Toronto’s Queen Of Swords, the magnetic mercurial healing-rock project created by Aerin Fogel, Founder/Artistic Director for Venus Fest and a spiritual counselor, is set to release her sophomore album, Year 8, June 9 via queer, independent record label Get Better Records.
The title of the LP is an astrology reference to a technique called profections in which every year of our life activates a different area of the chart. Aerin wrote the album in an 8th House year, “signifying deep change, intergenerational themes, and big life thresholds,” she says.
Dropping May 17 alongside the album announcement is the raucous first single, "A Shame" —an embodiment of softness and harshness, exploring the relatable human emotion of shame normally kept hidden. The song pulls listeners in from the first beat and rips them through a fierce track bursting with jangling guitar nerves and regimented drums, yet softened through a restrained melody that leaves listeners ready to hurtle through the remainder of Year 8’s songs. "A Shame" showcases Aerin's capacity to merge the raw, punk sensibility of her musical past with mature, intelligent lyrics and layering that speak to a universal marriage of roughness and softness. A phoenix-from-the-ashes catalyst for Queen Of Swords' long-awaited sophomore album.
Of the track, Aerin says: "'A Shame' is about the many personality types that are motivated by shame. Shame is one of the most painful and destructive forces in humanity, but it is usually hidden, dissociated, or disguised as something else. This song is an expression of the shame that hides behind perfectionism. Through expression, light, and air, it no longer has such a powerful hold.”
Co-produced by Carmen Elle (DIANA) and engineered by Steve Chahley (Neko Case, Nelly Furtado, Wu-Tang Clan), Year 8 was recorded in the basement of Chahley's home in Bolton, Ontario, where Kritty Uranowski came in for one day to lay down the synth and keyboard tracks.
