Manley's Dreamy New EP Touches on Heartbreak, Genuity, and Healing
by LEXI MCCOY
Los Angeles indie rock singer-songwriter Manley released their 2nd EP I Picked My Scab and Now There's a Scar in February, and true to its name, it delivers four dreamy tracks that perfectly encapsulate the soft sting of heartbreak, radical genuity and healing old wounds.
Nat Lee of Manley paints a beautifully, vulnerable, and achingly relatable picture of their experience against the backdrop of music that sounds hopeful and upbeat, giving the entire EP a melancholic feeling that couldn't be achieved without their honesty. Lyrics such as "Babe/Do you like pet names?/How do I be endearing/Without sounding lame?" gives the songs an authentic and utterly human lens - most people can relate to being in love while being completely uncertain about how to show it.
Although the EP touches on somber themes such as losing loved ones and the pains of growing up and moving on, there is a soothing quality to the songs that ensures the listener that through this pain there is beauty and growth to experience. Lee excellently describes the EP as "a confession of genuine ruminations and evocative of a friend crying on your shoulder," and listening through oftentimes feels like the music itself is the supportive and comforting shoulder of a friend to cry on.
We talked to Nat about the lyrics, themes and creation of I Picked My Scab and Now There's a Scar
What was the inspiration for the EP as a whole?
Thank you for taking the time to listen to the EP! I really appreciate it. Overall, the themes that prevail throughout the EP are queerness, social anxiety, relationship trauma, and loss. My own music is one of the few places where I can be the most vulnerable and honest even with myself. In day to day life, I feel anxious about being irrelevant, hard to notice, and hard to hear. In my music, I make my emotions known even louder; my songs are my confessions. I named the project I Picked My Scab and Now There’s a Scar because the topics that these songs touch upon felt like wounds at conception. I particularly write songs when I feel really down in the dumps. After so much time has passed, the wounds have metaphorically healed into scars. I’ve put a lot of effort into recovery, growth, and coping with my struggles. Also, I wanted to poke fun of myself for my eyebrow scar. It seemed very fitting altogether.
As for my sound, my go-to genre of music to listen to is female/nonbinary/queer indie rock. My favorites and top influences are Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy, Clairo, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, Jay Som, Julien Baker and much more. I also find some emo influences from when I listened to a lot of midwest emo or what some people call “emo revival” like Tigers Jaw, Joyce Manor, The Front Bottoms, etc. I realized that I was listening to way too much white male music. White, cis, straight, male bands are getting old. Queer/BIPOC artists offer such vastly varying, authentic narratives/perspectives and are constantly challenging the existing music frontier. Although those emo bands have a special place in my heart, female and queer artists are who truly inspired me. I found a lot of validation in the range of softness and edge in their voices. I try to emulate that with my own voice in order to channel tenderness and fragility. I challenge myself and others to discover more trans, queer, BIPOC artists across all genres.
I Picked My Scab And Now Theres a Scar Album Art
