"French Exit" by Eloise Chamber
Emerging from the ether earlier this year, coffin rock debutante Eloise Chamber quietly introduced us to “French Exit”, a sweetly tortured goth pop single. A project led by Boston-based Caroline Bailey, Eloise Chamber’s sound is like fuzzed and frazzled gauze protecting a wound at its final stages of healing.
“French Exit” is a song I started when my first EP, Departure, was nearly ready to be sent off for mixing + mastering. The song represents somewhat of a transitional period for me; between the songs on my first EP and my newer, currently unreleased songs,” explained Caroline. “This in-between period (that I am currently still floating in) feels like the ether, so releasing “French Exit” as a single felt like shouting into the void and waiting for the void to shout back.”
And yes, the phrase “French exit” refers to what is known as the “Irish goodbye” or leaving somewhere without letting anyone know or saying goodbye. Caroline sums it up as leaving on your own terms.
“The lyrics were written out as a stream of consciousness during a time that it felt especially difficult to participate in the day in and day out minutia of existence,” she said. “When these recurring feelings crop up for me, the only thing I want to do is sleep for months… until I wake up and enough time has passed, things are different, and I am (hopefully) prepared to face the mess I abandoned.”
“In addition to my own desire to vanish and return when ready, this feeling is typically accompanied by guilt in knowing that I absolutely do not have it nearly as bad as others, especially those in other parts of the world who will continue to experience pain and trauma that I could never fathom. Despite that guilt, I felt it was important for me to name it, describe it, and release it all to hell.”
Follow Eloise Chamber on Instagram and Bandcamp for forthcoming evidence of French exits and Irish goodbyes. 🖤