Five tracks may seem like a brief timeframe for The Ophelias to unpack the trappings of nostalgia and thoughts on embracing a queer identity all while channeling a love of cult British chamber-folk songwriters, early-aughts country-pop figures, and contemporary staples of the bedroom-pop scene—to say nothing of officiating a matrimony between MUNA’s sparkling dance-pop and Wednesday’s camo-patterned shoegaze. And yet here we have Ribbon, a modest 17-minute EP containing a multitude of ideas and feelings accumulated over the past three years since the Cincinnati-based quartet released their last collection of original recordings, Crocus.
And Ribbon feels like a natural progression for the band, as their chamber-pop leanings continue to blossom alongside frontperson Spencer Peppet’s long-simmering lyrical angst. “I keep my distance, steady my gaze / I need you to stay the fuck away,” Peppet’s seethes as the still-pleasant orchestration of “Soft and Tame” swells to a breaking point well within the band’s indie-pop instrumental palette further softened by the ever-present hum of Andrea Gutmann Fuentes’ violin.
With the EP out today, we asked Peppet to go a little deeper on all five of the release’s tracks, noting the source of the lyrical direction she took as well as the music that helped shape the instrumental. Find her words and stream Ribbon below.
1. “Black Ribbon”
This song describes the experience of coming out and embracing my queerness at the same time that my partner (Jo, our bassist) was coming out as trans. It’s been an exciting, vulnerable, and very cool time, and I feel lucky to have experienced it. As a band, we refer to this song as “if MUNA and Wednesday had a baby and then that baby was friends with The Ophelias.” We were inspired by “Runner’s High” by MUNA, especially the clicking drums and huge synths, and the all-encompassing guitar tone in “Hot Rotten Grass Smell” by Wednesday.
2. “Soft and Tame”
I think every Midwesterner (or ex-Midwesterner) understands the feeling of returning. A Walgreens you went to in middle school is now a bank, the high school has a new driveway, a Crate & Barrel popped up at the mall. This song is about that feeling: the moment where you recognize that time has passed, that things are different, that you are different. It’s also about realizing that the people who live there may or may not have changed. The people who hurt you still hurt you, even if you’ve gotten some distance from it. I’m a notoriously nostalgic person (it’s probably why I’m a songwriter!) and tend to rehash things in my brain over and over again. This song indulges that a little bit, going through the small details and memories, but then says nope—no more. Stay the fuck away. It’s done. It’s over.
3. “Upper Hand”
This is an old song that we resurrected for the EP. I was looking for an apology I was never going to get (See “Dust”). I was listening to a lot of Lomelda when we recorded this song. It’s a little more synth-y than Lomelda, but I think you can hear the inspiration. I love the little violin tag that Andrea added at the end.
4. “Dust”
So I’m not getting an apology! Fuck you, whatever. This song says “You don’t care about me or anyone, really” over a sick little country bop. Calvin Lauber, who mixed and mastered most of this EP, added the low, growly guitar in the choruses that I love so much. I wanted this to sound like a Shania Twain song that girls in pink cowboy hats would sing along to when it came on at the bar at 2 a.m. Maybe this one’s for the girls in the cowboy hats walking home after the bar.
5. “Rind”
“Rind” was the first song we released for this project. We call it “baroque folk.” This one was inspired by Bryter Layter–era Nick Drake, and I think is a classic Ophelias song. It’s melancholy and dramatic for most of the song, and then at the end flips things around to poke fun at the situation. We recorded the EP with Marshall Moran at Figure 8 in New York (and Andrea recorded her parts with John Hoffman at Candyland in Cincinnati).
