Laura Pieri on Creating Her EP, "Frankie" and Being A Woman in the Music Industry
“Frankie” is a brilliant EP by Laura Piere. Laura is a Multidisciplinary music & visual artist making art through am interesting cinematic eye and storytelling along with her pop sound. “Daughter of Demeter” is a single which continues to introduce the musical and visual world of Frankie, Pieri’s forthcoming 4-track EP, and the accompanying short film, out this Summer. In conversation with Clique, Laura shares that “Franie” was a concept EP that tells the story of the project’s namesake Frankie, as she goes through a series of transformations and ends up accepting and loving herself. It’s four songs, and a short movie, that altogether tell one cohesive narrative. She believes the best way to explain and talk about it more is for people to just see it for themselves.
CLIQUE: You state that your new song and music video Daughter of Demeter is “a puzzle piece that fits into a larger picture of the story of a young girl coming to terms with her own self, her story, and who she is.” Can you elaborate more on this?
Laura: “Daughter of Demeter” is the second track off the ‘Frankie’ project. So really, it is the chapter 2 of the project and that’s the role it plays in the flow of the track list. Yes, it’s a stand alone song and video too, but considered in the context of Frankie, the project as a whole, it’s a snapshot of a moment in a character’s journey. “Sea of Tragedy,” track 1, represents Frankie’s awakening, where she’s drowning in her hopelessness, and from that, track 2, “Daughter of Demeter,” is her responding to that with rage, chaos, and destruction. Plus, the videos are connected as well. I know it seems like “Goddess Energy” and “Daughter of Demeter” exist in very different worlds but they are absolutely not only part of the same universe, but same narrative too!
CLIQUE: When did you first get into music? What got you into it?
Laura: Oh for as long as I can remember I have always loved performing and singing. The Little Mermaid was a movie and a musical that really changed my life. I had this red wig I remember carrying around everywhere, and I would put it on and not take it off. Like, even in the pool. And when I decided to perform, at 5 or so, Part of Your World at the school talent show my mom and grandmother helped me practice and even built a backdrop with seashells and all, and my grandma made a costume that fit me and we worked hard to rehearse that performance. As far as I remember, being a performer and just in general doing big productions, that’s just always been how I am. There was never a moment that was like, a-ha! This! The closest thing to that would be when I was young and saw Cher perform but even then it’d be years before I myself got into making any music. That path just felt natural to me, from performing to my parents to a real audience.
“As far as I remember, being a performer and just in general doing big productions, that’s just always been how I am.”
CLIQUE: The music video includes both live action and animation, where did this idea stem from?
Laura: So actually, that is a key component that separates the fantasy of this story, to the reality. There is an element of this story that is fantasy in all sense of the word, it exists in this nowhere land, of monsters and fairies and mermaids and goddesses. I wanted the separation between the fantasy world and the one rooted in reality to be clearly different narratively, sonically and visually.
CLIQUE: Being born in Brazil and living there until you were 16, do you bring anything from Brazilian culture into your music?
Laura: It’s definitely not something I do intentionally, but it’s impossible to leave roots behind, especially ones that I love and cherish and hold dear. I love my home, I love my culture, and I’m very proud to be Brazilian, but the art I am actively pursuing is sonically very different from what I was brought up with. I definitely hope to one day properly honor those roots and do a project dedicated to it.
CLIQUE: What can you tell us about your new EP, Frankie?
Laura: It’s a project that was made with a lot of love! It’s a concept EP that tells the story of the project’s namesake Frankie, as she goes through a series of transformations and ends up accepting and loving herself. It’s four songs, and a short movie, that altogether tell one cohesive narrative. I’ve said a lot about it already so I think the best way to explain and talk about it more is for people to just see it for themselves. The short movie will be out June 17th!
CLIQUE: Can you speak a bit on being a woman in the music industry and what that experience has been like for you?
Laura: I hate to say it but the way I feel about it right now is “it is what it is” you know. The music industry is very harsh to women, but at the end of the day what industry isn’t? The more contact I have with other industries, the more I see it’s kind of the norm. Women are rarely producers, less than 5%, and even so have a harder time being put in leadership positions. There is an unspoken “bro” code that goes around. So much of the music industry, and others, move on the basis of connections, and women are just less likely to get that phone call recommending them for the position, even if they are just as if not more qualified. I worked with many women since the beginning of my career, but for most of its early days, it was all men who were the decision makers at a high level. I mean how many female CEOs can you name? How many female CEOs of color? There’s ample evidence that makes the case for the actual, measurable, benefits of having women in leadership positions yet we have to fight tooth and nail and always be grateful for the opportunity. We talk about how representation matters, but why does it and where does it? Having someone who can speak from your perspective, who understands your experience of the world and navigating the world, means they bring that to the table when making decisions. That’s why for this project, for example, I really wanted to work with an all female team. It was crucial to me to have a team who understood me and shared in my experience.
“We talk about how representation matters, but why does it and where does it? Having someone who can speak from your perspective, who understands your experience of the world and navigating the world, means they bring that to the table when making decisions. That’s why for this project, for example, I really wanted to work with an all female team. It was crucial to me to have a team who understood me and shared in my experience.”
CLIQUE: Who are inspirations for you in your career?
Laura: I’ve never had one big inspiration, it’s always been phases. I was really inspired by Taylor Swift’s lyricism in middle school and then again recently with Folklore and Evermore. I love David Bowie and Prince, and consistently come back to their use of identity and imagery in their visuals and music. Same with Lana Del Rey’s music.
CLIQUE: Can you speak to us about retelling Persephone’s story through "Daughter of Demeter" and your decision behind that?
Laura: So I actually have a tattoo in honor of Persephone. It’s not really of her, but it has her symbol, the pomegranate, and the death head moth together. Besides loving pomegranates, I’ve always felt connected to Persephone. There is so little actual evidence of her tale, especially given that so much of the manuscript is lost to time, and both her and Hades are rarely mentioned in the way other Gods are in other stories, so much of it has been left up to interpretation. I like the interpretation that she was not a helpless little girl, who had nothing to do with her fate. In my mind, one does not accidentally become the Goddess of the Underworld and the princess of spring. That duality, and how she is so often perceived as this powerless, innocent nymph, was what drew me to involving this story into Frankie’s. Sometimes, we are underestimated, and our power appears to be invisible when really it was there all along.
CLIQUE: What is it like to create a music video and the cinematic aspect of that?
Laura: It was incredible! I owe Gaby from Cake Studio definitely some flowers when this is all done. We have been working together for almost a year, I can’t believe it’s flown by so fast. When I came up with the songs, the visuals were already semi-formed. I knew the story that was being told, through the songs, and through the visuals. So when we started having meetings about the visuals, I came to her with this 40 page pdf with references, storylines, plot, images, and we worked for months to edit and to adjust. These were my favorite videos to do ever.
CLIQUE: What is in your future for your music career? Is there anything you can tell us?
Laura: A whole lot of Frankie still! The short movie is yet to be released, and we have a show coming in August too in NYC. I definitely want to continue to tackle projects like this, that are more conceptual than singles, but that takes time.
Listen to Laura’s EP “Frankie” on Spotify and watch her music video on YouTube here.
