Wild Beast

How do I describe what this album has meant to me? There are so many incredible souls and artists involved, so many teachers and friends and supportive voices, so many who held space for a girl to go on her Orphic journey: her dark night of the soul. Wild Beast found me, and it took much longer than I expected.

This album started as 300 songs in scratch form, recorded onto my phone and laptop. We recorded 22, fully orchestrated, in the studio, and sculpted them down to 8 for the record. There was so much good material from this place; a set of B-sides will be released once I’m ready. This journey was so much. It was a darker place.

I’m grateful for the patient persistence of my brother, Robert Littwin, who mixed and mastered this album with me through many ups and downs. It’s so powerful to have a steadfast brother who helps his sister sing her feelings. And to have my friends come into the studio and be led into improvisations outside their normal comfort zone: their voices are beautiful. They inspire me to be better, to think more clearly, to experiment with more courage.

The studio at Tribeca, led by Yuri Lysoivanov, has been a real artist haven for me: a safe space, a beautiful space, where he guides young engineers to be excellent artists and professionals. I have come to befriend and love his students, and I keep going back to them for work, guidance and extra sets of ears.

Truth is, I have a lot of rage against the patriarchy that I’m still figuring out how to swallow and express. But some incredible men in this process held space for me and helped me create this work, which is so personal and comes from such a deep wound. Without them, this album could not have come into the world. And forever, my lady musicians and engineers on this record: their sisterhood is everything to me. It is so powerful to watch women create together. It is bigger than any feeling.

With gratitude to the continuing work of my right-hand visual artist, Matthew Hollis, and to newfound collaborators Justin Fors and Albulena Shabani.

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Music videos

Videos for songs from Wild Beast. When It Was Over was directed by Hope Littwin, with cinematography by Matthew Gregory Hollis and editing by Justin Fors. Below them, behind the scenes of the River shoot.

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