Actress – Vodkas in the Fur

Vodka’s In the Fur is the result of many many hours spent in a tiny bedroom studio in Ballymun over the lockdown period and after. It was a mistake, a song that happened because of my lack of proper production skills, but that ended up being one of my favourite projects. It was the winter of 2021 and I was playing around with Logic Pro X on my laptop, trying to learn how to use the “Live Loops” function when I stumbled upon a sample of an electric guitar called ‘Liffey Valley’. I thought to myself: “Perfect, it’s giving me the right gloomy Dublin February vibes”. When I put it in the live loop box, the bpm didn’t fit the sample, it was way too slow for that guitar, but what ended up happening was that I felt pulled to that very slow melody, and thought to myself: “What would happen if I pitched this down?” That guitar ended up becoming the now distorted low bass that sits at the basis of ‘Vodka’s in The Fur”.

Then came the many synths, the vocal melody and the many hours of meticulous work that me and my co-producer and old flatmate “Andromeda I” ended up putting into this track. I wanted it to sound like it was from the 80s, almost like a Depeche Mode song, but I also wanted it to sound spacious and ethereal, like an early 2000s Enya project, while still having it be very modern and very me, a mix of sweet and aggressive. When writing the lyrics for “Vodka’s in The Fur” I was mainly focusing on its textures and overall feel as I didn’t have a complete story in my mind quite yet. While singing some vocal lines I was thinking of how much I’ve always wanted to go to Siberia and see the Northern Lights.
So then I ended up putting together a verse:

“It’s dark and cold
and I, I don’t wanna fight
yet land on ice
underneath the crystal lights”

After that, my mind was set on a story, cause I started dwelling on a feeling that would not leave me. I ended up writing a song about feeling used in love and finally being able to draw the line, regaining one’s power. Pretty cliche, but it was real. Also, a side note, the title of the track has no meaning really. As I was thinking of Siberia I ended up imagining a wealthy woman in a fur coat purchasing some alcohol, and then before deciding on the lyric: “I don’t know if you know that I always was unsure”, I used to sing to myself: “I don’t know if you know, I’ve got Vodkas in the fur”, I got attached and kept it as the title. Vodka’s In The Fur is my second single as an independent artist, which was written shortly after my first single “Actress”, alongside other tracks that I’m going to be releasing this year.

I was delighted to be able to collab with one of my favourite artists on the cover Lucas David , who’s known for their portraits of celebrities and rockstars through a creepy lens. He accepted to work with me on this one as he remembered me as a hardcore fan (10 years if fandom) of his work. I’m a perfectionist that will always find new flaws in her own work, it is very hard for me to let go of my songs and to make them public, cause I always want to keep working on them. In a way, I started this Actress project to show my friends and family that there is music made by me that exists and that I’m not just bluffing.

I’ve been so hard and critical of this track that I think it deserves from love and healing, from the ones I love and from strangers that could end up enjoying it. I have a music video coming out super soon! (It’s out!) And I’m looking into doing some cool collaborations and hoping to play at some festivals this summer, as even though I like song writing quite a lot my real home is the stage.