Thea, born in Minnesota and now based in Los Angeles, has always been an artist pulled to deep currents. Memory, longing, and loss are her muses, and she brings them together with a poetic integrity that never flinches. In "How to Stay Alive," that poet's eye sharpens into something visceral. It's a song that doesn't just tell you what pain feels like, and it shows you, sits with you, and then gently asks you to move forward even so.
The song gently floats atop a slow-burning stream of haunting guitars and envelope-pushing textures, yet an overall soundscape that is equally intimate and vast. Thea's vocals quiver with life at times crystal clear and strong, at others fragile, like a candle flame in a breeze. Her voice is not just imbued with presence as it is felt deep inside the chest.
As she muses on all the selves that live inside us, our youngest selves, our most frightened selves, our wisest selves, our most hidden selves, Thea's project invites us to reckon with our own. The survival she's singing about isn't heroism as we typically understand it. It's about confronting the silent, voiceless battle in times that feel too loud, the specters of who we once were, and the grace it takes to navigate the in-between.
Taking her cues from a feminist lens, through gothic awe and baroque vitality, Thea Sass-Ainsworth creates a dark but never bleak world. At heart, "How to Stay Alive" is a shimmering, gasping ballad of endurance, not merely of being alive but of comprehending the life that survival creates. This is not just a song. It's a whispering war cry. A reminder that even our most broken selves are worth clinging to.
Discover Thea Sass-Ainsworth on Instagram
Tags:
Alternative Rock