Brooklyn-based artist/producer Laura Jinn shares “Memories of Trees,” the third single off her upcoming EP Sick!, out later this fall. Rolling Stone India premiered the track, offering praise on “Memories of Trees” and discussing Jinn’s creativity, multicultural background, and some writing the EP. “I was thinking wistfully of a really happy and special time in my life, but that time was also quite dark and intense. In many ways it was so happy and special because of that intensity,” Jinn tells Rolling Stone about the track. “Memories of Trees” was written about remembering something fondly with rose-colored glasses, when the reality is often times much worse. It’s a series of lighthearted vignettes about the summer time that, strung together, imply something darker, taking inspiration from nursery rhymes.
Last month, Jinn announced her debut EP Sick! a 5-track EP comprised of 15 minutes of maniacal electro goth pop chaos.Jinn made the demos in 2019 while sifting through memories of a turbulent few years to write songs that unearth a hilarity in paranoia, claustrophobia and obsession. The EP is centrally preoccupied with sickness: who has it, and who decides what it is? What would it feel like to embrace your sickness, to accept it totally and to luxuriate in it?
Once the pandemic began, such attitudes towards sickness became harder to hold. Jinn produced the final versions of the tracks while quarantining in Brooklyn with co-producer Tatum Gale. They poured themselves into the music while grappling with bigger issues: the devastation happening around them, their fear for themselves, and the privilege that kept them safe.
The final product was a set of songs that retained their humor with a darker, more desperate edge. Bitcrushed synths, sudden drops and cut-off screams embody the fury and fear that circulate in Jinn’s world, even as her light, teasing vocals suggest bratty confidence. Simultaneously all messed up, wildly unkempt and tautly held together, Jinn’s EP sparkles with gruesome implications. She might not be sick, but she certainly isn’t well.