Siobamm is wheeling and dealing in her new single and skate-park video Pick Yr Poison — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Fresh off her recent EP Gloom Patrol, Pick Your Poison finds Siobamm battling love lost as a woman scorned — and serving up a cold dish of revenge. “I wrote this song with the idea of a revenge fantasy in mind: a woman speaking to a man she knows wants to hurt her,” the indie rocker and roller derby queen reveals. “The woman turns the situation around and becomes the predator, hunting and taunting her male prey.”
She actually wrote the track back in 2015, influenced by the media coverage happening that year. “It is inspired by what I was seeing in the media at the time; namely, a lack of consequences for men who violated women, as well as my own experiences with sexual assault,” she recalls. “I wrote Pick Yr Poison during the court trials of Brock Turner and Jian Ghomeshi. I had just finished Carrie Brownstein’s memoir, and was in awe of the riot grrrl scene of the Pacific Northwest in the ’90s — both sonically and what they were writing about content-wise.”
Mostly written, recorded, mixed, and produced during quarantine, Gloom Patrol is a steady influence of hazy guitar riffs, gothic linguistics, a myriad of melancholy, and acceptance of reality — flowing with pop melodies and alternative hooks. The result is a dark, beautifully vulnerable piece of work that showcases her as an authentic songwriter with a unique sound.
The visual component of the Pick Yr Poison captures a day at the park with Siobamm’s fellow park skaters. Featuring stunning aerial views of the athletes letting it all hang out on the half-pipe, the video highlights Siobamm’s second love and the feeling of freedom it produces. Shot in Toronto as COVID-19 restrictions eased, Siobamm says she was inspired to try and emulate an old-school skate vibe, “but give it a new twist by featuring female and non-binary roller skaters.
“We are all strong, confident, and physically empowered. Being able to do cool moves and keep control of my body at high speeds makes me feel powerful and capable of anything, and I wanted to emulate that feeling with this video. Especially since for the second year in a row, local skaters have to share info through Instagram about the attempted abductions of women at night around local skateparks. We are powerful, but we are also targeted. And that makes me angry.”
Watch Pick Yr Poison above, hear more from Siobamm below, and cruise on by her website, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
