THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As a blind person I’ve never had an actual visual experience, sound is the way I’ve always seen the world.” It’s from this perspective that Seattle’s rising star Brittany Davis invites us to see life from their unique, underrepresented lens on Image Issues; a deeply candid and profoundly curated ‘audio movie’ serving as Davis’ debut solo LP.
Emerging as an artist to watch with 2022’s I Choose To Live EP, Davis was quickly championed by tastemakers far and wide. With Image Issues, Davis turns their vibrant creativity and seemingly limitless talent to share all they’ve endured — from discrimination as a Black, non-binary, blind musician, to traumatic family experiences touching on abuse, gun violence and the prison system — as a means to honor how much they’ve overcome and risen above.
Davis wrote each of the 26 musical pieces and spoken-word vignettes (dubbed Treadmill Memories) that make up Image Issues, while also playing every instrument, contributing every vocal part and co-producing the collection as well. Their singular intuition results in a cross-genre debut that finds its vivid inspiration from many corners of the musical landscape: Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, Jimi Hendrix, Beyonce, Cardi B.
Teaming with Davis on Image Issues are a group of prominent hometown supporters who have helped them bring this sonic film to life — including Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, who signed Davis to his Loosegroove Records (and is their bandmate in rock group Painted Shield), and the album’s co-producer Josh Evans (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Brandi Carlile). “Image Issues is like a Prince record or a Stevie Wonder record,” reflects Evans. “It almost feels a little subversive to make music like this… it’s sneaking a real art project into a pop record.”
Davis credits the music as something that lives deep inside their soul: “I’m just a vessel of sound. I’m not the music; I’m the delivery system, the boombox. The boombox just plays the music. Everyone has their own beliefs, but I believe it’s coming directly from the divine. I’m just the projector. It’s like, the TV screen doesn’t say ‘I made the movie.’ It just shows you what’s made.”
