends or what other people might think. I’ve been criticised in the past for not being goth enough or fully committing to the “darkness” in my dress, aesthetic and sound because I write dark lyrics/music. I don’t do it because I’ve chosen any specific fashion or genre to stick to or stay inside of. If I write something and listen back to it and don’t feel like I’ve expressed myself truthfully enough it makes me feel deeply uncomfortable so I go back to it and work on it until it feels like I’ve told the complete truth and then I am satisfied. I wrote ‘Somnambulistic’ to be a comforting protection spell for my friends, family and everyone who listens to my music because the people who tend to find and enjoy it always seem to have huge, battered and bleeding hearts just like I do. I don’t want to rub any more salt in. I want to acknowledge the pain and make it better. Sometimes you have to face it to ease it.
Describe your first musical memory.
The most fun musical memory I have is dancing to the Ghostbusters theme song, I would have been around 4 or 5. I was the type of little kid that REALLY got into it. I would have been the stand out kid fully headbanging and totally losing my shit.
Describe your best musical memory to date
I have a lot of great memories from our tour of Europe in 2018 and I wrote a book on it, which is available via my Patreon. The best one that’s the freshest in my mind is from 2021 during a break in Melbourne’s long and torturous lockdowns. We were invited to play in a gold rush era mansion in regional Victoria. As soon as we entered the house I recognised that the audience were a group of fun and lovely people who had been partying for 3 days and they encouraged me to join them. I agreed, partially due to the languishing at home alone and partially because of the stunning surroundings and how safe I felt. It was only during the first song I started to recognise how trippy the lyrics of ‘Somnambulistic’ are. “Your fingertips are leaves, your stems are growing roots”. I looked up into the corner of this gigantic, old living room we were performing in and noticed the intricate wallpaper consisted of long, winding vines with leaves growing off them. They came to life before my eyes and started writhing and twisting into each other as I sang. I looked into the faces of our audience and saw that some of them were crying, their tears were glittering in streams on their faces and everyone was so silent as they watched us. Some of them were filming us. I told them they were the most beautiful audience I had ever seen, and they were. All in costume, a woman had an enormous headdress that comprised of two feathered wings that extended out each side of her head. There were people in togas, roses wrapped around their heads in garlands and everyone was serene and so welcoming.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
A friend of mine recently said to me “there is no right or wrong”. That makes me feel uncomfortable because I feel in my heart that I KNOW hurting animals is bad or giving someone something they need that you have a lot of is good. But I have to face that there is no right or wrong, just culture, traditions and expectations attached to human behaviour. The world and the universe still exists without humanity. Truth is subjective. Humans have generational traumas and instincts from thousands of years ago, There is no “us” without culture and society attached. Sometimes you have to hurt people to heal them, sometimes hurting someone breaks them even further. The intention behind the hurt is everything. If your intention is well meaning, the action is right, if the intention is negative, the action is bad. My belief was tested, but it came around and landed me in exactly the same place.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I feel that it depends on who it is and what their art form is. It could lead further into truth and fulfilment or denial and absolute rubbish. It’s important either way, to experiment and try different things.
How do you define success?
Being able to express something exactly as you want to and mean it to come across. A venture is even more successful if you manage to compromise with someone else’s artistic ideas and still achieve the desired outcome. As long as you stay truthful to yourself, enjoy what you have created, feel proud of it and manage to positively touch someone who interacts with it then this is absolute success.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Honestly, I really shouldn’t get into it because I don’t want to ruin someones day, or life. I will say that I think the world gets dark enough without having to deal with people who don’t have empathy. I think the world could easily do without the existence of sadistic sociopaths/psychopaths, narcissists and people who get enjoyment from hurting others. I know that in order to be happy you need to feel pain in order to distinguish between the two. It’s easier to understand how you should be treated by someone once someone has been cruel to you. I think that this can exist with all the miscommunication, bad timing and incompatibility amongst people. Sometimes I wonder if this world we’re in is just a giant experiment and we all exist in a petri dish somewhere with a master tormentor prodding us to see how we will react. Or maybe there are multiple universes that are identical to our own, but exist on a gradient of how harsh reality is. If that was the case I suspect our current universe would be on the harsher end of the spectrum. My ideal universe is this one, minus humans who are compulsively sadistic.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I’ve been experimenting with operatic vocals. I found it really freeing and expressive. I’m looking forward to reaching that part of my voice again. We’ve also been working on a new EP which might turn into an album called ‘Gogic’, although we might rename it. It’s similar to the last album, ‘Somnambulistic’ but also a progression. It’s a little bit darker and has more elements of black metal than Somnambulistic. We’re working on changing the name from ‘Plum Green’ (which is my name) to a band name, because that fits more with what we’re doing now. It’s not my solo project anymore.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I think essentially it needs to make you feel something. Really good art should entertain you and make you feel seen or understood on a level. It should capture your attention so fully that it takes you out of yourself and away from your current point of existence and into a different world. But of course, what is “good” is so subjective and changes drastically depending on perception. I know that it’s important to make people feel connected to society. It can provide a link between cultures and a thread into the past to our ancestors. But the essential function of art shouldn’t even be that it’s “good”, because anything can be art.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I’m really looking forward to a bit of travel. I love museums, art galleries and architecture. I can’t wait to return to Europe so I can explore it further and finally visit Italy. I want to spend more time in Paris and to return to Basque Country. I just want to see the world before my chance ends.
http://plumgreenmusic.com
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http://plumgreen.bandcamp.com
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[…] Watch PLUM GREENâ??s haunting version of The Sisters Of Mercyâ??s â??Valentine,â? alongside an in depth interview, at The Obelisk HERE. […]
[…] Watch Plum Green’s haunting version of The Sisters Of Mercy’s »Valentine«, alongside an in depth interview, at The Obelisk HERE. […]