Confessor CD
"Esza Kaye's new Confessor plays like the mesmerizing soundtrack of a conflicted heart, simultaneously brittle and tough, but never shy. When she dreamily asks in the title track to "tell me all that you've seen" you know that she has seen a lot already...
"This is a remarkable record filled with imaginative textures ranging from prog-rock and techno to baroque opera and poppish piano ballads. The apparent influences of everyone from Kate Bush and Lene Lovich, to Ute Lemper and Led Zeppelin, creep in at various points. The songs are atmospheric mood pieces, such as the dark introspection of House of Pain, with an almost Edgar Allan Poe claustrophobia."
~ Steve Morse, Critic/WBOS (92.9FM/Boston); Boston Globe Correspondent
Songs
HOUSE OF PAIN
Talks about how we shy away from making painful changes in our lives. We mask our disconnected pieces with the force field of beauty and sexual attraction and hope the perfume of sexuality overpowers the scent of distress. This is an unstable, poorly built house in which pain is a frequent guest.
She's A Naughty Boy
Playful perspective on social interpretations of sexuality. Two tracks with different moods. One is a slippery slide into a trance-ish body groove. The other is reminiscent of the 80's with punk flavors.
IT MUST BE GREAT TO BE YOU
A tongue in cheek look at the selfish people we know in our lives. It expresses the desire to stand up to their selfishness at the same time as making them aware that this quality is extremely undesirable.
BURN IT ALL DOWN
An ode to the annual desert festival Burning Man. The song talks about the winding path of letting go of the physical in order to connect with the spiritual. The eternal cycle of life and death applies to our every day experiences.
WRESTLING WITH AN ANGEL
The story of the moment we wrestle with something greater than ourselves and are close to death (our own death, the death of an idea). However, paradoxically, we must stop fighting and surrender humbly to this mystery. The surrender unlocks the solution we are looking for.
DAY IS A CAGE
We are responsible for the choices we make with respect to our daily lives, whether we choose to accept that responsibility or not. In this piece, the narrator's world is a depressed one, replete with falsity, unexamined priorities, and chemical escapes. While she feels like a victim, she is also becoming aware that playing the victim is a choice; she's designed her own cage, and in order to escape, she must look deeper into herself.
CONFESSOR
Talks about how the ultimate healing is to let another person into your heart and to "love again". In order to do this we have to let go of the pain and bitterness of all our disappointments...to "confess" them and release them.
DOWN
A place as much as it is a song; it is a place that we are all familiar with. It is the moment when you hit rock bottom and all the familiar dark voices and grooves sing their terrible siren's song to you. And you believe you will never escape the madness of your shadows.
SUNRISE
Tells the story of a person watching the sunrise and believing for the first time that they could have a second chance. The epiphany is one of realizing that you are not stuck in a rut, but through perseverance and inspiration will "rise again".
EMPTY CHAIRS
The painful confession of what abandonment feels like. It is that moment in time when hope to look up and see your community/loved ones by your side: and there is no one. It is a profoundly lonely and desolate place. The only consolation is that you have seen the truth for what it is.
LITTLE DOLL
Looks at the sado-masochistic, or at the very least, co-dependent ways that we treat each other. We chain ourselves to each other and to our ideas of each other, effectively shutting down any ability to be present and to really give to one another. It is almost as if we are playing dress up doll—forgetting the other's humanity. We endure these projections out of fear and insecurity and the desire to be accepted and loved.
SCAR
Scars can be bittersweet reminders of experience, adventure, and of dancing too close to the flame; Esza calls them "natural tattoos, the ones that choose you." The theme is one of celebrating our lessons, even as they come to us the hard way, leaving evidence on our bodies or in our hearts. "My scars are beautiful / Touch my tears and fears and loves," Esza sings, reminding all of us that our scars are beautiful.
SUNSET REPRISE
The instrumental for Sunrise, allowed to wander a little.