The gothy shoegaze of Eloise Chamber
Departure is the first EP of Eloise Chamber, a Boston-based project of Caroline Bailey. A mysterious communications tower of doom dawns the EP’s cover, the sound is dark, fuzzed-out and gothy. Despite the dark mystery of Eloise Chamber, Caroline is bright, open and self-reflective and considers herself “brand-spankin’ new at this”.
You’ll find the Eloise Chamber song “die laughing” on episode 9 of _____ mood. In contrast to the rest of the EP and title, “die laughing” has a cute-but-not-too-cute pop sensibility.
“The song “die laughing” is about feeling like I’m always playing some sort of “sad clown” role, like the town jester,” Caroline told me. “I have a tendency to not take things seriously and make light of situations that I probably shouldn’t. At times it’s even gotten me into trouble. But being this way has gotten me through a lot of shit in my life, like a form of protection. If I didn’t find the humor in things and make people laugh I think my soul would exit my body.”
Most tracks on Departure are slow, sparse and a bit heavy with emotional demand. Caroline counts Helen, Xiu Xiu, Have A Nice Life and “basically any Japanese shoegaze I can get my hands on” among her influences.
The forlorn “dead in the water” on Departure, is about Caroline’s brother Jeff who passed away in October 2014.
“Today (Oct 6) is his birthday,” explained Caroline. “He died of an overdose and it’s essentially about someone being beyond the point of saving, dead in the water. He’d been this way for years. We all hoped for the best, but from a young age I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be with me forever.”
Why the name Eloise Chamber?
“The name came to me years ago while I was getting a massage,” said Caroline. “I wrote it down in my Notes app and it was sitting there for years. I forgot about it until I decided to Google it - and when I did, it was just this one old woman’s obituary.”
Well Jeff and Ms. Chambers, you live on in the form of goth shoegaze, and you sound pretty darn good.
Stay tuned for more from Eloise Chamber by following on Bandcamp and Instagram.
But wait... what about that tower of communicative doom on the cover?
“The album art is a tower in a parking lot that I’d always find myself staring at when I drove by,” explained Caroline. “I used to live near this substation and it had this buzz that was like a sure sign of being close to home. I just like the look of those kinds of things because they are otherwise an eyesore and everyone seems to detest their presence, but I think they are pretty brilliant looking. Sonically I try to incorporate those types of structures as well, fuzzy and what-not.”